The broadcaster's head of marketing, Tom Lucas, is acutely aware of the expectation and says that coming up with the brand names was a difficult process.
'There are few things as stressful as choosing a name - I think divorce, moving house, bereavement and marriage are all up there with it,' he says. 'People expect something different from us as we rebrand our channels and we went with things that felt right,' he says.
The 34-year-old couldn't have joined UKTV at a more remarkable time, as the joint venture between BBC and Virgin Media TV is embarking on a huge rebrand.
UKTV has been dropped entirely from the branding of the company's six factual and lifestyle channels, with UKTV Drama renamed as Alibi, UKTV Gold becoming GOLD, and UKTV Gold+1 rebranded as Watch. The latter is intended to act as a catch-up service for modern classics such as Torchwood and Larkrise to Candleford, and will also have a show fronted by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. Alibi, meanwhile, will focus on crime shows, with GOLD dedicated to comedy, including some new commissions.
Having been heavily involved in the rebranding of ITV2, Lucas has experience of channel branding but says that he is enjoying his role at a smaller operation. 'UKTV is a more collegiate and collaborative environment than ITV, so my remit has been much broader, including every aspect of branding,' he says. 'ITV is such a corporate monolith that effecting change is hard work; here things move much more quickly.'
UKTV's ambitious changes are the result of an intensive audience research process as well as in response to the highly fragmented media landscape, which has been significantly tested by the developments of BBC's iPlayer and other on-demand and catch-up services.
'We compete in an attention economy and need to bring personality, originality and richness to our brands to earn a place on people's viewing roster,' he says. 'At UKTV we have a sense that we need quality and unique channel brands. If you look at evolving brands such as eBay, Google or Amazon, they have a quirkiness that most TV brands don't. We've been galvanised by the success of Dave and realise we have a strong role to play realising an attitude and a personality.'
The first new channels will launch in October before the focus moves to its factual channels - Documentary, History and People - in the first quarter of 2009, and its lifestyle brands - Style, Food and Gardens - later next year.
As a marketer, Lucas is confident that his team can persuade the public that what they are doing is worth watching and he plans to boost investment in marketing, which will promote the effectiveness of individual brands over networked channels.
'Working here is a great opportunity and it is a job I feel is at least three years in duration,' he says. 'I know from having rebranded the digital channels at ITV that the work doesn't stop when the new look and feel kicks in. When we relaunched ITV2 in January 2006, it took a year for people to get behind the idea and for it to start living in every area that the brand found itself. We don't have the luxury of that time here, though, and we're doing a lot of work behind the scenes so that everyone is in harmony.'
Lucas has been impressed with the efforts the BBC has made to relaunch BBC Three as a youth-focused channel and his favourite programmes include Blackadder, Whose Line is it Anyway?, Nip/Tuck, Dexter and The Apprentice though he admits that he 'gave up' on Lost.
The coming months are likely to be a whirlwind of activity for UKTV, but Lucas is confident that his brands will stand out from the crowd.
Career history:
- 1996-1998 Graduate trainee, JWT
- 1998-1999 Account manager,Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
- 1999-2001 Account director, St Luke's
- 2001-2003 Group account director, Lowe, Sydney
- 2004-2005 Copywriter, McCann Erickson
- 2005-2007 Controller of channel marketing and interactive, ITV
- 2008-present Director of marketing and communications, UKTV