Note: These creative platforms were developed to align all expressions of the Travel Channel brand on-air as it went through a brand refresh.
The Travel Brand
The Travel brand is an impression that exists within the minds of our target audience, travel enthusiasts. It is the cumulative effect of literally hundreds of encounters they have with expressions of our brand across our programming, promotions, advertising, identity elements, services, etc. Our goal is to create a powerful, and enduring impression that incites our target audience to choose Travel over all the competing entertainment and information choices available to them. The impression we are trying to create (from Travel- Positioning, Tone and Manner) is:
Travel is the ultimate “fellow traveler” inviting travel enthusiasts to join us on our next journey.
The Travel Creative Platform
There are three factors that affect the ability of Travel’s brand expressions to create the above-described impression: Consistency, Contrast, and Creativity. Each candidate creative platform should be judged on its potential to accomplish each.
Consistency: Travel’s new brand will be expressed by hundreds of distinct elements within and across a wide variety of motion, still, and interactive media. Multiple brand messages, and techniques for expressing them compete with one another and undermine and distort their cumulative effect. In an era when media viewers face hundreds of branded appeals for their attention and loyalty every day it is incredibly important that we not only have a single message across all media, but that we are formally consistent in how we communicate that message. The Creative Platform is designed to ensure just that. It is a simple creative idea that serves as a common formal thread throughout all Travel brand expressions. It defines a set of formal limitations that answer the question, “how will we communicate Travel’s new brand position, we are fellow travelers.”
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- Can the Creative Platform be expressed equally well across various media, time, and production budgets?
Contrast: You’ve heard the expression, “When everyone else is shouting, the way to be heard is to whisper.” Perception is based in part on contrast. In order for Travel’s message to cut through the clutter, and be properly attributed to our brand, it must be distinguishable formally from competing messages. Chasing editorial, design, and animation trends only reduces the presence and persuasive power of the Travel brand.
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- Does the formal approach for expressing the new Travel brand described in each Creative Platform distinguish the brand from its competitors?
Creativity: Consistency and Contrast are brand attributes we will need discipline to achieve. How cleverly we can work within these self-imposed limitations, however, is what will ultimately determine the persuasive power of the Travel brand. Besides guiding, the Creative Platform must inspire everyone involved in the creation of Travel brand expressions to achieve brilliant, memorable ads, upfronts, promos, show opens, websites, mobisodes, etc. for the relaunch and in the years to come.
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- Does the Creative Platform inspire creative approaches to a wide variety of brand expressions? Does the idea have “legs” that will allow Travel to create fresh and vibrant impressions of the “fellow traveler” in the minds of travel enthusiasts for years to come?
What follows are a couple of candidate Creative Platforms we fill have the potential to guide and inspire the expression of the new Travel brand across platforms, and for years to come. We look forward to discussing them with you.
So Real…
… It feels like you’re there. And Travel is right there with you.
The dramas and comedies that befall our fellow traveler/host/protagonists pull travel enthusiasts into the distant lands they visit, and enable vicarious relationships with the exotic characters they meet. Through them, you are there- and Travel is right there with you.
This creative approach puts the Travel brand identity and promotion INTO rather than OVER the spaces visited through its programming. This approach attempts to minimize all disruptive and artificially superimposed brand labels and communications in favor of maintaining the emotionally transportive power of the locations, experiences, and character encounters created by Travel’s programming. Brand attribution and necessary navigational guidance are not diminished, but are achieved as much as possible, organically, within the context of the worlds experienced through programming.
The “So Real” creative approach is characterized formally by:
Image Dominance- Minimalist Graphics
The photographic image transports us to a real, 3 dimensional spaces. Graphic overlays and high-energy animation subvert that illusion. In this creative approach the image is always dominant. We stick to imagery from the programming, or stock/original imagery that compliments the programming. We’ll use grand images of rivers in Tibet, glittering streets in Vegas, and gritty back alleys in Melbourne. The world is our backplate.
Subtle manipulations of all or part of the photographic image will increase and focus its emotional impact.
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- Selective Defocusing or Masking
- Selectively Shifting Color Balance
- Selectively Increasing or Decreasing Image Saturation
Camera Techniques
The same virtual camera techniques that have been used to create desired effects in graphic worlds will be used in the real world to create such affects without destroying the immersive illusion of reality.
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- Extreme High or Low Camera Angles
- Slow Frame Rate- Poster Time or Time Lapse
- High Frame Rate- Slow Mo
- Snap Zooms
- Swish Pans and Tilts
- Dolly Counter Zooms
- Wide Angle- Fish Eye
- Telephoto- Flat Space
- Rack Focus
- Hand Held Camera
- Dolly, or Crane Shots
Montage Techniques
Rather than cut to a graphic world to create desired effects, coverage of real world imagery will be manipulated through formal “Montage” techniques. This approach yields specific meaning without subverting the reality of the image. For Example:
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- Speed Changes or Ramps
- Reverse Clips
- Cross-cutting -Creative Geography
- Parallel Editing
- Jump Cuts
- Graphic Matches
Film Artifacts
The average travel enthusiast knows that world is recorded with film. They’ve done it themselves. They know the medium captures light, is warm, organic, and filled with interesting flaws. Though most TV is produced on digital video, the organic flaws of the filmic medium can be replicated and used selectively to create a warm, emotionally vibrant mood. This particular formal element must be used with restraint, to not exceed what would occur in a person’s own experience, lest it draw attention to itself.
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- Spool Outs
- Light Flares
- Leaders
- Film Grain
- Film Scratches
Real and “Invisible” Virtual Graphic Integrations
Once we equate a filmic and subjective reality with Travel we can begin to embellish that reality by integrating graphics and logos believably into real world scenes. Logos and promo type applied to real world surfaces like signs, walls, vehicles, etc. Inserting logos and type as freestanding “sculptures” into exotic locations can be accomplished with real props, or with CG props that appear real.
Nat Sound-
We experience the real world through all five senses. While we cannot yet taste, feel, or smell media, we can hear it. Natural ambience can expand our experience of the world in an image far beyond its frame, as well as enhance the emotional effect of the scene. This creative approach should attempt to harness the power of ambient sound whenever possible.
Orchestrated Musical Mnemonic Signature
A short musical phrase can be a powerful branding tool. A musical mnemonic that is orchestrated and performed with instruments native to the world presented in Travel’s programming is not only a powerful tool that identifies the network and signals a return to programming, but one that reinforces the virtual escape to those worlds.
“Sourcing” Music
When there is music (a mnemonic or soundtrack) in branding elements it should either be actual source, or filtered to appear to be source.
Litmus Test- So Real
Can the “So Real” be expressed equally well across various media, time, and production budgets?
Yes. While using manipulated live action and integrated requires more planning and research upfront, and more careful scheduling of finished elements, there is nothing in this approach that is inherently more expensive. The impression that Travel’s air, and sites are all real and topical will be accomplished by a range of ultra-specific to “general” real world imagery in its branding elements.
Does the formal approach for expressing the new Travel brand described in “So Real” distinguish the brand from its competitors?
Very much so. Everything these days seems to be about flat-shaded 3D, flash style vector graphics, or multi-planar after effects animations. A brand that relies on a filmic look and filmic devices to communicate will really stand out in the crowded homogenous television landscape.
Does “So Real” inspire creative approaches to a wide variety of brand expressions? Does the idea have “legs” that will allow Travel to create fresh and vibrant impressions of the “fellow traveler” in the minds of Travel Enthusiasts for years to come?
“So Real” formally supports Travel’s assertion that it is a “fellow traveler.” It is an organic, emotional, style that is perfect for presenting the network as an experienced, accessible persona. The sheer volume of time-tested filmic techniques assures that any desired emotional effect can be achieved and that there will be sufficient latitude in the formal limitations to allow for refreshing the package and creating new brand expressions for many years.
The Eyes of the Traveler
Seeing the world is the dream of every traveler but really “Seeing” is goal of the enlightened traveler. The word travel means to traverse” and the Travel Channel aims to traverse the ordinary precepts of a television network and become the central embodiment of the core traveler archetypes. In essence, a fellow traveler.
The visual style will embrace the experiential aspects of travel, whether they are breathtaking vistas or small quiet scenes like a wet map lit by candle in a remote campsite. Travelers are mobile, so Travel Channel will be mobile. Through a first person P.O.V. the Brand will assume the identity of a fellow traveler and move through the world the way people do. The view will be familiar to anyone who has stared out the window of a plane or walked barefoot into a pristine ocean. Every visual message Travel Channel creates will contain a real traveling epiphany that viewers can find just as they do when on a journey. Sometimes Travel Channel leads the way and other times following the advice or recommendation of a viewer.
Distance and time can be traversed through camera tricks like time-lapse or slow motion, but always reflecting the view of a real traveler encountering the endless myriad of strange places, customs, languages, sounds, and especially people. Gone are the static graphic devices seen again and again in an endless loop. The Travel Channel understands the underlying qualities of movement and as a fellow traveler the visual style will embrace both the calm and chaotic conditions found on the road.
Travel Channel expands its appeal by embracing more and more new experiences, people, places, and things.
Crossroads and Vectors…
…Where You Are, and Where You’re Going
The new Travel logo is a lower case italic “t” whose tail swoops around a photographic globe. Within its form exist two important symbols for the traveler: a crossroads, and a vector. The crossroads is a symbol that represents a point of decision in any journey. Do you go left, right, straight ahead, or back the way you came. The vector represents your present position and the angle (direction) at which you’ll be leaving it. This creative approach seeks to bring these symbols to life in live action and graphic animation as illustrations of the invitation Travel extends to its viewers, “join us on the journey.”
While this creative approach does not restrict the use of animation or live action it does limit each to communicating some aspect of the story told by the new logo. Because their will likely be a tremendous range of techniques used to express the ideas surrounding cross-roads and vectors we recommend a further stylistic limitation, a predominantly warm yellow color palette. While arbitrary, consistent use of this limited color palette will help unite different interpretations of the brand concepts, and distinguish Travel from other networks competing for viewer’s attention.
Litmus Test- Crossroads and Vectors
Can “Crossroads and Vectors” be expressed equally well across various media, time, and production budgets?
Yes. Like our “windows” motif for Discovery HD Theater, the crossroads and vectors motifs can be reinterpreted in everything from image spots, episodics, IDs and graphic packaging on air. They seem particularly promising for use in interactive media like the web, and for mobile devices.
Does the formal approach for expressing the new Travel brand described in “Crossroads and Vectors” distinguish the brand from its competitors?
Not in and of it self, but with the addition of the arbitrary color-palette limitation it could. This color palette will have to be used consistently, narrowly, and with fierce discipline to be recognized as a brand signifier (think TLC and red, animal planet and green).
It is also possible to create an ownable color palette for the network that isn’t limited to a single color, but it would need to be dramatically different in terms of saturation, or color balance to function as a reminder that you’re watching Travel.
Does “Crossroads and Vectors” inspire creative approaches to a wide variety of brand expressions? Does the idea have “legs” that will allow Travel to create fresh and vibrant impressions of the “fellow traveler” in the minds of Travel Enthusiasts for years to come?
It does, but in a very different way than “So Real.” Instead of tight formal restrictions (live action/minimal graphics) you are limited conceptually to interpreting crossroads and vectors in every brand expression. The concept becomes the constant, and we strive every day to find fresh new ways of expressing it in live action, 2d animation, CGI, Music, Sound Design, etc. The challenge will be maintain strict conceptual discipline, as Travel brand expressions that do not express the core concepts, if allowed, will undermine the brand.