As HBO Max morphs into Max subsequent month, the onus is now on the advertising and marketing groups inside Warner Bros. Discovery to get the phrase out. Whereas discuss of a mixed HBO Max and Discovery+ streamer has swirled round Hollywood for months (together with the now-correct assumption that it will be named Max), consciousness of the change is simply now hitting shoppers.

That’s the place Pato Spagnoletto, international chief advertising and marketing officer of direct-to-consumer at Warner Bros. Discovery, and his staff will are available in. They’ve a month — the brand new service launches Might 23 — to coach audiences on why the streamer is dropping “HBO” from its identify, and what it can now offer — together with the promise of extra customized suggestions, higher positioning of youngsters’ content material and several other splashy titles, together with a Max authentic devoting every season to adapting one e-book in J.Okay. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” sequence.

However on the similar time, they nonetheless hope to emphasise the must-see HBO product that initially drove the service. Therefore a brand new emblem (which features a “bullet” contained in the “a” in “Max” that could be a callback to the bullet contained in the “o” in “HBO”) and tagline. Selection spoke Spagnoletto about all issues Max because the streamer kicks off its relaunch marketing campaign.

How are you advertising and marketing Max, given the brand new identify is a phrase that’s fairly unattainable to “personal” because it’s a generally used phrase?

We knew going into it that ‘Max’ could possibly be very generic, however we did a few issues: One, clearly, we did plenty of analysis to see how and the place the identify was getting used inside and outdoors of our class. After which two, did we really feel that we might actually personal it and make it our personal? The reply was sure, as a result of there actually isn’t anybody that has a full grasp on it. Quite a lot of corporations use it as a qualifier or as an appendix. However once we regarded on the fairness of Max within the context of HBO Max, by means of the visible designs and, most significantly, how we need to put money into the model, we expect now we have the whole lot that it takes from a advertising and marketing perspective to create a full, ownable model. The identify, the visible design, the positioning, all of these issues is what makes it ownable.

How did the Max tagline, “The One to Watch,” come about?

We have been utilizing it a lot internally that at one level we have been like, this might truly be the road for us. It really works on a number of dimensions. It really works at an emotional stage — ‘The One to Watch’ while you’re feeling X, as you seen within the marketing campaign. ‘The One to Watch’ for a selected title. It has confidence, nevertheless it is also a bit of little bit of the underdog like, ‘they’re the one to look at.’ We like having the steadiness of confidence, but in addition there’s no vanity in it in any respect. We need to stick with it for a very long time. This isn’t a launch tagline, that is our model tagline. If you concentrate on different superb manufacturers in and outdoors of our class, nice taglines will stick with the model for years. That’s our aspiration.

Is that this greedy, or is that slogan a nod to the idiosyncratic episode naming for “Associates,” which at all times started the titles with “The One…”?

I want I might let you know that we have been that superior, nevertheless it’s not linked, no. However you see the way it works! Individuals could make their very own connections, which is nice.

In selecting to drop HBO from the identify, how a lot of that call was affected by a renewed concentrate on youngsters & household content material, which didn’t ever actually take off on HBO Max?

A giant choice to maneuver to ‘Max’ was to sign change. The change is that this can be a service for all the household. As JB Perrette [president and CEO of global streaming and games] talked about on stage, HBO just isn’t conducive to household viewing. However with Max and, extra importantly with the content material that we’ll have in it, we really feel very comfy that we will ship on household viewing, together with for youths. Now we have a number of the finest properties, from Looney Tunes to “Chopped Junior” and the whole lot in between. It’s a crucial a part of the combination for us and we all know that for households which have youngsters, one of many standards in selecting and conserving a service is, does it have content material for all the household? That was one of many main causes that we moved to ‘Max,’ to be extra broad. After which particularly, as you noticed on the marketing campaign, we’ll go deeper into ensuring that households have full consciousness in selecting the service.

How will you steadiness advertising and marketing new youngsters and household Max authentic titles and reminding customers about big kids’s libraries accessible, like Hanna-Barbera?

Now we have to take it in chew sizes. From a advertising and marketing marketing campaign and branding perspective, our job is to make it possible for shoppers know that now we have a youngsters providing and a household providing. We’ll use sure titles, a few of them could also be new, a few of them could also be from the library, however simply to point out the breadth of it. The second chew occurs within the product. And one of many explanation why we took the time to rebuild the platform is to enhance our advice and personalization engines, in order that in that library and that breadth of content material that now we have, even inside youngsters and household, the product actually wants to have the ability to floor the suitable titles to the suitable audiences. That’s the one-two punch that we we lean on: one, consciousness, after which, two, supply of precise titles throughout the product itself.

With “The One to Watch” because the slogan for Max, what does that imply for Discovery+ and the way you’ll proceed to market each merchandise to shoppers?

“The One to Watch” is known as a nod to the one service to look at as a result of it has all of the content material for all of your moods and for each member of the household. Max delivers on that promise higher than HBO Max might immediately or Discovery+ might immediately. In order that tagline and the entire positioning is admittedly to help the brand new service. As we’ve stated, there will probably be tremendous followers of Discovery and the content material on Discovery+ who could select to remain there and we’re greater than OK with it. We’ll help that as a result of as a service, as a worthwhile service, shoppers are completely happy on it. So we’ll give them loads of alternative to pattern Max, however it can at all times be a two-way door. In the event that they’re not taken with staying there completely, that’s OK and so they can come again to Discovery+.

In the beginning of the presentation, CNN and sports activities content material was featured in a sizzle reel for Max, with no bulletins concerning its inclusion on Max . However CEO David Zaslav did say extra will probably be approaching stay sports activities and information programming on Max within the subsequent few months. How are you these choices in your advertising and marketing plans?

It’s what David stated. We all know now we have nice property on each information and sports activities and within the coming months, we as an organization will determine the suitable technique to have these be a part of the service, however nothing to report on now.

How will the brand new personalization function work on prospects — as in, will my homepage concentrate on what particularly I’d care about, whereas additionally exhibiting me new Discovery and HBO content material that everybody may care about, like Shark Week and “Succession”?

An important factor that we will do to drive engagement. One of the best antidote to churn is content material discovery. The personalization engine will take a look at your habits and plenty of issues on the again finish to serve you what’s private to you. However we all know that from a advertising and marketing and merchandising perspective, now we have to make it possible for we expose you to new classes and new titles. So to your examples of Shark Week or “Succession” or no matter it is perhaps, now we have the flexibility to place our thumb on the dimensions a bit of bit, if you’ll, and run our personal inner owned-and-operated stock to show you to new titles. In the present day, when you’re watching any of the HBO Max reveals, you’ll see that earlier than any of the main reveals, now we have a 30-second trailer. Typically we’ll use it for the model, generally we’ll use it for particular titles. That, plus merchandising within the platform, are all contact factors that say, ‘hey, we all know you’re keen on this, right here’s one thing that you just is perhaps taken with as a result of it’s model new.’ And by the way in which, the model new half, it takes a minute for the algorithms to seize that and put it inside, similar factor for search engine marketing facet of of the service. So it’s a quite common follow the place you have got human curation to kickstart discovery.

Two massive bulletins out of the Max streaming presentation have been the brand new “Sport of Thrones” and “Harry Potter” sequence. For “Harry Potter,” the brand, imagery and music used to announce it on display screen have been these belonging to the unique movie franchise. Does this imply Max is conserving these parts in advertising and marketing this new present?

We’re so excited to have that franchise come again. It’s actually entertained so many people within the final 20 years. It’s so early on, actually, that I don’t need to mislead you by hook or by crook. We’re simply beginning on the journey of what the content material will appear to be, how it will likely be produced and shot. And clearly the advertising and marketing level is meant to mirror the precise content material. So what we confirmed on the display screen was simply an illustration of the historical past and the richness of that, and isn’t essentially an illustration of what we plan to market and the way we plan to market the brand new content material.

What number of names for the brand new service did the staff undergo earlier than touchdown on Max?

Rather a lot, is the brief reply. We labored with an company known as DixonBaxi who has executed superb work for us and different corporations up to now. We actually sweat the small print on the shapes of the letters, the bullseye inside the A — all of these issues have been very, very deliberate. I’ve to offer an enormous kudos to the staff that labored on that as a result of I feel the tip product actually displays what we needed to. It’s a bit of little bit of a nod to the previous, particularly with HBO, but in addition signaling clear change by means of each the design, the brand, the colour templates and the whole lot else. Nevertheless it was enjoyable and I’m pleased with the place we ended up.

See under for examples of TV spots and advertisements Warner Bros. Discovery is utilizing within the lead as much as Max’s launch.

This interview has been edited and condensed.