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For the first time in 14 years, Nickelodeon has a new look.
The network will spend the rest of 2023 rolling out a new brand identity and refreshed on-air look that’s designed to invoke nostalgia and return to its history.
“It was time for us to really look at the brand, and look at our audience, and talk with our audience and revisit all the pieces of Nickelodeon,” Sabrina Caluori, evp of global kids and family marketing at Nickelodeon and Paramount, told Adweek.
The “Portal to Fun” campaign launched today with the first of five spots. “Quartet” shows a bored kid at a family dinner, who then notices the orange splat above them on the ceiling. After sticking their head through the splat, the kid finds a barbershop quartet performing.
Nick found after internal research that the “core DNA” of the brand still resonated with kids today, according to Caluori.
“We take that to the best and the mess of being a kid,” said Caluori. “We did learn that, what’s fundamentally different now than when the brand was initially taking shape, is kids’ relationship to their parents and parents’ relationship to their kids.”
Research found that kids and their parents are looking for more ways to connect, and Nickelodeon saw an opportunity.
“That was an exciting unlock for us because it meant while we can continue to be the best and the mess of being a kid, we can use that to actually bring kids and families closer together, which they are longing for in this time,” said Caluori.
The marketing executive has been with Nickelodeon for less than two years and, as a self-described Nick kid, can personally relate to the familial relationships the new campaign brings.
“It’s the first brand I ever had any passion for as a kid, and now I’m a mom of three kids who are in the demo,” said Caluori. “It’s been really exciting for me to be able to look at the brand and look at everything that we’re doing through the eyes of my kids while also ensuring that everything that we’re doing still spoke to the Nick kid inside me.”
In the splat zone
To create the new identity, Nickelodeon partnered with six U.S. and international agencies. The company asked the agencies to come back with a spot that used the new brand work and represents Nick’s energy and identity through the lens of its most notable IP—SpongeBob, Paw Patrol, Blue’s Clues, Baby Shark, Loud House and Monster High—making sure there is a moment of the iconic Nickelodeon slime.
