UKTV Gold relaunches with new-look idents

UKTV Gold is relaunching this week following a six-figure screen identity overhaul by Karmarama.

The changes follow 18 months of strategic work at the channel to reassert the Gold brand’s position as the ‘home of iconic TV’. The idents go live on Thursday on the back of a new commissioning strategy and programming schedule.

Karmarama was appointed to the project last autumn following a three-way pitch against undisclosed consultancies. It is the first time that UKTV Gold’s idents have been updated since Karmarama’s last work on the branding in 2003, when the channel was called UK Gold.

Karmarama was briefed to produce an identity that will reconnect the channel with its core audience in an increasingly fragmented television market, according to consultancy creative director David Buonaguidi. The creative idea is based around the 1970s ‘spacehopper’ toy, which he says reflects the ‘mainstream, light-hearted nature of the channel’.

The consultancy has created 12 sequences, which see gold versions of the spacehopper, branded with the station’s logo, bouncing through various scenarios. Locations include a carwash and hotel, and there is also an ‘ambient hoppers hill’ sequence, which mocks other terrestrial broadcasters’ more ‘serious’ idents, according to a spokeswoman for UKTV.

In addition to refreshing the core channel identity, there are specific executions for the channel’s movies, drama, comedy and US acquisition strands.