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However, uktv wanted to announce the move, and after an assessment of viewer perceptions it was clear that uktvG2 needed a major brand overhaul. For a start, the channel was virtually invisible, recording just 2% spontaneous awareness. It also had the highest misattribution levels of any uktv channel, with people viewing programmes without knowing they were watching uktvG2. Furthermore, people found the name confusing.
On a more positive note, viewers claimed to love uktvG2 content. With a range of popular BBC titles, uktvG2 was seen to offer ‘intelligent and irreverent humour’ across its programme portfolio. The programmes, then, were strong, but the channel’s brand was weak. And with the launch into Freeview looming, Red Bee Media were called in to rescue and reinvent the little-known uktvG2.
The solution
With no money to invest in significant new programmes, and with a limited marketing budget, uktv briefed Red Bee Media to create a distinct brand personality that would stand out amid the multi-channel clutter.
Red Bee Media saw that, faced with increased channel choice, consumers were growing more reliant on brands to help them make their viewing decisions. They observed, in a fragmented TV market, how strong design could play a powerful role in enabling viewers to navigate the congested TV landscape. But first they had to establish exactly what uktvG2 stood for, and what connected viewers to its content.
Having identified the root of the channel’s programming – ‘intelligent and irreverent humour’ – Red Bee carried out further investigation to understand how and why this appealed to the target audience. What they found was that uktvG2’s content satisfied a fundamental male need: to have a laugh with other men. The comedy it provided was a surrogate for the bonding backchat that men enjoy ‘down the pub’. uktvG2 wasn’t so much a channel as a place where men could spend quality time with other funny men.
From this breakthrough insight, Red Bee generated a compelling expression of the channel’s core offer: The Home of Witty Banter. What they needed now was a new brand name.
Research indicated that letters and numerals could decrease a channel’s expected quality, so a series of new ‘ideas’ names were tested. This process showed that a person’s name behind a brand could engender real passion and conviction. ‘Dave’ fitted the bill; an everyday name with strong comedy credentials (Baddiel, Gorman etc). It also chimed with the audience insight: male viewers treated the channel as a friend, and in Dave that friend acquired a personality.
In the design and presentation of Dave, Red Bee looked to create a different world from our own, subverting expectations through highly visual communications. The trick was not to present Dave as a person, but a location: a gentlemen’s club where quirky, unexpected things could happen. Indents were developed to depict ‘The World of Dave’, engaging viewers with unusual situations and stories. Oil paintings, gilt frames, stuffed giraffes and zebras all helped to create a highly peculiar sense of place, and introduced to the public an utterly compelling, adventurous, unique and ever-evolving brand.
The results
The results are exceptional. Since relaunch, Dave has seen a remarkable growth from the 29th biggest channel in multi-channel (MC) homes to 10th, and has become the joint largest MC channel among 16-44 year-old men. It has attracted eight million new viewers to the network, appealing strongly to the expanded Freeview audience, and has grown from being the fifth to the second most profitable channel within the uktv portfolio.
In the first six months alone, Dave delivered a £4.5million profit, and the channel’s incremental growth is set to contribute a staggering £25million ad-sales revenue in 2008.
In addition to it’s viewing and revenue achievements the launch of Dave has also managed to create valuable talkability and Brand Advocates, with no less than 22 Facebook groups (with 10,735 members) created in the channels honour. In fact, such is the viewer’s relationship with Dave that, when surveyed, 53% of adults claimed to watch the channel weekly - while the actual weekly reach is 25% of adults in the UK. People actually overstate their viewing by 100%.
In the creation of a powerful channel brand, the project has well and truly surpassed its objectives. Spontaneous awareness of Dave has risen to 32%, lifting the channel above well-established competitors such as More4, BBC4, ITV3 and Bravo. Not bad for a small, previously little-known channel. But plucked now from obscurity, Dave looks set to defeat the Golliaths of multi-channel TV.
Gold & Grand Prix
Corporate / Brand Identity – Design and implementation costs under £100,000
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