Viu presses play on sleek new branding and tagline piloting with SG

Viu has unveiled a new brand look and tagline “No one knows Asian entertainment like we do” to encapsulate and showcase the breadth of its library of content it carries. To make the brand modern, relatable and memorable to viewers, Viu went with a sleek look with an accent of yellow, which is also the company’s corporate colour. The new look and tagline is currently piloted in Singapore and will roll out regionally at a later date.

Viu Singapore, country head of brand, marketing and communications, Cheryl Lim, told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE during an interview that the majority of its consumers are between the ages of 18 to 35, and this particular look and feel suits their taste.

“Black plays a dominant role in ensuring the brand is sleek and cool. The yellow accent is present to ensure Viu branding is still strong,” explained Lim, who joined the brand in March this year from Manulife.

For example, the vertical yellow bar on its social media asset acts like an arrow, drawing viewers to the call-to-action at the bottom which is “Stream free on the Viu app”. “Many don’t know that Viu is free and this is a major part of our business model. Hence, we want to make the call-to-action very clear and this new look will be shown across all online and social media posts,” she said.

Meanwhile, its new tagline “No one knows Asian entertainment like we do” showcases Viu’s competitive advantage, Lim elaborated. Depending on the type of campaign, the tagline will be shown in ATLs – both online and offline – and some of the BTLs.

“The branding took three months but it is not the be-all and end-all. We need to ensure we are fluid and adapt as consumers’ tastes change and the competition heats up. The brand needs to always be on the pulse of things, which is what a brand should be - alive and humanised and permeating the work we do,” she explained.

The branding also goes beyond just a logo and a tagline and encompasses audio.

Alongside the new look and tagline is a new three-second audio stinger that seeks to reflect the brand’s Asian roots and the type of entertainment content it offers. Staying true to its core persona as an Asian company providing entertainment, the new audio stinger does not contain the “Western bravado and blockbuster feel”, Lim explained. At the same time, Viu also wanted to refrain from having the audio stinger become overly feminine. Hence, it decided to have a male voice for the voiceover. Bread Butter Bacon was responsible for the audio stinger as well as the accented yellow seen on social media assets.

“We wanted to balance the yin and yang by showing our Asian-ness in the audio stinger but also not have it overly female and skewed towards the cutesy direction or have too much Western macho bravado. We wanted to balance the yin and yang,” Lim explained. As of now, the audio stinger will be used in all its digital marketing assets and will be rolled out to its programmes at a later date. The reason being, Viu is piloting the audio stinger in Singapore to analyse the reactions of consumers, ensuring that it is relatable before rolling out regionally.

Amplification strategy 

Currently, the audio stinger will used across its radio promotions on Kiss 92FM and UFM100.3FM in Singapore. The radio activations aim to showcase the breadth of Viu’s genres and will be promoted across various peak time belts until mid-August, along with the new tagline. “Strategically, radio is a good to have to not only push the audio stinger but to also raise awareness on the pronunciation of the brand’s name,” Lim explained. Having Kiss 92FM on board was a given as its target demographics are mainly English speaking. However, Viu wanted to reach out to Chinese radio listeners via UFM100.3.

According to her, the Chinese audience is an important target demographic for Viu given the various programmes it has, from Chinese dramas and movies to Taiwanese variety shows. UFM100.3’s listeners are mainly in their late 30s to 50s and are crucial to Viu because many of them enjoy watching longform dramas, meaning dramas with about 100 episodes, Lim said. 

Aside from Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean dramas and movies, Viu also has a collection of other Asian movies ranging from Thai, Japanese and Malay. In Malaysia, the company launched an original series titled Black in 2019, adapted from the South Korean series of the same name. According to Lim, Viu is also making some of its Malaysia productions available to Singapore audiences, such as the drama series Kopitiam: Double Shot.

When asked if Viu will be promoting on Malay radio stations, Lim said Malay consumers are a new segment for the company and it is looking to target consumers aged 18 to 35 within that group. While Lim declined to reveal the specific platforms it will use to target younger Malay consumers, she said Facebook and Instagram will be among the activations but not radio as it is not among one of the popular platforms for the age group.

To showcase the breadth of Asian entertainment genres such as crime thriller suspense, anime and melodrama, Viu is also unveiling a series of three videos titled “Big Drama”. Done in public spaces, the videos were created to be eye-catching and head-turning across the genres of action, romance and anime. From 10 June to 31 August, the Big Drama ads will run as 30-second shorts across Facebook and Instagram.

Viu is also seizing the opportunity to promote its new fantasy romance original Doom at Your Service by creating two clips inspired by iconic moments from the series. In the first clip titled “Upside Down”, the male protagonist is seen looking up at the sky. Instead of the skyline in South Korea, the scene cuts to Singapore’s landmarks and attractions.

The second clip titled “What’s Behind the Door” puts a local spin on the iconic door-opening from the show’s first episode. Both ads will run as 15-second and 30-second shorts across Facebook, Instagram and selected display screens at HDB lift landings. The five videos were done in collaboration with Tribal Worldwide. Meanwhile, AKA Asia is responsible for handling Viu’s PR duties.

“We want to be relevant to Singaporeans by localising without being too overly hyperlocalised. We are positioning ourselves as a brand with a premium and classy look and feel that is targeting the heartlands,” Lim said. She explained that Viu’s consumers are used to the level of sophistication in terms of the execution style and the look and feel when watching Korean dramas on its platform, for example. Hence, it wanted to ensure that while its marketing assets are localised for Singaporeans, they are not “too jarring and disconnected” from the level of sophistication that Viu is portraying with its content on the platform.

Topping off the digital campaign is an OOH activation titled “Reunite the stars” will also run on single-deck buses to showcase its range of content. From Chinese drama The Long Ballad and melodrama Penthouse III, to the variety show Men on a Mission, each bus will feature one-half of each title’s couple or cast. Consumers will need to “reunite the stars” via a social media contest by capturing the picture-perfect moment with both halves of the couple or cast in the same frame, as two buses line up on the same or opposite sides of the road. The contest runs from 25 June to 25 July and Viu is handing out a Samsung smart TV and GrabFood vouchers to lucky winners.

According to Lim, the whole campaign from branding to ATL activations cost approximately SG$400,000. The ATL launch on digital and OOH was only done after Viu had its “house in order”. When converting the brand assets, the team began by looking at touchpoints such as eCommerce partners. After assessing all the touchpoints, it then centralised the assets needed to be amended.

“We made sure our ATL launch was after we had our house in order. We didn’t want consumers to have a journey where they would see the new branding on certain platforms and the old look and feel on others. We wanted to ensure that the customer journey is seamless and the branding is consistent throughout. Hence, we are only launching our ATL campaign now,” she explained.

Aside from ATL, it is also relying on its social media following to raise awareness of the new branding, especially its Facebook fanbase of nearly 300,000 followers. Given that Viu’s business model comprises both advertising video on demand and subscription video on demand, Lim said the team is targeting at least 20% uplift in video views and a 10% uplift in premium subscribers to satisfy both aspects.

“We also want to ensure people feel connected and are familiar with the Viu brand, including how to accurately pronounce it. We also want to showcase the breadth of what we have, that it’s not just Korean dramas but also Chinese, Thai, Japanese and other Asian films,” she added.