Thursday, November 22, 2012

ITV (re) Branding and Number 2 -Reason (and Thomas Paine)

If I know anything about an industry it is probably broadcasting/media and as I have done a couple of dissertations around broadcast branding then a new logo from the major UK commercial broadcaster is bound to be of interest to me.
I had heard a month or so ago that ITV was introducing a new logo to reflect better the brand and positioning but only got sight of it yesterday.
Now as a logo I think it's not bad and it is perhaps of some significance that ITV 1 is losing the 1 but I'm not sure that it is going to make more than a very marginal change in the audience perception (perhaps slightly more with the advertisers and agencies though).
ITV (Independent Television)  has a history of over 60 years in the UK - although I think the 'independent' is something of a misnomer in that it is far from Independent  but it would be more accurate to call it "commercial licensed TV".
Now back to the new logo ITV has a challenge in that it wishes to reach a younger more affluent audience but remains a mass brand it has some chance of reaching the objectives with a multi channel strategy but this is at the risk of some cannibalisation of the main flagship ITV 1.
My question would be does the new logo answer the challenge?
My answer would be not to any significant degree - a strategy to grow a new younger audience would most likely require either an acquisition or launch of a new radical alternative to ITV (like BA did with Go).
ITV continues to battle with the past federal/regional system where there was limited channel choice and single TV per household rather than the current landscape which needs to confront the multiplicity of platforms and where YouTube/Amazon are making the running either now or very soon.

On a side note look how the other 'dinosaur' media  in terminal decline swipe at ITV efforts to reposition with the new logo
The Mail
and
The Mirror

Next topic from Crofton is reason...
# 2 Reason.

You might think this is a given as in modern times most of us live by what we think is 'reason'.
In fact what we consider as the primacy of reason using logic for Deduction (general to specific) and Induction (observation to generalisation) can be argued to be a relatively modern concept gifted to us during the period of enlightenment (also known as Age of Reason which was an influential book by Thomas Paine 1737 -1809).
Useful reference on Reason here.
Look at Paine's book here.