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MUMBAI:
US broadcaster Animal Planet is relaunching this week with
programming that features man’s best friend juxtaposed
with ferocious lions in their natural habitat.
The broadcaster says that the way the stories are told and
the lens through which viewers see these tales will change
dramatically. The network will launch eight new series and
specials this month.
The
aim is to reach a more adult audience with entertainment.
The focus will shift from pure observational documentary and
host-driven formats. The new Animal Planet will also be expressed
through new graphics, a new feel and new sounds that bring
out the raw, visceral emotion in the animal kingdom –
all leading viewers to see animals as characters not merely
creatures.
The
new programming on the channel will tap into the instincts
that drive us all – fear, hunger, pleasure, nurture –
with compelling stories that resonate with what it means to
be human. New content coming to the network includes new docu-soaps
(Escape To Chimp Eden, Lemur Kingdom); pet entertainment
(Petfinder, Groomer Has It, Clinically Wild);
and unscripted dramas (Whale Wars, After the Attack,
A Year With Lions), as well as the return of Puppy
Bowl, the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship and Mutual
of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
Animal
Planet Media president, GM Marjorie Kaplan says, “In
an increasingly technological, rational, pressured, thoughtful
and well-socialised environment, there is an enormous desire
for unmediated, intensely felt, visceral, in-the-moment experiences.
“And
animals, in real life and in great, archetypical stories,
are a shortcut to those instinctual feelings. In a world of
intellectual or clever television or lightweight entertainment,
Animal Planet is television that gets you where you live -
literally - in your gut.”
Animal
Planet Media senior VP Victoria Lowell says, “Consumers
will be surprised at the unexpected new face of entertainment
we’re bringing to them on-air and online. The new campaign
will change consumers’ perceptions of our brand. There
is so much goodwill to the brand, and now we’ve got to
translate that goodwill to increased viewership.”
Photographer
Jill Greenberg – who shot a series of primates for an
exhibition and recent book entitled Monkey Portraits
– photographed animals for the brand campaign for Animal
Planet.
The
broadcaster says that Greenberg has a signature style portraying
animals’ unique personalities and showcasing their uncanny
emotions, and Lowell notes, “Jill’s imagery captures
the new Animal Planet point of view of the animal kingdom.”
Mono,
based in Minneapolis, is the creative agency executing the
brand campaign. Dunning, Eley and Jones, based in London,
is the design agency behind the new logo and on-air look.
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