BBC redefines global service

BBC WORLDWIDE will shortly appoint a branding consultancy, expected to be Lambie-Nairn, to create BBC-branded “genre signposts” as part of an aggressive global marketing campaign.

The campaign for the BBC’s commercial arm will see the corporation increasing its range of merchandise, which it will seek to sell and market directly instead of through licensing agreements.

The changes are part of an ongoing overhaul of the BBC brand, including a new parent identity and subsidiary logos.

The new genre signposts will have a wide range of applications, including programming and merchandise related to that genre.

“We will be bringing in a branding consultant to help develop navigational signposts to promote the BBC on a global basis. We haven’t got to the appointment stage yet,” says BBC director of global marketing and brand development Jeff Taylor.

But he concedes that “everything we do in the future will have to run on from the new BBC identity”, created by Lambie-Nairn.

An inside source says: “Nothing has been decided yet, but the group that designed the recent BBC logo would be a strong contender.”

Market research agency Roper Starch has completed a global analysis of the BBC brand.

Taylor hopes to draw up a strategy in the next two months and bring in a branding consultant to develop it afterwards. “The research showed we were viewed very differently across the world… we were primarily known for our news and radio in many areas,” he says.

However, the genre signposts are likely to be rolled out uniformly across the globe.

“Ultimately, our aim is to move the BBC brand up the agenda. As things stand, neither our merchandise or the programming we sell to other channels is overtly BBC-branded. We want to change that,” says Taylor.