For years, Machinima has been fighting to establish itself as a leading online network, even with growing competition from the likes of original programmers that work along the lines of YouTube and Vimeo. This week, it pushed itself even further with a rebranding, in an effort to reaffirm itself in the growing video industry.
With this new plan, not only will bigger promotions be put in place to advertise its programming, but a door could open for potential marketers, giving them the ability to set up TV-style ads rather than utilizing a strict format.
“What we’re doing here with this rebrand is providing a really rich, consistent environment that reflects our vision as purveyors of fandom and gamer culture,” explained CEO Chad Gutstein, speaking with Adweek. “It’s one of the things that TV has done phenomenally, and we’re bringing that discipline to social videos.”
Machinima’s game plan works differently than other companies, according to chief content officer Daniel Tibbets. Rather than focus on a multi-channel network format that offers up individual talents for creators of brands to create a strategy around, the plan will work similar to a television format, with a focus on the slate of programming. This enables advertisers to choose from several topics and focus on shows instead.
The company, which has been in operation for nearly 15 years and has three billion monthly views, continues to thrive, even though growing competition from others have forced the company to rethink a few strategies – and accept side investment from Warner Bros., who bought a stake in Machinima earlier this year.
With the new images and slogan, dubbed “Heroes Rise”, Machinima hopes the outreach will work greatly in the company’s favor. “Aligning a slate of programming in a way that’s similar to how advertisers already think about advertising is a reasonable strategy—it’s an easier buy and when there is so much confusion in the market, what one already knows, what’s easy, often wins,” said Jesse Redniss, a former executive for USA Network and co-founder of digital technology advisors BRaVe Ventures.
In addition, Machinima has also introduced a new Level Up Talent program, dividing a creator pool into three different levels – basic White and invite-only Red and Black – which will help them focus more on particular programming. The program is sure to pay off for true devotees to the company, such as SkyDoesMinecraft, who already has 10.6 million subscribers and climbing.
“I do think that this approach will help move the needle with brands, but I’m not sure how this approach will help them regain audience,” Redniss said.
We’ll see if the heroes can indeed rise over the next year.
