UKTV G2, possibly the daftest named channel on TV (is it actually a TV channel or is it a section of the Guardian?) is changing its name to Dave. I can only applaud this decision. Dave is a fine name and I’m sure the channel will live up to its tag line as “the home of witty banter”. But just changing your name to Dave can’t be done willy-nilly, so let’s have some marketing gobbledegook by way of justification.
The core aim of the name change is to create viewer affinity among a key target audience of ABC1 men aged 16-34 years. Based on the idea that ‘everyone knows a bloke called Dave’, research has shown the channel offers UKTV the opportunity to create a very strong brand personality.
Dave Channel Head, Steven North explains, “With a schedule for which most broadcasters would give their eye teeth, UKTV G2 is an incredibly successful channel with 10 million viewers in pay homes each month, but with relatively low brand awareness. Changing the channel name to Dave enables us to create a strong and noisy personality for the channel that immediately aligns us with our core 16-34 male audience.”
Thanks for that, Dave Channel Head. Is that really his name? Oh, I see now.
The Conversation {7 comments}
I’ll be happy if the two quarter-wit continuity announcers maintain their stranglehold on the channel with their ‘are-they-or-aren’t-they?’ banter.
As in ‘are-they-or-aren’t-they complete tosspots?’
Plues, what sort of tagline is ‘the home of witty banter’? And what sort of right-minded 16-35 yob called Dave is going to be impressed by that particular proposition?
Gah! Brandspeak gone mad.
“With a schedule most broadcasters would give their eye teeth”
It’s all repeats! Never have I been more pleased not to be a 16-34 male if that’s what they think I’d regard as must-watch telly.
(Not that I’ve ever really wanted to be a 16-34 male but you know what I mean)
Thank you, as usual, to my two regular readers.
ABC1? C1, maybe, but sorry, AB males are David, not Dave. The only posh Dave is Cameron, and I think everyone knows that was a feeble attempt to appeal to the oiks.
Better ABC1 names:
Simon
Miles
Charlie
Tom
Sanjay
There’s a complexity at the heart of the Dave/David interface. If someone I don’t know calls me Dave, I tend to bristle slightly. I prefer David in a professional capacity but most of my friends call me Dave and I’m entirely comfortable with it, even though it makes me sound like a van driver.
By the way I’m having trouble squaring these two statements:
“Dave – the home of witty banter” (still an utterly shit slogan)
with:
“Next – Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps”
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