With so many TV channels available at the press of a button on our remote controls, the way a channel identifies and distinguishes itself from other channels has never been more important than it is today. Branding is now the name of the game and all broadcasters are competing in this arena.
More than two years ago, Dubai Media Incorporated, the company managing Dubai TV’s stations, initiated a massive rebranding of its channels and also launched brand new ones. The old EDTV was dubbed Dubai TV and its content and look underwent radical change. Likewise, Dubai Sports Channel underwent a complete change and so did Channel 33, which was first called OneTV and recently rebranded as Dubai One. Dubai One is today a free-to-air channel sporting a mix of Western movies and American lifestyle entertainment content.
Officially launched in 2004, One TV was immediately recognised by its unique branding. The look of the channel was very original at that time as it was heavily based on vector graphics. Flash, the leading multimedia application for web based content creation was brought to the TV screen and utilised to produce bumpers, straps and interstitial material.
At a time when all major broadcasters in the world were branding their channel using 3D and visually intense special effects, One TV was a true novelty relying merely on bi-dimensional graphics with a minimalist style.
The predominant colour of the branding was a flat orange used for all the backgrounds in all various media including on-air graphics, outdoors, press and the web. The ONE TV text in plain white with an apostrophe in red was the true trademark of the Channel.
Through Flash and other vector graphic applications such as Swish, the apostrophe was animated in many different and interesting manners but always retained in a true bi-dimensional environment. The basic tools utilised to give depth to the motion graphics were scaling and opacity. The only moments when purely two-dimensional elements were added to the mix was during Ramadan for fillers.
The result was innovative as well as fresh and modern. The sonic branding was also kept very minimalist to match the overall feeling of the channel. One TV was also unique in its promo production in that it selected specific scenes in movies and merely added a final slate to the segment. The heavy use of Flash was also ideal for the integration with the web site, which was used to reflect many of the on-air animations.
However, after only a couple of years of its official launch, the channel has now undergone a further re-branding exercise under the direction of Najla Al-Awadhi, the deputy chief executive officer for Dubai Media Incorporated. Al-Awadhi is a UAE national who believes that DMI’s channels must be updated regularly to reflect the massive change to Dubai. As the fastest growing metropolis in the world with a constantly evolving community, Dubai is undergoing rapid changes internally. DubaiOne attempts to cater to this multi-ethnic audience while at the same time attempting to focus specifically on young Arabic speaking people including expatriates.
To make the connection even stronger, Al-Awadhi and the DMI management launched Emirates News, a daily news bulletin produced entirely in English that is broadcast on DubaiOne. Currently in the UAE, this is claimed to be the only source of local English news.
Al-Awadhi, a UAE national who studied abroad, has a clear picture of what is happening in the rest of the broadcasting world and is seeking to make DubaiOne on par with other international channels. Currently, the channel only broadcasts some of the most popular American programmes including Desperate Housewives as well as top blockbuster movies.
However, Al-Awadhi says her main aim is to change that in a few years time. DubaiOne, in her opinion, must be capable of showing productions made by UAE nationals but programmes that are on par with international standards.
“I want to see original entertainment content produced entirely in the UAE although conventional Western programming will always be appealing to our audience. However, it is important that we start producing our own content. Even Arabic content is primarily sourced from countries outside the UAE. We should change this. The time is ripe for Dubai and the UAE to produce programming that matches international standards both technically as well as editorially. We want to be able to export content made here to other Arabic speaking countries around the world,” she adds.
In the meantime, the decision to rebrand One TV came from research that showed that although the look was immediately recognised by the audience, it was in the need of being more physically connected to the Dubai community. Although the overall look and feel was both successful as well as sleek, it was perhaps a bit too abstract for some. DMI conducted a survey among viewers for six months. The result showed that the brand needed to move in a new direction. Obeida Sidani, the head of graphics for DMI and his team were in charge of the re-branding. The objective was to rework the logo and the brand in such a manner that made it less abstract and helped to exude more warmth to the viewers. The new campaign saw at first an update in the name, from OneTV to Dubai One reinforcing the connection with the city. The apostrophe was retained in red but was now extruded into 3D with a glassy look. This feature immediately adds a new dimension to the overall look and moves away from the typical 2D environment adding a Z dimension to the concept. One of the main objectives, says Obeida Sidani, was to turn the apostrophe into a friendly symbol.
The apostrophe now has a life of its own and interacts with the viewers. The other major change was adding live actors to the commercials. These actors reflect the cosmopolitan nature of Dubai’s community and interact with the apostrophe in different ways evoking very interesting motion paths. The apostrophes are always floating in the air, often grouped together symbolising a group of people and showing itself to be interactive.
A new direction has also been given to the on-air promotions. Rather than utilising slates and menus announcing the day’s schedule, it has decided to go for simple straps that describe the current show and announces the following one. This way, the schedule runs more smoothly without major visual interruptions.
The new look is also present in all the outdoors campaigns, press materials and on the channel’s web site.
Some of the animations are similar to the ones produced in Flash for the old branding while the others are completely new using the added 3D space. The result is truly impressive as are the futuristic scenarios, where all these animations take place. The old flat orange background has been replaced with a virtual space where footage, actors and motion graphics are combined together.
The overall production time for this was three months with most of the time reserved for high end 3D renderings and compositing. The sound branding has also been refurbished keeping the old music theme but arranging it in a more sing along style.
The overall new look of DubaiOne is now more modern and has succeeded in matching the dynamism and complexities of a metropolis such as Dubai. Knowing how rapidly Dubai is evolving, it won’t be surprising, however, if we see the channel rebranded again within a year.
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