Maxs Marketing Boss Explains Using Old ‘Harry Potter Logo To Announce New Series, And Boosting Combined Platforms Family Focus
© Available for varietyAs HBO Max goes Max next month, Warner Bros. is up to Discovery's marketing teams to get the word out. While there has been talk of a combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streamer in Hollywood for months (with accurate speculation that it will be called Max), awareness of the change is only affecting consumers.
This is where Pato Spagnoletto, global director of direct-to-consumer marketing at Warner Bros. Discovery, and his team come in. Why the 'HBO' streamer is dropping its name and what it will offer now - they have a month to explain to the public (new service starts May 23) The number of exciting Max titles, including an original, each season JK Rowling's Harry Potter Dedicated to a book adaptation of the series.
But at the same time, they're still hoping to highlight the essential HBO product that drove the service in the first place. Then, a new logo (including a "chip" in the "a" in Max, a throwback to the chip in the "o" in "HBO") and tagline. Differently Spagnoletto discusses Max's thing on Player starts his rebirth campaign.
How would you view Max's marketing, given that the new name is nearly impossible to "own" because it's such a common buzzword?
We knew from the start that "Max" might be too common, but we did several things: First, of course, we did a lot of research to see how and where the name was being used within and outside of our department. And secondly, did we really feel we could own it and make it our own? The answer was yes, because no one fully understands. Many companies use it as a qualifier or conjunction. But when we look at Max's legacy in the context of HBO Max, through visual design and especially how we plan to invest in the brand, we believe we have what it takes from a marketing standpoint to build a wholly owned brand. The name, the visual design, the positioning, everything that sets it apart.
How did Max's slogan "The One to Watch" come about?
We've used it internally so much that at one point we thought it might be our line. It works on several levels. It works on an emotional level, as you saw in the "must see" campaign when you feel X. For a specific "must see" title. He has confidence, but he is an outsider "who should be careful". We like a balance of confidence, but no arrogance. We want to be with him for a long time. This is not the slogan of a startup, but the slogan of our brand. When you think of the other great brands in our category, a great slogan will set the tone for years to come. This is our request.
Is it a grave, or is that tagline a nod to the idiosyncratic episode title "Friends," which began with "The One..."?
I wish I could tell you we were way ahead, but that has nothing to do with it, no. But see how it works! People can create their own links which is great.
How does this decision to move away from the HBO name affect the new focus on kids and family content that never really caught on with HBO Max?
A big decision going to "Max" was to report the change. The change is that it is a service for the whole family. As JB Perrett [president and CEO of Global Streaming and Gaming] noted on stage, HBO is not suited for family television. But with Max, and especially with the content that we have there, we feel very comfortable offering family viewing, including children. We've got some of the best features, from Looney Tunes to Chopped Jr. and everything in between. This is a very important part of the mix for us and we know that one of the criteria for choosing and maintaining a service in families with children is whether there is content for the whole family? One of the main reasons we changed it to "Max" was to make it wider. In particular, as you saw during the campaign, we will go further to raise awareness among families about the possibilities of the service.
How do you balance Max marketing original new titles for children and families while reminding users of the extensive children's library available as Hanna-Barbera?
It has to bite. From a marketing campaign and branding perspective, our job is to let consumers know that we have an offering for kids and an offering for families. We will use some headers, some may be new, some may be from library but to show range. The second bite occurs in the product. And one of the things that we've taken to rebuild the platform is to improve our recommendation and personalization engines, so in that library and the sheer amount of content that we have, the product has to be kid and family friendly, really capable. To get the right title for the right audience. We rely on: first, awareness and second, the original title of the product.
What does Max's slogan "The One to Watch" mean for Discovery+ and how will you continue to market both products to consumers?
It's a nod to the one-to-watch service, with content for every mood and every member of the family. Max delivers on that promise better than HBO Max or Discovery+ today. So with that tagline and the whole stance, it's really about maintaining the new service. As we said, there will be super fans of Discovery and Discovery+ content who may decide to keep it, and we totally agree. We accept it because consumers are happy. So we'll give them plenty of opportunities to try Max, but it's always going to be a two-way street. If they don't want to stay there forever, that's fine and they can come back to Discovery+.
Early in the presentation, CNN and sports content was shown a sketch of Max, with no announcement of Max's inclusion. However, CEO David Zaslav said more sports and news programming will be broadcast in the coming months. direct to Max. . How do you incorporate these offers into your marketing plan?
What David said. We know we have strong strengths in news and sports and will find the right strategy as a company to bring them to service over the next few months, but there is nothing to report at this time.
how the new personalization features will work with customers; For example, will my home page focus on what interests me most, while also showcasing new discoveries and HBO content that everyone might be interested in, like Shark Week and "Legacy"?
The most important thing we can do is drive engagement. The best antidote to churn is finding content. The personalization engine analyzes your habits and various things that are personal to you. But we know that from a marketing and merchandising perspective, we need to make sure we introduce you to new categories and titles. So, like Shark Week or "Legacy" or whatever, if you want, we have the ability to manage our owned and managed inventory to introduce new titles to put on and take off the thumb scale. If you watch an HBO Max show today, you'll see that we have a 30 second trailer before one of the main shows. Sometimes we use it for branding, sometimes we use it for specific headlines. That, plus merchandising on the platform, are touchpoints that say, "Hey, we know you like this, because here's something new here that's going to be interesting to you." However, the new segment is one minute longer. Sorted and incorporated by algorithms, the same goes for the SEO side of the service. Therefore, it is very common to have a human curator to initiate the discovery.
The two big announcements at Max's streaming launch are Game of Thrones and the new Harry Potter series. For Harry Potter, the logo, images and music used in the on-screen advertising are from the original film series. Does this mean that Max intends to keep those elements in the marketing for this new show?
We are very excited to bring this franchise back to life. It has really entertained a lot of us over the past 20 years. In fact, it's so early that they don't want to confuse you one way or the other. We are just starting to understand what content will look like, how it will be created and recorded. And of course, the marketing discourse should reflect the actual content. So what we showed on screen was an illustration of its history and richness and not necessarily an illustration of what we wanted to market and our intent to market new content.
How many new service names did the team know before landing on Max?
Very short answer. We have worked with an agency called DixonBaxi who have done great work for us and other companies in the past. We really sweat the details of the letter shapes, bubbles in A; All of these things were very, very aware. I have to give a big credit to the team that worked on it, because I think the final product reflects what we wanted. It's a nod to the past, especially with HBO, but it represents a clear shift in both design, logo, color scheme, and everything in between. But it was fun and I'm happy with where we ended up.
Subsequently, Warner Bros. There are examples of television commercials and commercials used by Discovery prior to the release of Max.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
For more stories like this, follow us on MSN by clicking the button at the top of this page.Click here to read the full article.
Comments
Post a Comment