“Once Upon A Time in 2019, Disney Had A Decision to Make: What Wat It Call It Big-Swing Streaming Service, A Platform Meant To Take On Netflix in A Way that Hulu. It Turns Out All Itok Was A Mathematical Symbol. Disney+ Was Born. It Was An Incredibly Simple Name”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
It Was An incredibly Simple Name that Was Also Perfectly Descriptive. It Means “Disney, and THEN COME.” How Strong Was The Name “Disney+”? Well, Good Enough That Half of the Media Industry Followed Suit. Soon, we have paramount+, Apple TV+, Discovery+and AMC+. .
This All Came to Mind with the News in May That Warner Bros. Discovery “De-Branded” Max Back to HBO MAX (After Former Owner At & T Had Launched HBO Max Five Years Ago). “MAX” is about as close to “plus” as you can get with a total copycat.
A Lot of Streaming Services Have Been Naming or Renaming Themselves Lately, Coming Up with A New Handle that’s Definitely, Unquestionable Better than the Old Handle. They Trying to Stand Out from Their Competitors, But Could End Up Confusion Consuumers and Emmy Voters – at Exactly The Latter Group Is Deciding while, to Honor ACOR Contenders.
After AT & T’s WarnerMedia Merged with Discovery in 2022, Forming (The Obvious But Reasonable Named) Warner Bros. Discovery, Executives Renamed HBO Max Just… Max. They Wanted It to Be Clear That Max Was More What Just HBO – You Know, The Three Most Powerful Letters in Television. But Also, Like Justin Timberlake in The Social Networkthey definitely thorough it Sounded Cooler.
It didn’t. Warner Bros. Discovery Realized the Error of It Ways and Did the Debrand. But wortthy max Original Series Like Hacks an The Pitt Will Still Contend for Emmys this year as “max” shows, not “hbo max” series. I Hasn’t Seemed to Hurt Hacks in the past – voters are gelarally astute – but the letters “h,” “b” and “o” are still how you spell “Prestige” in the tv biz.
NBCuniversal Called Its Streamer Peacock WHEN IT LAUNCHED IN 2020. PEACOCK, NAMED ALD NBC Logo, Was a Silly Name Ten, and It’s A Silly Name Now. The Nicest Thing I Can Say About “Peacock” is that is not “seeso,” its short-lived, comedy-food predecessor. (Actually, The Nicest Thing I Can Say About Peacock in An Fyc Magazine Is That Its Emmy Contender The day of the jackal is quite good.)
Peacock is Also Not “Versant.”
Formerly Known As Spinco., Versant Is a New Company (Owned by Nbcu-Parent Comcast) Composed Of A Bunch of Cable Cable Cable Nbcu Felt Ambivalent ABOUT, ALOUNG WITH WITH WITH. Don’t ask me what the hell “versnt” means. Ask Mark Lazarus.
“Versant repressents more than a name – it speaks to our adaptability and Embraces of the Opportunity to Shape A New, Modern Media Company Overarching Goal to Influence Culture, Connect Communities and Signify A Unified Direction Forward. ”
And Disney? A Few Years Ago, It Was Back in the Naming Game for Its Much-Teased New Espn Streaming Offering. IT NEED PRODING THAT EVOKED “ESPN,” SO IT WENT WITH… ESPN.
IT DOESN’T GET Any LESS CONFUSING WHEN YOU CONSIDER THERE’S ALREADY An ESPN App, As Well As Espn+, WHICH The Company Stresses is a “Service” and not An “App.” The New ESPN App (A Bona Fide, ConfirMed App), is in the Actuality An Enhancement of the Existation Espn App. Perhaps Espn Should Have Stuck with “Flagship,” The New Offering’s Working Title. THEN AGAIN, NEVER Mind.
All of this branding, rebranting and de-Branding is puzzling enough for votes and other folks in the Industry. SO Imagine How Consumers Feel.
Even the unwavering Netflix is playing the game. The UndisPuted Streaming Leader Recently Recently Revamped Itce-in-A-While Marketing Event Tudum, WHICH IS NAMED AFTER The Sound Effect That Plays Before Each Film ORIES. (IT’s A Little Too Easy to Make A Tu-Dumb Joke.)
The Company Uses Tudum for Its Platform on What to Watch and What’s Trender. But Mainly, Tudum is a promocial event – one long netflix AD, Basically – Now Wraped in a variety Show (of Sots) Featuring more 100 Netflix Stars.
There is one thing that can save a confounding name: A good tagline.
ESPN Revealed ITS NEW Tagline on June 5: “Sports Forever.” Hey, that’s not bad! Of Course, Espn’s Old Motto, “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,“ Was Working Fine for Everyone.
LESS THAN A YEAR Ago, Starz Unveiled ITS Own New Tagline: “We’re All Adults Here.” I’ve Got Nothing Negative To Say About That One: It Clearly Defines the Brand Strategy. “We’re All Adults here” informs potential subscribers (and bundlers, and Maybe Buyers) of Exactly What to Expect.
IT’s no surprise starz nailed is new tagline. Starz Knows What It Is and Who It Serves. The Starz Audence is Women and Black Adults – WHOM IT HAS TARGETED SINCE 2014, WHEN IT LAUNCHED BOTH Outlander an Power.
HBO KNOWS WHAT IT IS; Max Never DID.
And we’re Still TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT Versant is.
This Story First Appeared in a June Stand-Alane Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. To Receive The Magazine, Click Here to Subscribe.