A Collection: ITV1 Idents 2004-2009

It was just a few years that a survey of twenty six different groups representing over 6000 viewers found, that although ITV had used consistent on-air branding, that few could remember and identify them. A breakdown of viewer population attitudinal behavior from the study (at the time) is provided after the jump later in this post.

ITV

ITV

Times have certainly changed. As channel brands continue to mature, it’s nice to be able to be able to look at a collection of idents and track a bit of it’s evolutionary course. Here for your easy consumption, are the ITV1 Idents from 2004-2009.

*Update: the Youtube video was removed. Will provide an alternate shortly!

Sci Fi Channel to “Imagine Greater” and Rebrand as SyFy

Sci-Fi Channel has announced its new name to advertisers at its upfront in New York. The new moniker?

The new tagline: “Imagine Greater”. A 90-second “brand anthem” commercial is being produced by London agency 4 Creative. Another UK agency, Proud Creative, is working on other components of the brand assignment.

Dave Howe, Sci Fi President, explains, “We really do want to own the imagination space. We want to get the credit for the range of content that we already have on our air and that we’ll be doing more of in the future. When we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you’d text it… We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”

Tim Brooks, who helped launch the network 16 years ago, adds “The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular… We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction”.

Sci Fi twitterati and the blogosphere have already lit up. Check out the Twitter-chat and you’ll find some passionate reviews thus far. On a more positive note, Sci Fi is coming off the best year in its history. In primetime it ranked 13th in total viewers among ad-supported cable networks in 2008. It’s a top-10 network in both adults 18 to 49 (up 4%) and adults 25 to 54 (up 6%).

Those who are working directly on the super-secret branding assignment tell me that the best is yet to come (read: innovative & creative STUNTERY soon to come).

The network plans to make the changeover on July 7th. Branding consultancy Landor was commissioned to develop the new name, with SyFy being chosen after 300 different possibilities were presented. International Sci Fi channels will transition to the new name over the next six to 12 months.

JL Design Weaves Fantastical HiHD Channel Identity

Some much requested channel branding work out of Asia. HiHD is the first HD channel launched in Taiwan. The only creative guideline provided from the initial brief was “to be abstract with the approach to the new channelʼs identity”. The channel name HiHD can be interpreted as “Hi, High Definition” TV.

Update 3/30/09: Added “Baptism” Ident, High Res Quicktime

Click for "Baptism" Ident (High Res Quicktime)

HiHD :30 Main Ident High Quality QT / Low
HiHD :10 Jingle Ident High Quality QT

Click for "Main" Ident (High Res Quicktime)

Taiwan based creative agency JL Design, led by Director/CD Johnason Lo, spearheaded the comprehensive brand assignment. The studio created “a chaotic SD world where residents wander about in search of a new direction”.

From chaos, evolution takes place. Elements are deconstructed and rebuilt in the attempt of a new world order. As all creation works towards this new existence, a new era is born: the era of HD.

The old self and new self are caught in the cycle of evolution and rebirth emphasizing the struggle and competition of all creation in the everlasting cycle of life.  The result is a seamless, otherworldly brand package that creates a sense of true wonder. The music, incidentally, was handled by Punkan. Additional Idents (which I will update) include “Chaos”, “Baptism”, and “Evolution”.

Nickelodeon Planning Offspring Channel Rebrands

In an effort to strengthen the powerhouse kids and family-0riented Nickelodeon brand, Nick will rename its toddler-targeted Noggin network as Nick Jr. and its teen-tinged The N service as TeenNick later this year.

The two services will join Nick at Nite and Nicktoons under the Nickelodeon-branded umbrella of networks. Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group president Cyma Zarghami said the rebranding effort “is part of the programmer’s effort to establish the nearly 30-year old Nickelodeon brand as the pre-eminent multimedia brand for toddlers, tweens, teens and their parents.”

The move comes as Nickelodeon aggressively battles The Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Channel and ABC Family, as well as Turner Broadcasting System’s Cartoon Network, for the hearts and minds of kids and their parents. As a result of the rebranding, the parent Nickelodeon channel will eliminate the Nick Jr. brand from its 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekday toddler-targeted programming block, as well as the Teen Nick brand from its Saturday night 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. content block. Consumer tests revealed that the blocks had strong identities that actually overshadowed the overall Nickelodeon brand.

The agency review is currently underway.