MARKETING 201966 SPECIAL
Positively twisted:
the inside story of
the 10 rebrand
In October, free-to-air network 10 unveiled an all-new look in collaboration with
branding agency Principals. The agency and the network explain what went into the
rebrand. By Brooke Hemphill.I
n late 2017, CBS, the most watched free-to-air network
in the US, acquired Network Ten, signalling the start
of a new, stable era for the network. With this new
owner and a new lease of life, 10 was ready to change
things up. The most visible change would be a whole-
of-company rebrand, the fi rst in 27 years. For a task of
this nature, 10 needed help and branding design agency
Principals was called on to assist with the process.
Wayde Bull, founder and planning director at
Principals, says, “The opening conversation was around the
pace of change. How do you run a proper process to defi ne
the way forward, but get to it reasonably swiftly?”
While a rebrand was important to signpost this fresh
new era, it was also important that the heritage of the brand
remained. The view was that 10 needed to rediscover what
had made the brand great throughout its more than 50-year
history. “The whole branding exercise was one of going
back and fi nding out what made 10 successful in the past,”
explains Bull.
Network 10’s chief content offi cer Beverley McGarvey
says, “A lot had changed at 10 in the past year and we, as well
as our viewers and advertisers, were all ready for a fresh
approach. Twenty-seven years is a long time for one brand.”In order to do this, 10 also needed to fi nd its courage
once more. It didn’t want to be a ‘me too’ brand. McGarvey
says, “Our content is unique and we target a younger
audience than our competitors. To stand out, we knew we
had to be diff erent.”CONNECTING WITH HERITAGE
The project began with extensive research in conjunction
with Principals and the 10 insights team that included
viewer research, external industry interviews and a series
of workshops with 10 management. The research led to the
realisation that 10 had always done well when it off ered a
genuine alternative to the other broadcasters. “The network
had this tradition of being fun, irreverent and proudly
diff erent,” says Bull. “In recent years, it lost that courage
to be diff erent. Things got too diffi cult and perhaps there
wasn’t the permission to be as brave as they once were.”
Some of 10’s greatest hits over the years have broken
new ground such as Number 96, The Box, Puberty Blues,
Prisoner, E Street and The Secret Life of Us.
“We found a lot of success as the network for 16- to
39-year-olds a few years ago with programming perfectly
targeted to this demographic,” says McGarvey. “We neededmarketingmag.com.au