IFC is changing ... sort of.
"It's a refresh," says Kevin Vitale, marketing vp of creative and brand strategy. "It's more of a face-lift."
As part of that face-lift, the cable channel is changing its logo (its new image is "a stamp") and, as of last year, Independent Film Channel is no more—just three letters "that don't stand for anything but mean so much," Vitale jokes.
Still, film is a major part of the company's DNA, and so it's also making channel-approporiate trailers for quite a few of its most popular offerings.
Among the gags: an Alien/Aliens marathon for Mother's Day; jokey content warnings that let the viewer know what he or she is in for (which is good, because IFC shows its movies uncut); and plenty of other fine-print jokes.
Vitale calls the large-font text "the hero" and the little joke above it "the sidekick," and there are plenty of both throughout the campaign. If it seems overthought, please note that it's pretty funny.
It's important for IFC to have clear and clean brand imagery on its originals—and you'll see funny posters of Marc Maron (from Maron) and Reggie Watts and Scott Aukerman (from Comedy Bang! Bang!) over the course of the year—but comedy and movie networks alike must get used to sharing material and talent. Thus, little designations like "staff favorite" and "rewatch" make broadcasts of films like The Big Lebowski and Napoleon Dynamite something a little more than repeats.
