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HBO Max is no more, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s comprehensive marketing campaign for its new streamer is officially underway.
Last week, the company rebranded HBO Max simply as Max, combining its content with Discovery+’s and promising a host of tech upgrades, a new tagline and a refreshed brand coming May 23.
One of the changes stealing the most headlines is the platform’s color.
Gone is the signature purple associated with HBO Max, and in its place is a new blue. As the company explained to Adweek, the change is meant to signal its broader catalog and a better-functioning product.
Why so blue?
Warner Bros. Discovery global CMO of streaming Patrizio “Pato” Spagnoletto told Adweek that the company originally considered a few other colors—including staying with purple—but went with blue because it found the option was “the most liked color, universally.”
Max joins several other streaming services that use the color blue, which was a focal point of much of the online chatter, especially considering Warner Bros. Discovery executives touted differentiation as a key priority for the rebrand during the announcement last week.
“There’s different types of blue, and if you put us in juxtaposition to Disney or Paramount or Prime [Video], they look different,” Spagnoletto said. “With our blue and the way that the logo is designed, what we were going for is a combination of premium but accessible.”
Spagnoletto acknowledges time will tell if the streamer’s logo passes with flying colors.
“Consumers will tell us if we got it right, and we think we did,” Spagnoletto added. “But there’s enough room in the world of blue to still differentiate ourselves.”
Max aims to be an upgraded version of the prior HBO Max and Discovery+ platforms (though Discovery+ will also remain a standalone service) and will largely stay at the same price point as HBO Max, with tech that promises improved payment options, navigation menus, shortcuts and loading speeds.
“Our main job was to not just get the brand out but to get the positioning and the value propositioning out,” Spagnoletto said. “People may have opinions on the blue or Max or whatever, but that’s OK. It takes time to establish a brand, and off we go.”
