Salterbaxter rebrands Gameplay

On-line games channel Gameplay is launching a new identity designed by London consultancy Salterbaxter, along with an in-house website redesign. Its original dot.com suffix has been dropped from the name.

Salterbaxter, appointed last October, was briefed to review the brand, reposition the expanding group and undertake an internal communications programme.

“We have also completely redesigned the interiors of the Gameplay office in Clerkenwell. We came up with the visual recommendations and designed a brand CD, some large 3D models, a tin communications pack for the staff, and stationery, watches and T-shirts,” says Salterbaxter director Nigel Salter.

The London Stock Exchange-listed venture, which signed a retail partnership with Carphone Warehouse Group this week, runs a games community accessible by the Internet, digital TV and, from May, via WAP mobile phones.

It also hosts a discounted home shopping network for computer games and related products, using mail order and e-commerce, claiming to have 500,000 customers in the UK. Gameplay is now looking to extend the brand into Europe, where it has 75,000 customers acquired through its purchase of Joysoft, and through a tie-up with the French digital satellite TV platform TPS.

Content for the Gameplay sites is designed by its in-house Web design and interactive TV teams, with technical input from Agency.com. A raft of new content designed by the four-man Web team launches this week on its third website incarnation, at www.gameplay.com.

“We’ve been one of the most successful channels on Sky’s Open platform and it’s because we have done it in-house. It is because you have great graphics to play with, but also because of the attitude and feel we have created,” says Gameplay on-line marketing director Steven Blackburn.

In order to clarify the proposition of the brand, the strapline “the gateway to games” has been introduced.