RTL Unifies Its Entire Brand Architecture
Effective immediately, RTL is rolling out its entertainment offerings under a unified brand, across all platforms and in a contemporary new design. RTL.com will serve as the new gateway to RTL’s entertainment world, bundling programming, news and company news. TV Now will be renamed RTL+ in November, and Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland will operate as RTL Deutschland from now on.
The name “RTL” is to become the leading entertainment brand in the German-speaking media landscape, a brand that “stands for positive entertainment and independent journalism.” According to a press release from the Cologne-based media company, RTL is unifying its entire brand architecture to this end and will operate under the name RTL Deutschland with immediate effect. In this connection, the streaming service TV Now will also be renamed RTL+ in November. The new digital hub rtl.com now forms the gateway to the digital offerings and bundles programming, news and company news. At the same time, RTL presents itself in a contemporary new design: The variety of colors in its new, customizable multi-colored logo is unique in the European media landscape. RTL’s social media accounts, which currently count more than 37 million fans and followers, will also feature the same new design. To celebrate its completely redesigned brand identity, RTL has launched a major marketing campaign: #united.
‘This turns RTL into the leading entertainment brand’
“RTL is growing, our programming is changing, and we offer entertainment on all channels,” says Stephan Schäfer, co-CEO of RTL Deutschland. “Now, we want to make it even easier for our audience to find their way around. Clear and decisive brand management is the key to achieving this. Everything made by RTL, will now be branded as such. At the same time, we are modernizing our appearance. The new design is contemporary and optimistic. It is an ideal match for our offerings: We want to inspire and inform people with good entertainment and independent journalism. This turns RTL into [Germany’s] leading entertainment brand. And alongside this, we are further expanding our popular Vox, NTV and Nitro brands.”
In detail, the changes at RTL include that, as part of the new branding, the market-leading commercial TV channel RTL Television and the pay TV channels RTL Crime, RTL Passion, and RTL Living will all be on air in the new design from now on. Meanwhile, RTL Plus will be renamed RTL Up and has also been re-branded in the new design. All channels in the RTL cosmos will have the multi-colored logo as their key visual; it will match the color of the content being shown at a given time, thus reflecting the diversity of the content, stories and people at RTL. The next step will be to give RTL’s radio stations a new brand identity as well.
Digital hub as gateway to RTL’s entertainment world
Another key element of the cross-platform simplification of the brand architecture is the new digital hub. The company is bundling all of its offerings under one domain, at rtl.com. The hub will serve as the gateway to RTL’s entertainment world, offering users the entire variety of its entertainment and news services, the biggest events, the complete streaming offering, and all company news right on the start page. One important component of the digital hub is the digital news and general-interest site rtl.de, which can now also be found in the new RTL design and has been renamed RTL News (rtl.com/news). Another focus of the hub is the content of Germany’s leading streaming service TV Now, with more than two million subscribers, which will be renamed RTL+ on November 3 and successively expanded to include new content and features. In addition, RTL Group and RTL Deutschland will merge their corporate sites. The new digital hub is now available to all users at www.rtl.com.
Meanwhile, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland has renamed itself RTL Deutschland. The new logo’s colors can also be customized at a corporate level to highlight various partnerships and themes in different contexts. Employees will be able to create their own personal RTL logo in their favorite colors as well. RTL Deutschland’s family of channels includes popular brands such as Vox, NTV and Nitro, which will continue to operate as independent brands. The new RTL brand identity is accompanied by a sweeping communications campaign that uses vibrant and colorful motifs to present the new design and focuses on a variety of content areas– from entertainment to diversity and journalism. The campaign will run until next year and have a gross volume in the eight-digit euro range across all channels and platforms.
