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Last year Astral Media Inc. set out to find itself in the corporate version of a vision quest, and this morning unveiled its new, more colourful self to the world.
It’s been almost a decade since the Montreal-based company last rebranded. The company has grown since–expanding to approximately $900 million in revenue from $300 million at the turn of the century–but has become more decentralized in the process. According to Astral’s chief marketing officer Alain Bergeron, this led to an inconsistent brand image.
In October 2008, Astral hired Toronto agency Juniper Park to see what could be done. A nearly complete image overhaul is the result.
While Astral Media Inc. will remain the company’s legal name, its public brand is now simply Astral, represented by a new softer, five-colour “A” logo that replaces the old solid blue, hard-lined version across all of the company’s divisions, business- and consumer-facing materials.
“We told Juniper that the new logo should capture some of the elements [of] the old logo: scale, strength, performance… these are the foundation blocks,” said Bergeron. “But you must also convey the other side–the passion, creativity and imagination–that the old logo didn’t do enough of.”
“When you look at identities, they become tools, a document about a moment in time for a brand,” said Barry Quinn, the creative director at Juniper Park who led the redesign project. “When you look at the identity Astral had before, it’s apparent that they needed it to look like it was solid, disciplined, had a stability to it. It looks like a logo for a company that’s a player.”
But now that these elements are a given in the industry, said Quinn, Astral can move on to incorporate a broader range of attributes, including “collaboration” and “creativity.”
Wavy white lines within the “A” logo are a common element in new television, print and out-of-home ads that announce the new look. French and English television ads that were produced in-house use the lines and new colour scheme to tie together various animated scenes.
“There are starting lines, pickup lines, life lines and bottom lines,” says a voiceover in a 30-second spot. “And when they pull together, one company, one vision, it’s not the end of the line but the beginning.”
Those lines swirl into a handwritten-style font that appears in print ad headlines such as “Laugh,” advertising the company’s HBO Canada, Virgin Radio and movie channel properties.
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the whistling four-note mnemonic tune that Astral introduced in 2008 to cap its radio and television stings.
“Their branding from a mnemonic standpoint has been much more expressive and flexible than their visual [branding],” said Jill Nykoliation, Juniper Park’s president.
Juniper began its rebranding project by conducting six months of interviews with Astral employees, third-party vendors and customers to get a sense of how the brand was viewed, and where they saw room for improvement.
The 60 hours of anonymous survey results showed many perceived the brand in a positive light, but its decentralized operations sometimes presented an inconsistent experience. In the words of one interviewee, “You guys need to realize that you’re one company.”
To that end, Astral has also streamlined its various internal brands that paired the old logo with 19 divisional names such as Astral Outdoor, Astral iMedia and Astral Radio Sales Atlantic. Now, only eight internal brands remain (though the pre-existing divisional teams remain intact).
“There was too much flexibility in using the master brand,” said Bergeron. “There was not enough order, not enough structure… This really helps unify and solidify a coherent message.”
To show off its new “A” look to advertisers, Astral bought a website takeover ad package for MarketingMag.ca, which went live this morning. It is the first time the site has sold such a domination.
