Canwest specialty television station Showcase is launching a national multimedia campaign to introduce consumers to its new logo, programming and market positioning, today.
The campaign reflects Canwest’s desire to shed the channel’s reputation for seedy programming and reposition it as a destination for top-level dramas and major Hollywood movies.
In recent years, Showcase has added content from conventional U.S. networks, such as the medical drama House, as well as U.S. cable hits such as Weeds. New additions to the station’s lineup this season include conventional television shows Bones and NCIS and a slate of movies that includes I Am Legend and Superbad.
Supporting this programming shift is a campaign that includes a revamped Showcase logo, which features prominently in on-air, out-of-home, radio, print and online creative.
According to Muriel Solomon, vice-president, marketing strategy, specialty for Canwest Broadcasting, the logo was redesigned to be the centrepiece of both the campaign and the station’s refreshed identity.
“The main focus of the campaign is to introduce the new Showcase, introduce the new logo and show that it’s a big channel now, one that has a pleasant playfulness and some of the best shows on television,” Solomon said. “Our logo is the hero and really draws attention to the fact that [the channel] has changed.”
For example, ads for Weeds feature the large, three-dimensional Showcase logo enclosed in a clear plastic baggy–suggestive of a bag of pot–above the show’s star Mary-Louise Parker.
As much as it is geared for viewers, Solomon said the campaign will also make Showcase a more attractive property to advertisers, many of whom have avoided programming such as the erotic-themed Fridays Without Borders block–which Showcase has dropped for the upcoming TV season–in the past.
“Whatever barriers some of them may have had with the content have been eliminated, so we’re very confident that the response is going to be even more positive going forward,” Solomon said.
The campaign was developed in-house by Canwest’s creative and strategic teams.
