NBC’s Sci Fi Channel Gets Redone
March 16, 2009 by Ellen Ewart
Filed under Marketing
NBC will rebrand its Sci Fi Channel this July in the hopes of gaining greater recognition across international channels and among new media users. By rebranding Sci Fi to SyFy, the brand can remain the same in sound while NBC gains an ownable trademark.
An NBC press release stated that, “the new brand broadens perceptions and embraces a wider range of current and future imagination-based entertainment beyond just the traditional sci-fi genre, including fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure.”
If the goal is to broaden the channel’s reach, I’d argue that a complete overhaul of the brand were in order. Simply adjusting the spelling enough to enable ownership of its trademark seems cheap and ill-thought out. Won’t this simply piss off the Sci-Fi followers?
An English professor of mine refused to use the term Sci-Fi all semester, insisting that the Sci-Fi enthusiasts had ditched that passe term and evolved to SF. Even he had trouble training himself to say SF rather than Sci-Fi, and I haven’t heard the term SF since that class.
Perhaps NBC was too afraid to ditch Sci-Fi altogether. But SyFy?! Is that really what your crew of marketing genuises came up with?
The rebrand will be presented both on air and online on July 7th in the US, including its new tagline, “Imagine Greater.”
Come on NBC, are we really inspired to “Imagine Greater” with a rebranding effort like SyFy?
