It’s Not TV, It’s Something Else: How HBO’s Branding Changed the Game
To start this text in an intriguing and captivating way let us first reflect on the following question: “How many exciting moments in your life have you had after seeing the following signal?”:
Of course, this asking is purely manipulative — there is no such thing as an exact number. The point of the inquiry is to evoke this sense of familiarity that only great brands could pull out from the user’s emotions. However, just a small fraction of them have managed to cross the barrier that stands between the formal consumption and the true, intimate experience. Because to be accepted in people’s lives one must first understand Life itself. And Life, as in any given case in the universe, is mostly about evolving. Well, few brands understand the evolution process better than HBO.
In The Beginning was the Wire
HBO was born in the early 1970s out of Charles Dolan’s idea of a specific television channel filled with unusual entertainment. Originally named “The Green Channel” the cable service was primarily envisioned as a way to insert a pay television — something unprecedented for that era — into ordinary people’s homes and lives. In one of the first meetings set to establish the new media, a few working titles were tossed around and one of them has stuck to the project intending to be replaced with a better one: Home Box Office. Apparently, the second meeting of that kind has never taken place.
Starting its first years with a rather inappropriate logo, the HBO’s trademark symbol saw a drastic renovation in 1975 when Betty Brugger (the then art director of Time-Life) redesigned the logo by using a very simple and really bold word-mark with the now-iconic three letters. The touch of brilliance that she did was to put a plain circle inside the ‘O’ to make it look like the power button on a regular TV set or remote control. Concerning the slogans, the situation was pretty similar — derivative and bland phrases needed to be replaced with something fresher and more memorable. That happened in 1983 when a 60-second clip consisted of intertwined images of family comfort and popular hit movies were aired to present the new motto: “There’s No Place Like HBO”. Аlthough this campaign might look cheesy from nowadays point of view the mood and ambience that this message set was just about as accurate as ever. It showed that a brand is already fully aware of its audience’s perspective and the way they experience their product — in a place where they feel safe and with people who make them happy.
Yet, the first golden moment in HBO’s branding didn’t come sooner than 1993 when it debuted a 5-second clip which was as simple as it was ingenious. The bumper itself ironically represented an old school TV set switched on (and off at its end) with the logo taking shape out of the static noise. Alongside with the proper sound design (a low phasing note plus the vintage hiss), this separating signal symbolises the special nature of the brand’s programs and their distinction over regular ones. And yet, it would take years for these irregular programs to emerge and take their place in the public’s minds.
While its focus in the 1990s was mainly on the comedy genre, HBO’s programming wasn’t any worthy or consistent competition to the biggest TV shows of this period. Feeling the lack of a one-hour drama with a severe tone and different, provocative content the media decided to dive deep, and in 1997 it produced Tom Fontana’ script for a series set entirely in prison. The gritty and unsettling atmosphere of Oz proved to not be an issue for an audience already captivated by similar documentaries. Taking advantage of the censorship-free nature of the service, HBO unleashed with this show an unprecedented amount of R-rated content all at once. This manoeuvre wasn’t just for a cheap shock sake but to demonstrate the importance of artistic control and freedom of expression even in a strictly commercial field like cable TV.
The Media of Our Lives
Although Oz made some impact on viewers’ minds, the effect wasn’t at the level of what followed after its run. The subsequent success of shows like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire and Deadwood were all across the board. In essence, most of them attracted enormous ratings and subscriptions; some kept a cult status even when they weren’t on the air, and all of them are still amongst the most critically acclaimed TV series in the 21st century. Аll of this along with the long-lasting consistency of the original productions through the years led many people to talk about the New Golden Age of Television — a period defined by the mature and ambitious content of the programmes but also derived from the technological and structural advantages of modern media. Think about it — why would you want to wait a whole empty week for your favourite suspense drama when you have an entire channel filled with other entertaining stuff to watch? Or let’s put it even more boldly — why can’t you be your program manager/storyteller?
With its launch of the first months of the 2010s, HBO GO reached popularity as the VOD successor of its mother brand. Аlthough it is by no means the first platform of such kind since Netflix and Hulu got ahead of it within a couple of years, the service was later seen as a useful tool blurring the line between a brand and its consumer. While Netflix’ brand chronology followed a more practical model (a website initially created for DVD rentals or sales), the challenge in front of HBO GO was to keep their TV channel framework. The option here is not just to develop an appliance or a mechanism but to transfer the overall involvement with the original product onto other means. Probably only in this way the output would be allowed to live its own life and let the audience feel an almost organic attachment to it. It was thus leading us to the phenomenon called “transmedia”.
Transmedia is certainly not something new to the world of entertainment’s branding and marketing. The gigantic machinery called Hollywood is a well-known practitioner of this model when it comes to big-budget productions needing innovative advertising. If you’re wondering what transmedia is but you do remember Peter Weyland’s 2023 TED talk before Prometheus release — well, that counts as one. The three short films that revealed details out of Blade Runner’s universe, the fake Twitter profiles hosted by fictional characters, the comic books preceding every next one Star Wars or Marvel premiere — all examples of narratives coming out of their original medium’s frame and intent to expand, enrich or consolidate the story. Well, when it comes to voluminous storytelling, who has a bigger playground than your renowned home box office?
Welcome to Multiworld
The element of discovery — probably the single most important thing lacking in 21st-century fiction. When the long-anticipated sci-fi series Westworld debuted on HBO in October 2016, few could have guessed the scope which the media aura around the tv show would take up. The producers’ resourcefulness was expressed vividly in the shape of fully functioning platforms for transmitting information: a website presenting the park as a real destination with booking options; branded visuals that prompt you directly to sink your teeth into the thrill; even a 2-acre, an in-the-flesh town of Sweetwater built for SXSW 2018 edition and filled with real-live actors. Being aware that this fictional world needs to be felt by a participant and not just an observer, HBO effectively blurred the line between the consumed media and the simulated experience.
There are plenty of philosophical issues addressed by the plot requiring more time and space than the one-hour-per-week slot allows. That’s why the creators strive to insert all sorts of Easter eggs, clues and hints throughout the episodes. These “breadcrumbs”, in turn, lead to heated Reddit discussions that give birth to fan theories spreading around the entire Internet globe. Completely realising the viewers’ alertness and sense of detail the media relies on their commitment to solving the mysteries of the story. Since this is a narrative that one could explore more deeply, more extensively and as long as they want, Westworld is using parallel channels, not just to reach the audience but also to introduce characters’ backgrounds and to reveal important plot facts. Of everything above, this multilayered approach also serves as a perfect meta-commentary on audiences’ perception of reality and entertainment in the dawn of the 21st century. In essence, people need not only to look at things but also to experience them qualitatively and to the utmost. As the Man in Black put it nicely: “This whole world is a story. I need to find out how it ends.”
It’s What Connects Us
With the scheme applied to Westworld — a great puzzle that requires your help to be solved — or even the Game of Thrones’ model — an epic that unfolds before your eyes in sync with the books it is based on — HBO’s transmedia standard is an evidence for the power of modern communication structures. However, it also testifies for the development process of a brand and its adaptability to the ever-changing times. While managing to keep its trademark features (e.g. original adult-oriented content with high production values), HBO might not stand out as the pioneer in the era of streaming but certainly is still one of the most valuable players around. The challenging subjects, the complex characters, the candid dialogues — all these ingredients in which we recognise ourselves and want to experience more of them, in different forms and carriers. Thanks to this already established brand nature, we’d always know what to expect when a new HBO show is on the schedule and would need our time, attention and emotions. Because it is certainly not what TV used to be — it is something that sets a higher goal — connection.
