The Premier League returns with a new brand banking on entertainment
If you grew up in the 80s you’ll know that there was only one football club that mattered. Whatever part of the country you lived in, the only team worth supporting was Liverpool.
My brothers were never that bothered about football but I was. Despite my dad’s best efforts to convert me to Pompey I was a Liverpool fan and there was nothing he could do about it.
It wasn’t enough to have the kit though was it? I remember kids in the playground having their names on the backs of their shirts. In one genius instance the school bully even had his club name shaved into his hair. Nice.
Yes, the 80s really were awesome.
But whilst the Liverpool kit, sponsor and badge have changed countless times over the intervening years since my childhood, one thing that has really only crept forward since its birth in 1992 is the Premier League logo.
Until 2016, the Premier League looked as desperately 90s as Robbie Fowler's McDonald's haircut circa 1995. And like any terrible haircut, there was so much going on you just didn’t know where to look.
In this time, Premier League clubs have become mega-brands.
Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City have all recognised that what they do on the pitch is in reality only a tiny part of their success.
Who cares about bums on seats and trophies when you can sell 10 million shirts round the world and TV rights for sums worthy of a Bond villain?
Make no mistake this is entertainment first, sport second.
Selling is the new winning. And we all know the best way of selling stuff. Fables and storytelling if you work in fancy pants design and advertising. Pantomime and reality TV if you are a normal human being. Every team filled with heroes and villains, underdogs and wise sages. Characters you love to hate and hate to love.
Did you see the recent video unveiling of Paul Pogba for Man Utd? Dramatic pause and drum roll please….
The lights! The smoke! The cloaked figure! Stormzy music!
I’m sorry, is this footie or WrestleMania?
Cue the Premier League redesign.
The one-time ugly sister who sat awkwardly in the corner, while the clubs took all the glory, has now roared into centre stage. Yes the Premier League is fresh with new-found swagger.
The semiotics need no explanation. This is an identity that has more in common with Lucha Libre.
And given the shape of football these days it isn’t hard to see why the identity needed to be a bit more Hulk Hogan. You can’t dick about if you are trying to body slam wealthy emerging competition like the Chinese super league.
Although the previous identity had the prerequisite lion, it was utterly drowning in crest nonsense and totally dominated by the Barclays logo. The lion may as well have been a kitten playing with a ball of string.
No swagger.
The new identity has none of the badge aspect. Crests are done. Characters are in.
This rebrand from kitten to lion allows the Premier League to position itself slap bang in the middle of all the action, in the same way that the WWE is at the heart of every slogan and superstar.
No longer is it an unrelatable institution sponsored by an equally removed brand. It is now the image that connects each club, manager and player. 'We are the Premier League and we own the characters that entertain you.' The Premier League is now comparable to the NBA, The NFL and the newly refreshed Spanish La Liga.
Wrestling star Chris Jericho once said “If Shakespeare was alive today he would be writing wrestling shows”.
Well with the likes of Zlatan, Mourinho, and Diego Costa as the key characters in the Premier League show, the script has been rewritten.
Tash Walker is founder of The Mix London