Hallmark Swaps Iconic Crown For Emotive Branding

The Hallmark Channel has undertaken its first rebranding in five years, replacing its familiar crown logo with a series of dramatic landscape scenes.

The new channel idents coincide with the first anniversary of ownership by Sparrowhawk Media, chaired by David Elstein, following the company’s purchase of non-UK Hallmark channels last February (see Elstein Successful In Bid For Hallmark Channel). The broadcaster now operates in 153 territories, reaching more than 60 million subscribers.

The new branding was designed by creative agency Bruce Dunlop & Associates (BDA). Explaining the new positioning, BDA creative director for the Hallmark channels, Andy Clyde, said: “Distilling the essence of drama into a series of idents is not easy, most especially for a channel like Hallmark which shows such an eclectic mixture of dramatic output.

“We took the idea of drama but tried to approach it from a figurative and emotional standpoint. What we came up with is the idea of using dramatic landscapes as a way to reflect the different emotions created by watching good drama, a visual distillation of the concept.”

The scenes used for the new idents come from around Britain, featuring locations from the South coast of England to the Highlands of Scotland.

Rosie Hill-Davies, vice president of broadcasting at Hallmark for the UK and EMEA regions, said: “We gave BDA an extremely tough brief to create a new look for a channel which has extraordinarily high brand loyalty. We needed a look that our viewers could instantly connect with and yet which remained reflective of the varying moods of the schedule – softer during the day, much less so in the evening.

“We also needed this look to work not just in the UK but everywhere from South America to Asia, Australia to Russia. BDA have answered this brief perfectly and created a warm, stylish and engaging identity.”

Hallmark Channel: www.hallmarkchannel.tv Sparrowhawk Media: www.crownmedia.net