Emap picks Odd to make Kiss cool again

Emap is undertaking a rebrand of its Kiss dance music portfolio as part of a plan to update the image and output of the radio, television and on-line broadcaster.

The media group appointed Odd to the project two weeks ago, following a six-week pitch with more than five consultancies, thought to include Red Bee Media, Designers Republic and This is Real Art.

A spokeswoman for Kiss says the station’s logo has not been updated in more than five years and that it is due for attention. ‘Kiss is a youth brand, so you have to keep it fresh and revive it on a regular basis. We have already announced that we are looking at completely refreshing the radio sound, and changing the look and image is obviously an important part of that,’ she says.

Odd partner Nick Stickland says the work will revolve around a new logo, which can adapt to all of the platforms Kiss inhabits. A key part of the brief will be to shed some of the ‘street’ image, left from Kiss’s days as a pirate radio station, without harming brand perceptions. ‘I think Kiss has to regain its cool, and that is the task at hand,’ says Stickland. ‘There is probably room for it to grow up a bit, though it needs to stay cuddly and sexy.’

No date has yet been set for the unveiling of the new visual identity. In the March Rajar listening figures, Kiss 100 FM’s weekly reach held steady at 1.3 million listeners, but fell by 10.1 per cent quarter on quarter.

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