Brand Refresh: Brazil’s Rede Telecine

01.25.2016

LONDON-In this age of rapid digital advancements in the animation and creative sectors, it's not uncommon for television channels to undergo brand refreshes to keep up to speed with the latest complex graphics on offer. But when Brazil's biggest premium movie network, Rede Telecine, was in need of an enhancement headed into 2016, the company was searching for more than just a visual facelift.

Based in Rio de Janeiro, Telecine is a joint-venture composed of Globosat and four major Hollywood studios - Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox. In addition to their content, the six-channel network (which also boasts two on-demand services) airs titles from Walt Disney Pictures, DreamWorks Animation and a raft of major independent Brazilian distributors such as Imagem Filmes and California Filmes, making it the largest network for movies in the the country.

Channels for the network are divided by genre ranging from its flagship channel Telecine Premium to romance and drama channel Telecine Touch to family film channel Telecine Pipoca.

But the six channels needed cohesion and clarity and the brand's products across multi-platforms begged to be more user-friendly so Telecine approached Rio de Janeiro-based design and animation agency BEELD, with which it previously partnered for its on- air branding in 2010, to help refresh the network.

"We needed to enhance the concept that all of Telecine's content could be watched on different platforms and that subscribers could watch their favorite movies anywhere and anytime on TV, tablets, computers and smartphones," says Telecine On-Air Marketing Manager Eduardo Mourao. "We wanted to create a unity across all media, while focussing on the corporate brand."

BEELD co-founder Eduardo Tosto and his colleagues were up for the challenge.

"It was a fantastic project to undertake because it meant we had the challenge of replacing and building upon our own work that we produced for Telecine five years ago," he says. "It wasn't just about replacing the visuals and the style, there was a deeper challenge here. They wanted to make content more user friendly while reinforcing a single corporate identity across all media platforms."

The network was adamant that the project should not represent a change in direction of the company, but should signify more of a natural evolution of the channel.

"They didn't want to have the strong feeling of change," says Tosto. "Their logo was sacred, so there was no need for change there but they did need us to clarify the difference between the services and channels they offered."

Specifically, BEELD was asked to enhance the difference between the standard channels and the VOD channels. Promos for VOD offerings at the end credits of a film on a standard channel were deemed confusing as users struggled to understand where the VOD titles were aired. Additionally, it was important to give attention to the "squeeze" - or the ads squeezed into the screen at the end credits of a film - to promote more film content in a way that was easy for users to navigate.

"We needed to make it much more user-friendly," says Tosto. "So we tried to create a clearer objective and focus on the content and the movie names and movie brands. We used DVD covers and actual movie material to promote the titles."

The key to meeting the Telecine brief, says Tosto, was to keep it simple and, in some ways, work backwards.

"We realized that simplicity was crucial to help the network so we worked with simple graphics that were easy to reproduce and that we were sure people would be able to handle easily."

Simple graphics on the TV promo made for a smoother transition to the printed ad, meaning Telecine's branding would remain consistent across all platforms. Tosto recalls using heavy 3D content on Telecine's 2010 TV branding, which made it "a nightmare" to translate to printed material.

"Translating to outdoor advertising and print is always the most problematic in a project like this so it was important that we looked at this backwards," he says. "But of course TV channels crave complex graphics so we restricted it to the idents and bumpers and five-second logo. We gave special attention to the different red rectangles."

This was a lengthy process for BEELD: The agency underwent three months of field work interviews, researching and collecting material, six months of production, audio and layout and a further two months of test material and fine-tuning before its launch in December 2014. A major challenge throughout the process was adhering to strict guidelines from the Hollywood studios.

"Their content is very protected and there are only certain ways you are allowed to handle their material," says Tosto.

But the uniqueness of this brand refresh echoes a trend that is becoming more and more prevalent in broadcaster marketing: "Broadcasters need comprehensive communication solutions that can work across different media," says Tosto. "The major new issue here is how to create pieces of brand communication that work across online platforms, elevators and shopping malls alike."