Red Bee Media created the new brand identity and launch marketing campaign for UKTV channel Home.
The Challenge
UKTV Style was a successful and well-recognised brand within the UKTV portfolio, but its offering was not as clear as it could have been: with popular homes content (which appealed to a male and female audience) sitting alongside wellbeing and fashion content (more female). As the portfolio re-brand got underway, the natural role for UKTV Style was to become the UK’s only dedicated homes channel, featuring solely high end property programmes.
The Solution
Research confirmed our hypothesis that such a clearly defined channel proposition would be welcomed. With the property market in sharp decline, a channel dedicated to helping people make the most of where they lived (rather than helping them prepare for sale) resonated with respondents. The channel Home launched with the strapline “there’s no place like it” and the identity focussed on the stories of various objects around the home.
We created launch trails to run across the UKTV channels, Virgin and terrestrial networks, four on-screen presentation themes and break bumpers. The four idents created reflect different types of homes and therefore the diversity of the audience – a family home, an urban flat, a flat share and an empty-nesters’ home. The launch was accompanied by a strategic poster campaign at sites near DIY and homeware superstores. The national press advertising work captures a single moment in time in a typical family home to illustrate and promote related programmes on the new channel. The channel launched with new acquisitions and commissions to complete its transformation into the go-to channel for home and garden television.
The Result
Immediately after launch, share was up 19% on the previous year’s average. Of that audience, 17% were 16-34 and 52% were ABC1: both the desired and much coveted target audience.
“Red Bee's contribution to our ten-channel rebrand has been incredible and enormously valuable. Their client-friendly approach, creative stamina and commitment to excellence have helped us transform our network in less than eighteen months. We are both enormously proud and fond of our team there - a class act.” Tom Lucas, Marketing Director, UKTV