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MUMBAI: Last month entertainment firm Zone Vision announced
a new global brand for the company's corporate identity and
its channels.
The company introduced an umbrella brand, Zonemedia. New
logos and names for the company's six thematic channels will
also be rolled out.
So Reality TV is now known as Zone Reality. Romantica is
Zone Romantica, Club is Zone Club, The Horror Channel becomes
Zone Horror and Europa Europa becomes Zone Europa.
Talking to Indiantelevision.com about the logic behind
the rebranding excercise Zonemedia chairman Chris Wronski
says, "With ever more channels on the TV market it was
important to strengthen our brands. Zone Vision had built
a strong business to business name but was relatively unknown
by consumers. By changing the name to Zonemedia and pre-fixing
the channels with the word Zone, we are able to unify the
different parts of our business. The whole is greater than
the sum of its parts.
"By adding the word Media, we are better able to position
ourselves as content providers across emerging media as well
as the more traditional forms of broadcast."
Wronski notes that with stronger programming line-ups it was
also important to modernise the existing channel brands. "We
believe the new branding is contemporary, strong, clean and
memorable. By creating the Zone Marble logo, we have a logo
which we believe will stand the test of time. The new look also
gives us potential to add new territories and audiences."
He points out that with the system that has been created
Zonemedia can easily assimilate additional business without
having to re-invent the wheel each time. New channels or new
departments are assigned a suitable colour.
Wronski is also hopeful that the rebranding excercise will
enable Zonemedia to cross promote more effectively between
the different channels. The aim is that as brand equity in
one channel is built viewers will be more likely to sample
an offering from another channel in the same 'group'.
"With production taking place in different countries,
introducing new guidelines for the branding of each channel
gives us greater control over each brand and allows us to
operate similar systems of presentation around the world,
constantly reinforcing the brand values. There are also cost
savings by having more unified systems which we can plough
back into the programming."
Zonemedia worked with Kemistry on the rebranding excercise.
Kemistry Wronski notes came up with the eye design and the
branding system. The detail from idents through to promo end
pages was developed in conjunction with Zonemedia's in-house
creative team. The process took approximately six months from
initial design stage to launch last month.
Asked about the challenges involved Wronski says that the
main challenges were those usually associated with production
- devising clever, original creative which enhanced each brand;
finding creative solutions which appeal to a potentially global
audience; unifying different departments to support the design,
whether sales and marketing in local offices, channel managers
or presentation departments; and delivering to a tight deadline
within the budget.
When asked for his views on the state of English general
entertainment in India and Asia Wronski says, "We constantly
face strong competition from the English speaking market,
and are up against many popular titles. However, Zone Reality
is the only 24 hour reality TV channel which features unstaged
reality programmes, which tell the stories of real people
caught up in dramatic situations, showing events as they actually
happen."
Asked about the steps being taken to improve upon the content
on the channel Wronski says that the etam is always evaluating
and striving to improve the programming line up. "We
have a research department dedicated to finding out what our
viewers want to watch and this is constantly fed back to the
channel managers and people in acquisitions. Of course, we
hope that the Rebrand will help with viewer perceptions of
the channels as well as assisting navigation to better enable
viewers to find the shows they want."
Cheaters he goes on to note is the channel's top show
in Asia. "Our target audience is male and female viewers
aged 16-34, with a secondary audience of 25-54." As far
as india is concerned Wronski adds that the channel is looking
to have India themed fillers in the near future.
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