What began with the broadcast of a university mathematics class from the northern section of Mexico City has grown into a national and international television institution. Mexico’s public network, Canal Once (“Channel 11” in English), started operating 54 years ago as the first nonprofit educational and cultural television station in Mexico – today, with an enhanced transmission infrastructure in place, its signal reaches more than 70% of the nation’s television viewers, and millions more in the United States and beyond.

In 2008, Canal Once underwent a name change, to Once TV Mexico, to reflect the connection the network has to its home country. However, “everyone in Mexico knows us as Canal Once,” said Mayolo Reyes Ballesteros, marketing and advertising director for the network. “Even in the United States, people identify with Canal Once. It is a very strong brand.”

In November, the network announced a return to that original name and brand, and with it a new identity campaign encompassing newspaper, radio and outdoor signage, as well as on-air imagery. Dubbed Canal Once Abre Horizontes (Canal Once Open Horizons), the rebrand reflects “new fields of knowledge for the people who are watching our screens,” said Ballesteros.

Designed by the network’s in-house team, the figurehead of the campaign is a revamped logo emphasizing the “O” in “Once,” a “very powerful element” according to Ballesteros that also resembles a kind of portal to innovative content linked to the roots, traditions, natural resources, history and culture of Mexico.

As Canal Once heads into a new era of leadership and reach, new programming will address topics ranging from science and nature to technological challenges. Embodying its different offerings, three new promos were created for the new campaign, each referencing literal horizons, and programming possibilities, from epic viewpoints.

One ID pans from atop a stunning mountain range as words flash across saying (loosely translated from Spanish) “Life is a mystery… What can we decipher?”

Another was shot from atop the 214-meter Pemex Tower in Mexico City, and reads, translated, “Our world is full of history… What can we count on?”

The last ID, created for Canal Once’s digital broadcast, shows Earth from space, and reads “Our planet is mysterious… What can we understand?”

“From news and documentaries to very selective programming for children, everything was developed to try and express [Canal Once’s] educational and cultural goals,” said Ballesteros.

[Images courtesy of Canal Once]

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