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Eurosport Rebrand

Eurosport's bold rebrand: The path 'from a trusted brand, to a loved brand'

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

November 12, 2015 | 4 min read

Eurosport has embarked upon the boldest alteration to its brand identity in its 26 year history with the intent of upping the ante as new owner Discovery looks to push it as the primary storytelling brand in sport.

Following the company’s historic €1.3bn seizure of the European Olympic Games coverage from 2018 to 2024 betraying Discovery’s lofty ambition for Eurosport, on Friday (13 November), an all-encompassing new Eurosport brand identity will be launched.

Antonio Ruiz, the new vice president of marketing and franchise management for Eurosport, told The Drum that the changes will bring the brand “to a different level". He claimed that the redesign will bring the brand up to par with new owners, Discovery Communications (Discovery Channel, TLC and more), which he dubbed the “number one storytelling brand in the world”.

Looking to “bring Eurosport into the 21st century,” Ruiz wants to evolve the "trusted brand, to a loved brand” by invoking the passion of viewers. He said: “We wanted to take advantage of our heritage and build an emotional connection with the fans, fuelled by their passion.

“For 25 years, we have been very rational in our approach in its comms and presentation, and now we want to move into a more emotional connection by putting fans first.”

Since its inception, the Eurosport logo has been through remarkably few changes as shown below.

The recent iteration (below) proves to be the bravest departure from the original aesthetic.

On the new logo, Ruiz said: “We wanted to keep the heritage of Eurosport, it is a very strong brand so we thought it was good to keep one of the stars in the new logo – modern and stylish but keeping the essence of the original, transmitting the heritage. It is more modern and more clearly represents the brand’s new ambition.”

Accompanying the iconography is a bold manta: “You can only understand my madness, if you share my passion.”

Explaining the mission statement, Ruiz, himself a diehard Real Madrid fan, explained that sport is more than entertainment. He said true fans have an emotional link to their favourite teams, stars and athletes and Eurosport wants to embark on this journey with the viewer.

#ShareMyPassion will be the medium through which fans are encouraged to discuss their top moments on social media. They have event went as far to anchor the hashtag on the channel's promotional material as shown below.

To meet its ambitions, Eurosport needs to acquire more sports events. Ruiz stressed however that “it is not just about the quantity [of live sports]” that will define its growth, but the quality of its offering.

To meet this demand, a multipronged approach has been adopted to acquire rights; regional, multimarket, and local.

Looking to bolster the appeal of Eurosport in all of its markets of operation, Ruiz said: “Each of the channels must have a local flavour, to do that we’re picking up the best commentators and specialists on a local level.”

This tactic will appeal to viewers’ national pride, Ruiz stated, building upon the large, if fragmented audiences across Europe and beyond.

Ruiz suggested that the new brand will be more attractive to potential advertisers – and the sports federations who meticulously dole out their rights.

He emphasised however that it is important to grow the audience (from 243m cumulative subscribers across 99 countries) and strengthen their bond and loyalty to the brand: “The fans comes first, we look to make an impact. The brand will be more appealing than before and our identity will be stronger. We’ll have more events, larger audiences and an improved production.”

In the UK, the rebrand will see British Eurosport rebrands as Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2. Keep an eye out for that change on Friday... watch this space, there's another player on the scene.

Eurosport Rebrand

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