UKTV was a stronger brand - even for streaming. U is likely to create confusion.
1 Like
In your opinion
But rebrands like this are backed by deep strategy and insights from incredibly deep data
They would have data and insights that show to achieve their business goals they need to go down a. Path like this. It’s not some creatives and marketing people coming up with what they they are cool ideas
My guess is that the UKTV brand skews very old and is suffers from decreasing awareness.
In an age of fun names like Pluto Tubi and ITVX they needed a fun cheeky youthful brand that is memorable and stand out
That is not UKTV
Their market share was prob dropping a was awareness and their demo aging up. That’s all bad in a streaming first future
So the business case becomes to go younger, and compete with the hayus Tunis and plutos with fun name and brand that sounds memorable and fresh
And they would not have gone down a path like this if they didn’t have the data insights and market testing to show them it was right
I’ve worked on a few streaming rebrands in the UK - this stuff is data and business driven and worked on for years
1 Like
cool but UTV Northern Ireland and googling U tv comes up with different tv sites here in the UK.
It’s brand confusion.
2 Likes
there was nothing wrong with the UKTV brand, it would have easily transitioned to streaming easily
1 Like
It was too old skewing. Simple as that.
TVNZ had a crack at branding a “youth” channel “U” 15 years ago. That didn’t last.
1 Like
Cool, but you’re not an expert
1 Like
All hail the marketing gurus! 
Two words: Wolff Olins. Google them and it’ll tell you all you need to know.
2 Likes
Close the forum down mods, only self confessed experts allowed from now on.
5 Likes
There was also one when ABC3 became ABC ME. Now it’s been rebranded again.
not always. i minored in marketing at uni and theres been plenty of failures. one local example springs to mind was the dumping of legacy brands to make the hit network. it didn’t work
Wolff Olins have produced numerous silly rebrands over the years. The worst one has to be when they rebranded PwC’s consulting arm as Monday - cos we all just love Mondays, right? Then Monday was sold to IBM and they ditched the brand within weeks…
@KICK-IT I totally get where you’re coming from - I just don’t think ‘U’ is a very good name for a streaming service. It’s far too generic and meaningless. But hey! We’re all talking about it now, so maybe it has worked on some level…
1 Like
Non experts can give opinions, of course. I have plenty of non expert opinions on a range on topics I’m passionate about. But I respect their are experts who know more than me.
Knowing ABC budgets and limitations and knowing how much strategy and planning takes to get right, I would guess that ABC doesn’t have the budget to do deep deep strategy and planning on its rebrands.
It didn’t say all rebrands are successful. I said rebrands are backed by deep data strategy and insights. That does not always lead to successes
Plenty don’t work.
And maybe the strategy was right but it was the wrong time. Or maybe the strategy was just wrong.
And that’s fine. That’s a subjective opinion. I’m not a huge fan of it either. But I do respect that that people that made the decisions did so wit access to endless data market research and business strategy that you and I are not privy to.
We can say we don’t agree with it or like it. But we’re not the experts on UKtv rebranding. Them and their agency are.
1 Like
Perhaps, but don’t you think it’s a failure if there is clear possibilities for brand confusion with UTV in the same market, plus the whole “stream it on U” isn’t clear with spelling etc and it doesn’t stand out as a brand name. The same issues Listnr is running into.
2 Likes
If you need to spell out your brand name (like listnr do) that’s the sign of a bad brand name
Northern ireland is 3% of the UK’s population, and even then UTV is a sub brand on ITV, not unlike NBN. It’s just used for the local news. The ITV full branding is carried 24/7 In northern island, I don’t think it’s an issue.
So no, that doesn’t make it a failure
We’ll know in a few years if it was a failure or not.
You could argue the same for Prime - incredibly generic name that thousands f companies use. But here we are with Prime
1 Like
Now this is interesting - the trademark for one of U’s linear channels (U&W) has been
rejected by the Intellectual Property Office, for being too similar to another trademark (UW, or Utility Warehouse).
10Boss, anyone?
4 Likes