Bravo Updates On-Air Look
By MONICA HOGAN -- Multichannel News, 2/5/2001
Arts-oriented Bravo Network last week unveiled its first major on-air revamp in half a decade. A new series of interstitials offers a fresh take on the cable channel's year-old consumer tagline, "Not your everyday.every day on Bravo Network."
"We wanted the on-air to package to play off the success of our current consumer campaign," Bravo and Independent Film Channel executive vice president and general manager Ed Carroll said. "That, along with our original programming, has helped us increase our viewership by more than one-third last year."
The new spots incorporate what Carroll described as a bold use of color and an eclectic mix of music designed to challenge viewers' perceptions of how an arts network should look. "All of the vignettes are designed to do that," he said.
Actor Fisher Stevens provided the voiceovers for the new on-air campaign.
Bravo will try to involve its talent in future IDs for the channel. Second-generation spots, for example, are likely to feature Cirque du Soleil performers, Carroll said.
Bravo selected [tz], a New York-based ad agency, to create the new on-air look following pitches from about six marketing firms, Carroll said. "We've worked with them quite a number of times in the past," he added.
"We wanted a look that would capture the spirit of the arts, but at the same time, it needed to be accessible," [tz] creative director Iain Greenway said in a press release. "The images feature people doing seemingly normal 'everyday things' such as getting on an elevator or answering the phone. It's how they perform these tasks that, like Bravo, is 'not your every day.'"
Creating a unique and consistent on-air look has always been important, but it's become more so in recent years as established programmers battle newer networks for viewer loyalty.
"On-air packages are more important than they have ever been," Carroll said. "Now you routinely find yourself on cable systems with anywhere from 80 to 300 channels."
In addition to the on-air spots, Bravo plans to incorporate elements from the new campaign in its trade and consumer advertising, as well as on its Web site.
The campaign was created to appeal to Bravo's primary target audience of "smart, discerning viewers" between 25 and 54 years old, Carroll noted.
Bravo parent company Cablevision Systems Corp.'s recent talk of selling off the network-along with its other programming holdings-did not influence the timing of Bravo's new on-air campaign.
"We're continuing to operate the business as we always have," Carroll said.
