Spark, the creative group founded by award-winning designer Elaine Cantwell, has completed a major rebranding campaign for Global Television in Canada, marking the network's most comprehensive rebranding in a decade. Spark's extensive repositioning program was created to maximize the power of Global as a media brand by placing new focus behind its attitude and creative look and feel.
"We had been looking for just the right team to help us become a major media brand that connects emotionally with the viewer," said Kathleen Dore, President of TV & Radio at CanWest MediaWorks, the Global Television parent company. "We are delighted with what Spark delivered - an incredibly targeted platform and fresh visual edge to the Global brand that really set us apart from our competitors."
"Cantwell and company were chosen from an initial field of over 20 Canadian and International firms" added Walter Levitt, Senior Vice President of Marketing, TV & Radio, at CanWest MediaWorks. "Early on in the process of narrowing the field and completing our search, we knew that the ideas and inspiration from the Spark group were very tuned in to the market, our brand vision, and what we wanted to achieve".
With the direction of the multifaceted campaign supervised by Global's core branding team, Spark addressed all aspects of the brand's presence and advised on everything from television and online to print and outdoor advertising. Spark also conducted a series of workshops to demonstrate how the entire campaign would be executed.
The Global brand strategy of offering more insight and more perspective to the viewer's experience formed the basis for the creative strategy. The new Global icon literally visualizes "more" through a stylized "greater than" symbol creating the foundation on which all other brand opportunities can build. With its incorporation of the new "greater than" symbol, Spark's complete design package cleverly drives the campaign message on all fronts including on-air graphics and national news and local news packaging for the network's local stations. The creative group also developed a signature sound sting for Global that reinforces the same brand message of "more". Everything from network IDs to news vehicles work together to reinforce the essence of the Global experience, which differentiates itself from competitors by offering "more" - more background, more insight, more perspective to the world of entertainment and news.
Commented Cantwell, "We took an established brand, overhauled it and repositioned it from top to bottom, to make a connection with viewers that was not being maximized. The singular vision of the Global team was the key to the success of the rebrand, bringing focus and commitment to every aspect of the rebrand. The entire Global team is unified in its message to the viewer from the programmes they show to the way they promote them - Global gives you more and that is worth talking about."
Spark, which has also developed successful rebranding campaigns for Showtime and Disney's Jetix, enjoyed the challenge of the project, which gave the company the opportunity to develop a brand and assist in rolling it out on a national and local level.
Viewers got their first peeks at the new campaign on February 5th 2006, Super Bowl Sunday, when television audiences on Global are inherently high. Global also launched its new brand with one of the largest national outdoor advertising campaigns in Canadian history. Owned by CanWest MediaWorks, Global Television is a coast-to-coast Canadian broadcasting network that reaches more than 94% of English-speaking Canada.
