BBC Three set for rebrand

The BBC is set to relaunch its youth TV station BBC Three next month with a £750 000 rebrand led by Red Bee Media, which will extend into new multiplatform content.

Red Bee was appointed last June, following a pitch in March 2007, while Agency Republic is overseeing the digital promotion of the channel’s TV content and Nexus Productions has led the animation work, which features heavily in the new look.

The channel relaunch, set for a date to be confirmed in February, will see BBC Three reframe itself from being a TV station to a ‘multiplatform entertainment hub for the young’. As a result, all of BBC Three’s future screen branding and visual content will be designed to work across TV, Web and mobile.

The reconfiguring of the channel has necessitated a wholesale review of BBC Three’s strategic branding, led by the channel’s head of marketing Reemah Sakaan, in conjunction with Red Bee Media executive creative director Charlie Mawer, and Red Bee account director Emma Proffit.

Sakaan explains that this began with a review of the channel’s marketing strategy early last summer, and went on to encompass BBC Three’s Web content, channel branding, junctions, stings, continuity, and content-led promotional campaigns.

‘We wanted to create a maverick piece of branding to reflect the fact that BBC Three is a digital pioneer and a cutting-edge multimedia youth brand,’ Sakaan says.

A new logo, colour palette and brand guidelines system for the station have been created to dovetail with the screen branding, which is based in a fast-moving, computergenerated world of animated characters called Threeworld.  The channel plans to extend the new look to its presences on YouTube and social networking site Bebo. Audiences will also be given slots for presenting shows in a new recorded feature called Three Views.

Red Bee Media executive creative director Charlie Mawer says, ‘There is a massive commitment within the BBC to multiplatform strategy and encouraging user-generated content. It can seem a bit daunting for the creative director to give creative control to the viewers, but there will always be the need for that element of central editorial control.’

Agency Republic is overseeing the digital promotion of the channel’s new look TV programming, with campaigns for up-and-coming shows including Lily Allen and Friends, the new reality show Upstaged, and its new drama season.

REBRAND OF A MAGIC NUMBER

• BBC Three relaunching as ‘multiplatform entertainment hub for the young’
• Brand positioning as maverick, multimedia youth brand
• Screen branding, idents, stings, website and multimedia content executions by Red Bee Media
• Digital campaigns for new programmes by Agency Republic
• Animation by Nexus Productions