Discovery HD World Singapore has just released 3 new HD channel idents that aim to “to propel viewers into a high definition world, creating a hyper reality experience”. Discovery’s brief: To encapsulate its viewers in the power of high definition.
Discovery HD World Ident "Wind"
The three new idents, produced by Sydney-based Tactic, harness the elemental beauty of fire, wind, and water to illustrate a few beautiful moments in time. Each scenes reveals each element from its naturally compelling environment, to a man made invention. The addition of pitch perfect 5.1 sound design, by Tactic sister company Plasma, provide a lovely finishing touch.
Discovery Communications is quietly ramping up to its June 8 relaunch of the Science Channel to simply Science. The evolution comes off a record, highest-rated quarter ever in primetime for the network, across all key demographics- which is available in over 68 million homes.
Science New Logo: "Morph"
Discovery Communications says the aim is to be “the official home of the Thought Provacateur – the individual who is constantly asking “what if?” and “why not?”. Science Executive VP and GM Debbie Adler Myers explains, “We’re not changing the direction of the network, we’re just recruiting a bigger audience to sample the joys of Science.”
A cornerstone of the new on-air look and multi-platform brand campaign will be a new logo called “Morph”. Expect to see the new mark featured in interstitials and new idents (previewed below). The aim? To be “television’s most dynamic and interactive logo”, while “representing the willingness to transform current reality”.
Myers adds, “Science is more than a channel – it’s a multifaceted, multiplatform community that captures a distinct zeitgeist within our culture. To reflect this, we’re officially dropping the “channel” from our network name”.
Whether it does that successfully with a very particular public remains to be seen. Incidentally, the sneak peak at “Morph” earlier includes a montage of new idents tentatively titled “Unknown”, “Unconventional”, “Unreal”, “Unexpected”, “Unseen”, “Unexplained”.
Click keep reading, for a quick little stroll down logo evolution lane.
After extensive research, the decision was made to rebrand and reposition Discovery Knowledge into Discovery History “a niche proposition of presenter led factual programming, where the greatest stories are told by the most passionate people”.
The rebrand marks the first launch of a dedicated history channel for the Discovery network globally, buoyed by an ambitious and fascinating commissioning slate fronted by talent including Dan Snow and Lord Michael Ashcroft.
As you might remember, Discovery Civilisations was rebranded as Discovery Knowledge back in 2007, when the channel focused mainly on history, engineering, and crime.
Discovery UK head of programming Dan Korn explains, “There was always some confusion with BBC Knowledge. Discovery History will be clear and unambiguous.” He adds that the Knowledge brand had confused viewers as it was insufficiently “distinct or bold”.
The new positioning takes Discovery History’s focus to “the only UK channel dedicated to factual history”, a counter challenge to category arch-rivals History and Yesterday. Led by the team at Discovery UK Creative, the talent spots were helmed by Brothers and Sisters, with idents, logo, and OSP designed by Pete & Tom.
A special thanks to Discovery UK, VP On-Air Marketing/ECD Federico Gaggio and Marketing Director Tim Hughes for sharing the work and campaign insight. Would also like to highlight Discovery UK Creative’s new dedicated site and blog, which showcases a number of recent branding, design, and promo projects including notable work for Discovery Turbo and (personal favourite) Bear Grylls. Check it out.
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OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, launches on 1.1.11 and has officially revealed the new logo. I’ll be bringing you a comprehensive look at the new on-air look including the multi-platform brand launch in the coming months. Until then, what do you think?
Two quick bits of DCI related news to enjoy with your coffee this morning. As you probably know, I only have good things to say about Discovery Networks International President/CEO Mark Hollinger. If you’ve worked with Mark, you know that he encourages the very best out of creative teams and roster agencies, pushing for the best brand work for Discovery around the world.
"Discovery Presenta"
That said, here’s a new spot from Discovery Channel Latin America, designed by agency Totuma. Titled “Discovery Presents”, a visual metaphor of the history of the planet is presented alongside a few subtle references to Saint-Exupéry’s “Le Petit Prince”.
And don’t forget, the much talked about launch of TLC in Asia-Pacific is just one week away. On launch day, September 1, TLC will reach a staggering 133 million households in 20 countries in the region (and no, unfortunately for the Asia-Pacific region, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” won’t be airing). I’ve had a preview of the TLC Asia-Pacific brand launch and very much looking forward to sharing it with you.
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Discovery Communications’ Military Channel (US), seen in 55 million homes, has launched a comprehensive new brand identity. The channel, as you might remember, was originally launched in Sept 1999 as Discovery Wings. It was rebranded Military Channel in 2005, and has since grown a loyal following.
“We were looking for a network redesign that was true to our values but also unique and sophisticated,” said Alberto Enriquez, a consulting Creative Director for Discovery. The brief included a goal to provide Military Channel with a clean, consistent style that incorporated technology, history, and elite forces along with a solid informational hierarchy. The multi-stage rebrand includes a new on-air graphics package as well as an anthem promo launch campaign. The rebrand was helmed by Denver based studio Impossible.
Today, Animal Planet formally announced a bit of news that has been quietly circulating behind the scenes for some time. The Discovery Communications owned channel is continuing the brand transformation (from 2008) with a new network campaign and tagline, “Surprisingly Human”.
Victoria Lowell, senior vice president of marketing and operations for Animal Planet Media, tells us that the campaign “challenges everything people thought they knew about the brand with a direct, yet provocative, message that’s guaranteed to change perceptions.” To get the message out, the network is airing the new brand spots on a few blockbuster shows including American Idol, Lost, Survivor, and Dancing with the Stars.
This comes off a 25 continuous months of ratings growth for the network. “There is no human world separate from the animal world,” says president and general manager Marjorie Kaplan. “We all inhabit one large, living planet, and the stories we can tell at the margins where humans’ and animals’ lives intersect make for terrific entertainment.” The new campaign was developed in-house by Animal Planet Marketing and Discovery Creative.
Here’s a glimpse of the new campaign, what do you think?
Less than a month after leaving Crown Media Holdings, where he was president and CEO, Henry Schleiff has been named President of US cable network Investigation Discovery (commercially abbreviated as I.D.), the fact-based investigative content about culture, history and the human condition, as well as programming dealing with criminal investigations, primarily homicide investigations, and other crime-related documentaries.
Schleiff told Variety’s Jon Weisman that strong branding will be key to accomplishing his assigned goals: “You look out from the foxhole, and you see a huge number of cable networks with some advantage in terms of size and distribution,” Schleiff said. “How do you address that? You start with a very clear and distinct brand, and I think that’s one of the advantages that something like this network has.”
Hollywood Reporter’s Elizabeth Guider reports that Schleiff envisions the new channel as ‘Justice Central,’ the brand of choice for investigations similar to the way Comedy Central has become a go-to destination for laughs.
Previously, Schleiff led Court TV –now truTV — from a base of 30 million households to 85 million homes. While Schleiff ran Crown, Hallmark Channel grew until it was distributed into more than 86 million homes, and also became a top-ten player in primetime. He’s also well-connected with a strong relationship with Discovery CEO David Zaslav that runs way back.
History of the channel: He joins the network that began as a joint venture between CBS and Discovery named Discovery People in 1996. A year later, Discovery People was rebranded as Discovery Civilization. In 2002, the New York Times and Discovery announced a joint venture to run the channel, and rebranded it as Discovery Times Channel, focusing on American culture and programming pertaining to the well-being and culture of the people of America, as well as other miscellaneous programming.
In January 2008, the Discovery Times channel was rebranded to the Investigation Discovery channel.
In more HD news, Discovery Networks International announced Wednesday that it is expanding it’s international portfolio of HD networks with the launch of Discovery HD Theater, launching on the SKY platform in Brazil. “The launch of our first HD network in the Latin America region underscores our commitment to providing consumers and affiliates around the world with products and content that enhance the viewing experience and are at the forefront of global entertainment trends,” said Greg Ricca, President and CEO, Discovery Networks International.
HD Theater offers HD simulcast services in the United States for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, Science Channel and Planet Green.
Breaking News: My Blackberry went a buzzin’ last week when the rumors we were all hearing were substantiated and made official. The iconic company behind GI Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony is partnering up with Discovery Communications in a $300M deal to take on Viacom’s Nickelodeon, Walt Disney’s Disney Channel, and Time Warner’s Cartoon Network in the very lucrative children’s TV market.
The joint venture will see a major rebranding effort of the 60M home Discovery Kids channel, creating new shows based on brands such as GI Joe, Scrabble and Cranium. Each company will hold 50 percent in the venture.
Apparently all the gloom chatter from earlier in the year is being mitigated by a flurry of channel launches and rebrands both in the US and the UK. I’ve seen a noticable uptick in briefing and agency exploration meetings. It’s an incredibly exciting and busy time in our business. Thank goodness for that!
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