MTV holds pitch to remix VH1 site

Following the launch of rock music channel VH2 this week, MTV Networks UK confirms it is in the throes of a pitch to redesign www.vh1.co.uk as a gateway for its VH1 and VH2 brands.

According to VH1 senior on-line producer Nick Lisher, the network approached four design groups it had previously worked with in mid-November. Lisher says all four groups, which he declined to name, are still involved in the pitch process, and an appointment is expected in early January. The new-look website will launch ‘shortly afterwards’, he adds.

VH2, billed as a ‘brother’ music channel to the female-targeted VH1, went on air on Tuesday, with a screen identity by start-up design group Make Creative.

The launch comes after ‘extensive’ research identified a gap in the market for a music channel aimed at men in their late 20s, says VH1 head of marketing Anna Bateson. VH2 will offer ‘real, rock and guitar-based music’ from the 1990s through to today, she says.

Make Creative was briefed to create an on-air identity – including logo, channel idents and on-screen graphics – plus promotional print materials that would appeal to VH2’s audience, says Bateson. The work also had to ‘show a clear aesthetic relationship’ with VH1’s new look, created by MTV’s in-house design team and launched in October, she adds.

Make Creative won the identity work, worth a five-figure fee, in October, after an eight-way, paid creative pitch.