Hi, I'm Kate Dauff, and I am the Head of Oral Doctor of Chromax, and this is the Daily Grief Podcast. Today I have the distinct pleasure of having with me Michael Famicine. He is co-founder and she is a creative officer at Creative Agency to the Zero, and Pentel Hair. He is president and CEO at Black News Channel, which is most commonly referred to as BMCs.
So hi guys, how are you? Hey Kate, how are you? Good. Thank you.
Good. I'm good. All right, so to kick it off, Pentel, just sort of tell me what led you and BMC to Michael and did the Zero? Well, you know, we spoke to a lot of different design firms when we were looking to do our BMC brand, but you know, we kept coming back to the Zero.
It really started with our contracting with Smith Geiger to do a fall research project for us. You know, when I joined BMC back in July of 2020, I really wanted to get a handle on what the Black audience was looking for in a news product. So I hired Smith Geiger to do both a quantitative and qualitative study with the Black audiences to really find out, you know, what motivates them to watch news. They were looking for truth, you know, they were looking for factual storytelling.
They wanted multiple viewpoints, and they wanted to, they didn't want to be told what to think they wanted to be able to make up their minds as what to do. So you take all of that data and, you know, you try and figure out, okay, well, what does that look like from a, just from a brand standpoint? And with Vivid Zero, this firm was the only firm that we were talking to at the time that really embraced and believed in kind of a data-based approach and a data-driven approach to design. And that was a fairly new and innovative approach that I had never used before.
And I've always been a data geek as a news executive. And I really gravitated to that approach. It's led to what I think is just an incredible creative and innovative design for a news network. So let me dig into that just a little bit, which is, you know, when you were doing the research around what Black audiences wanted, and I sort of summed this up by saying truth, accuracy, clarity, which seems like kind of things that news viewers in general wanted.
When you were thinking about that, how did you think about tailoring the brand to accommodate those Black audiences, but while also still being specific to them? When we launched this approach, we wanted to partner with a design firm where research was of course ranked, and that was the Zero. It's an innovative approach, and it's a one-stop-shop-it, as I mentioned before, this idea of galvanizing around truth and factual storytelling and accuracy as a journalist, you know, coming up in J School, you know, you would have said, hey, yeah, you know, everyone's truthful and fair and accurate. And, you know, we now live in a society where cable news tends to be very far left or far right and very driven, not necessarily by facts and accuracy, but really driven by partisanship.
So what we have really created and what we've looked to create is a brand that speaks to the truth. On our best day, what we do is we offer as many points of view as we can on a particular issue, and we allow the audience, you know, to make up their minds. They're smart enough. They're read enough to understand some pretty complex issues, and we don't try to lean left or lean right.
We really try to lean Black. We focus on those issues that really impact the Black community, and we've gone through a lot of them over the course of the last couple of years when you talk about George Floyd and kind of the social redemption that's going on. You talk about COVID-19 and the disproportionate impact that it's had on the Black community. When you talk about the economy and where it's gone over the course of the last couple of years and the impact that it's had on the Black community, these are issues and stories that disproportionately impact the Black community.
You know, we try to align ourselves with a design firm and a brand that really kind of spoke to that. Michael, one of you and I have talked about this a lot, how one of VividZero's unique selling points is the way it connects creative to data, and that's something obviously from South to South. You know, it's just mentioned, and then you guys are how it's sort of within or alongside Smith Geiger. But how would you say to the degree that you can speak to this specificity, how would you say that VividZero used data to optimize this project for BMC?
Well, like you said, I mean, I'm VividZero is part of the Smith Geiger group. We really look at this data-driven creative model to really kind of heighten the creative. We began right at the very start. You know, we're in it in the focus groups.
We're in it, you know, at the onset of the research that Smith Geiger was doing. We're not just getting a 60-page PowerPoint back at the end of it. We're really in it. You know, we're hearing, you know, Prince El, you know, Prince El was crucial to this because he was in the data meetings.
He was in the beginning of the creative meetings, and it had so much facetime with him was fantastic and his team. And really what it was was a lot of time, a lot of time talking to his group, a lot of time talking to the respondents, talking with the analyst, you know, at Smith Geiger and Seth Geiger himself, really kind of shaping and shifting what it is we were looking for. So asking that big question and then having the creative be invested in that actual answer to those questions was crucial for us. We really listened for probably the first month and a half as we were starting to sketch and figure out where we might go, you know, really kind of being a little bit open to where this conversation was going to, to how the focus groups started to kind of move forward, how the questions and responses started to come in, how the data started to kind of line up.
And what we really like said, you know, we kind of look at the data in every step of the way as we start to develop and design. Usually you would do the data first and then jump into creative, but our timeline was a little bit compacted. So data started and then we started right away kind of designing and listening at the same time to really kind of helped get with it. And I think there was a nice choreography of listening to, you know, the respondents and all these focus groups, you know, having the ability to actually like chime in towards the end of these focus groups with a couple of other questions like, Hey, let's, let's ask one or let's ask that one, because the more we listened, you know, to Prince L and his team, the more informed we got, but the more we listened to all of the people that we were talking to.
And the great thing was with our group of respondents, we had them for a long amount of time. And we were really able to kind of have this, this large sounding board to really make sure we were going to design something in a brand that resonated with the people we were looking for, making sure that we were building this for the audience that we were looking for. You know, and I think at the end, it really kind of did connect and it felt authentic because of that process and the way we listened. So when you do other focus groups and you listen and you discuss what is sort of the first step on the process to building a brand, like once you've gathered this information, where do you start with building the creative?
Normally, we kind of jump into, you know, a mood board or a white board session. And I remember, you know, because we spent a lot of time with Prince L and this group, I'm like, Hey, we're going to go into a white board session. I think Prince L, you're like, no, has to be a blackboard session. I love that because it was like, you know, yeah, we're in it.
Let's do this. And we put together, I mean, probably hundreds of pages of images and Prince L and his team had a lot of brands that they were pulling up, a lot of inspiration from pop culture and history, speakers and architecture, everything kind of around the map. And we started to add a lot of color and brands and logos and identities and different things to it. And we would have conversations.
We would weigh those conversations with our team and the B and C team with everything that we've been learning about the data, you know, is that data? What the audience that we're looking for going to respond to this stuff, are we just doing all this in a vacuum? And really what happened with our creative processes, we really are kind of like looking at what the B and C team is responding to, what the data and the analytics, you know, and the respondents in that focus group are going to react to. And it kind of gives us that this kind of process of elimination.
So we're able to really kind of focus our creative efforts. And let's not go that way. Let's not go here. But I think this zone is going to feel good.
Prince L reacted really good to these couple pages, the team kind of love this stuff. We know the response is to really kind of focus on this. And then we start to sketch. You know, we start with the logo.
The logo for us is that brown, that brand foundation that we're really looking to kind of build upon. It's the brand visual brand identity. And at the same time we're diving into the logo, we're also diving into the brand manifesto, the guardrails, the strategic thinking about where this brand will go. So it's a lot of preparation just to get to that level before we start to design logos and before we start to write the brand manifesto or the brand, you know, guardrails, if you will.
And then that process starts with a lot of back and forth, you know, lots of meetings. You know, I mean, we were with Prince Ellen's team for weekly meetings, you know, and those meetings will go an hour and a half, two plus hours at times. And to have that much connection, you know, to the CEO, you know, to the person making the decision, it was priceless and really kind of helped, you know, elevate this whole process. Prince L, why was it so important to you to spend so much of your time and energy in this process of developing a brand because I don't think it's something that CEOs necessarily do typically?
Well, I wanted to be very involved with this process for a few reasons. One is, you know, I come from the producer side of the business. I've always been had some involvement with creative, whether it's, you know, ordering graphics for your show or whether it's trying to creatively be strategic about how we tell a story. I've always had a connection to the creative side.
So that was, you know, that was important to me to participate. Also, you know, I think that I wanted to make sure that David Zero stayed on the right track and they were in line in line with my vision of, you know, kind of where I see the network going. We were looking for an iconic logo, one that was memorable, and we wanted to have something that was, you know, innovative and really kind of spoke to, you know, what BNC was all about, community is a big word that we use around the halls of BNC. You know, the logo, if you take a look at it has, it provides that connectivity.
And, you know, I hate to be one of those people where, you know, you get into a meeting, you kick things off, and then two or three months later, you get into a meeting with the creative group and then you blow the whole thing up because you don't like it. To me, you know, you have to be bought in all the way throughout the process. That limits the amount of surprises in the end. Let's talk about the logo then.
The logo is very distinctive. There will be art of it in the post that goes along with this podcast, but Michael, I know there's pictures of this. You guys came up with tons of different logos. It seemed like tons of work to me, but I know that's what logo designers do.
But can you sort of talk about the process of developing this logo and sort of how you were thinking about it as you were designing it? And are you somebody that is really involved with a logo designer? Do you have somebody on your team? That's a really the logo designer?
Both. I designed a couple. I think I designed three or four, but we had a massive team working on this. You know, we really looked at it from a lot of different ways.
And thank goodness, you know, I think from some of our earlier brand discussions and we talked a lot about this was Black News Channel versus BNC. And I remember these conversations distinctly with Prince Ellen's team and really wanted to make sure you have Black News Channel from the D so this was a black made news network for all people. That's where it started. And that's where it grew.
But to make it feel bigger, like BNC would withstand for more CNN cable news network. Everyone calls it CNN. Nobody calls it cable news network. HBO.
Most of my designers couldn't even tell you what HBO stood for at home box office. And then, you know, even as some of my young designers, well, what does ESPN stand for? And it was a go stand for great sports. But I'm like, what do the call what?
What do the letters stand for? And very few could tell me, I mean, I don't think any of my designers could, but, you know, entertainment sports programming network, what happens with these brands is they grow bigger than their original meaning. But all of where they start is very, very important, you know, the root of it, if you will. And I think, you know, going back and forth, you know, having those conversations with the BNC about really making sure we're driving and pushing all of that into the BNC, making sure that we're designing a logo that speaks to our brand values.
It's connective. You know, really making sure that it's strong, stable, trustworthy. And I think, you know, we keep looking about this, this word was huge in our, you know, coming out of our research, you know, coming out of the group in Prince El's vision inclusion, you know, making sure that we're designing a mark that can work for everyone. You know, and I think that was really, really important and really driving factor to help us kind of get into the zone pretty quickly.
But again, what's that kind of look in that feel and how do we kind of create concept into logos and BNCs? And then what happens with the process, you know, you start to kind of reduce down, you start with a hundred or fifty or seventy five or three hundred, and I forget exactly what our mark was. But by the time we were done, it was hundreds of different logos, but we started to kind of narrow down, narrow down, narrow down. We got a lot of these logos in front of our respondents.
It was amazing to have almost this kind of live instantaneous data, you know, reaction to our stuff, the sounding board, this huge group of consumers, the consumers that we were looking for were telling us what they wanted from a news brand. They were telling us what they wanted from a visual brand identity, they were reacting to the logos and telling us how they felt in real time. That allowed us to kind of narrow it down to about nine logos. And from there, we went back with more sculpting passes and more refined and passes to really kind of bring it together and make sure we can get that optimal logo.
And we worked it down to the top three, top three choices from the respondents and the focus groups. And we all felt really strong about these logos. And like I said, you know, I designed maybe one or two logos and one of the logos I designed was in there. It was a very big, strong logo.
The respondents all picked that logo as the number one logo, but we had three really strong choices. And as we kind of looked with the group and Prince L and I, and you know, our team and his team and Seth Geiger and Smith Geiger, we all looked at this and we're like, you know what? This other logo is really doing everything we wanted to be doing. It's modern, it's connective.
It puts us in a much more progressive place. It makes us feel different. And I think Prince L, you capitalized on this, you said something that really resonated with me at the time. You're like, the first logo, the one that they like, this would be great.
They would love it. We would change it in three to five years to this logo. And why wait? Just jump into the brand that you're looking for and the brand identity that you're going to bring your whole entire brand up into that brand.
We really kind of looked at it. And I remember one of the consultants like Joe was on the team and he was like, guys, this is the number one logo. Why would we go off of this? Why would we not pick this one?
And Seth and Prince L said, this is the logo. This is it guys. I mean, it's doing everything we wanted to. We've listened to the respondents.
This one still tests really, really well. But this does all of the other things that we needed to do and we went with this mark. And I felt great about this. And we pushed this mark and I really loved this mark and I remember after we locked this decision after our process and Prince L emailed me a couple logos, emailed me the new key logo and the new GM logo that had just kind of recently came out.
And I was like, so what do you think, Prince L, you're happy with this logo? You can speak to the result of that and your kind of reaction to your decision in the logo for himself. I mean, how did you feel about that logo? We locked it.
I absolutely thought it was it was the right logo for now and the right logo for the future. And as I look around the landscape and I saw that Kia and GM, they were changing their logos and there have been other companies have been changing their logos. They're going to something very similar to what we did to what we have at BNC. So it was just the whole collaborative process was not only refreshing, but it was really invigorating because vivid zero was just as excited as we were about the new design, the new logo and getting to a place where we can all feel really good.
And there was this level of investment that we had that they had in the process that I just haven't felt with any other company that I've worked with regard to design. First of all, this is a limitation of an audio podcast, which is that nobody can see this logo, but you can go see it on brief. So can you talk about what it is about the logo you guys ultimately landed on that you felt like how it infused the brand values into it, how it represented what BNC's brand values are? And can you touch on what those brand values are?
Absolutely. Well, you know, truth obviously is kind of like the foundation of the brand and truth is a part of the logo. We wanted something that really kind of communities a big part of the African American community audience. We wanted something that really showed that and this logo, the connectivity that you have between the B and the N and the C, it really kind of provides that feeling of togetherness and community.
It was the one logo that I felt really, really did that innovation. That's another value of BNC, you know, we want to be innovative in our storytelling in not only the kinds of stories that we choose, but the stories at how we choose to tell them. And I consider this logo to be the most innovative of the group. And then finally, Inclusion, which is something Michael spoke about earlier, we wanted this logo to be inclusive.
So I feel like, you know, when you look at this logo and you see the BNC brand unfold on the air, you're part of it, you know, as a member of the audience, you are a part of what we're trying to do. It's kind of this effort to really bring people together under one logo. Yeah. And we were so excited about, you know, and Prince, I'll mention that too, like working together with this whole process.
I mean, I think what BNC is doing is amazing, needed and it's such a right time for it. So we were totally invested in just being able to have that much time with, you know, the CEO, you know, and be so connected to the audience as we were finding them and to end into the process. You know, of course, we were super excited and we were, what client doesn't, you know, what these doesn't love that the client makes the right choice, you know, in any end, you know, and that was just really exciting for us. Or that you don't have to quietly persuade them to make their own.
Right. Use your power. Never happens at agencies. Michael also, you know, just considering that it had been Black News Channel and now it's BNC and was part of that consideration, just platforms, apps, logos, Black News Channel is just too long to put on a cell phone button.
That was that part of the consideration of the overall logo is how it would work across platforms. I mean, we definitely kind of played around with, you know, the BNC icon once we got it all back in it. And we looked at, you know, Black News Channel typography with it, you know, having a logo that have that with it as well, but in the end, it wasn't really that, that wasn't the driving factor. It really was, you know, what Prince Elton spoke about earlier.
It's about elevating the brand to BNC, knowing that it comes from the Black community for everyone. I think we pushed more of that into it. It helps that, you know, BNC makes for a great Instagram button, you know, looks great on your YouTube channel. And it looks fantastic on a mic flag, you know, it's a nice tight install that gets us a lot of mileage.
I think it was, you know, advantageous that we went up to BNC and made the logo so much better. And I just really think it helps kind of capitalize the brand and help elevate it. So I think we're at Net it out and where we keep kind of, you know, we're doing a lot of work, you know, still with the, you know, BNC and we see a lot of value in it and where we can go, what we can do with it and how we start to move it for the future into different places has just been, you know, like made us feel like we made the right decision back up. Tell me, Michael, but Prince Elle, you can jump in, but tell me, Michael, how then the tagline evolved from the logo.
That's the case. That's how I interpreted it. And what the tagline is kind of a fun reveal, so I kind of just want you to walk us through the process of it. Well, the original tagline was, you know, truth illuminated and we looked and, you know, and talking with Prince Elle's team, it's like, hey, let's explore it, but if we can't find anything better, we'll stick with that.
So we wrote tons and tons of taglines, probably as many logos and taglines as we did. And we really kind of rolled up our sleeves at the same time, we were writing a manifesto and really kind of trying to capitalize, you know, what everyone was thinking, everyone was feeling into a tagline or a positioning statement, if you will. And God, we had, you know, a couple of writers, you know, I got myself writing a bunch of taglines and it really came down to Thomas, you know, our creative director on the project who started to work with this logo and started to look at it. And I think sometimes writing and visuals as they start to kind of combine really kind of help gain power.
And Thomas started playing with this B and C, B and C, B and C truth, B and C truth, B and C truth. And then all of a sudden I just went, okay, and I crumpled up the other hundreds of taglines. That's it. It's B and C truth.
And we put it together, I remember kind of presenting to Prince Elle and the team, and we all just looked at each other and went like, man, it was right there in front of us the whole time. And when you see those moments that happen, you know, they start to keep it at chills. Not every project has that. And I think lines up perfectly all the time.
But as we dove into it and looked and looked and looked and looked and looked and looked and explored and looked and explored and wrote, wrote, wrote, wrote, like, it's been here the whole time. And I remember that kind of moment where like, oh, my gosh, it was right there in front of us the whole time. Of course, this makes sense. And what we did is we kind of lapped off illuminated, but we didn't throw it away from our vernacular.
Because I think the idea of it was still valid, you know, and we kind of talked internally about like, well, if you have the truth, why do you need anything else? And that kind of notion of truth illuminated was like, well, you uncover the truth. So the truth is just the truth. You don't have to do that.
And we started to kind of pull the idea of the illumination more into the three dimensional logo and the way that we kind of lit it from underneath, we illuminated the truth from there. It was better to see it, not say it, and to really put the energy back into be and seek truth and the way that we locked it up through a progression of motion on air and the way we locked it up in stills. But yeah, the minute you see it, the minute you get it, you go, oh, nobody else can have that, you know. And thank goodness, you know, we're not the Black News Network, because it won't work.
And having ANC Black News Channel, it's fantastic. It just lines up. Yeah, no, we were really excited about that. And there was no use even looking at the other, you know, hundreds of taglines that we wrote.
So it just made sense. It felt right. And we knew it felt right based on the conversations we were having and the research that we were getting. And it was the key brand focus of our brand pillar.
So yeah, it really worked. I will tell you, that was one of those moments, you know, there were a couple of moments during this whole process where you're like, we were the light just goes off. You know, when we landed on the logo, when we developed the manifesto, and this was one of those moments with the whole B&C truth, you know, there was a feeling of, there was a simultaneous feeling of, oh my God, that's it. And then there was a feeling of, duh, it's been there the whole time.
So the fact that, you know, it was just a simplification of what we already had. So it wasn't, you know, completely reinventing the wheel. The fact that it was, you know, had a, you know, kind of this double use was just a real bonus and it gave us, gave our creative team so much more flexibility and how they could use the logo. But that was, that was one of those moments during the process where you're like, oh my God, this is it.
You could also use that with other words, right? Like B&C community and B&C innovation or however you wanted to apply it to your brand. That's right. Yeah.
And that's actually about the 2D versus 3D video and again, or logo and again, there'll be a little video on grief to eliminate this. But can, you know, I feel like the 3D logo is, people aren't using it as much. I just wanted to ask you, Michael, about your thoughts around incorporating that. Is it mostly sort of a motion graphics element or what's your thoughts around the 3D logo?
Yeah. Mostly. I mean, we use another places too, but for the most part, you know, because that logo stood for everything that we were looking for, you know, the inclusive, the truth, the connectivity, the community, and then we started to make it move that underlight, that kind of really illuminate through, it really started to become the basis of our motion graphics package. But we also, you know, we love the flat logo and we really felt there was room for both the 2D and the 3D to live in the same world.
You know, you might have some transitional moments that have a big D, NC3D, motion graphic world. And then those might end either with a 3D logo or a 2D logo, but having that combination and having that kind of, you know, modern crisp flat along with this kind of shaded 3D, big kind of, you know, theatrical kind of world really kind of helped set us into where we were going and making sure that we were making really kind of given a brand identity that felt like it was a digital forward news destination, you know, giving this a little bit of visual swagger, giving this a little bit of style, making this feel a little different. And the 3D is a different type of tone to 3D and really making sure that we kind of had our basis covered. We've done a lot of spots, you know, our brand spots and image spots where we go just simple 2D and more about the message and more about the editorial, the graphics kind of simplify and back off.
And there's other moments where we kind of push heavy on the 3D and the graphics when it's needed. So I think it's really finding a brand identity that can kind of balance each other out. And then we really kind of put into the style guide, the rules and the balance and how that really kind of is to be used, but also kind of put a little flexibility into that style guide. So the brand has this involvement, you know, past, you know, our engagement that it can really kind of live, you know, for a long time, you know, as that 3D logo in the graphics package, you know, work for a couple of years, work and go to from there is limitless.
So you have, you know, a good core foundation, just like the Constitution, you know, it can be amended at any moment to keep evolving, the same thing with a great brand identity, making sure you've got enough there to work with 2D and 3D and really kind of keep pushing forward. So it works across, you know, multiple platforms and can really connect to, you know, our audience as it needs to. Why don't you determine all that with the logo, which was a pretty, seemed like a pretty hefty process, but you came up with a palette and the palette, I wondered, did you spend as much time exploring potential palettes as you did logos and taglines, or was the palette pretty obvious to you from the get? You know, it became pretty clear, you know, and talking with Prince Ellen's team that it was really going to be a black and white palette, that we were looking for that accent color and to really kind of help kick that electric kind of charge that illumination kind of vibe and what color would work with everything else.
We really kind of looked at a few colors, the color palettes didn't really seem to matter, you know, when you come up with a brand identity that's so strong like this, you know, you don't really kind of think about the color being like, oh, we're locked to this color forever. But that blue, that electric blue really kind of jumped off of black, jumped off of white, worked for us in the three different day parts of color tones that we created and it really made it more about the shape, more about the structure, a little bit less about the color. People always asking, oh, we need a good strong brand color, but like, what color is Nike? What color is Apple?
They're really not based on color. I'm like, I can tell you the color is better. Well, you know, it's like, Nike's got any color, it kind of works. And I think, you know, the future here is, you know, BNC basically is any color it wants to be to serve all people.
And I think that representation is kind of part of the ethos of it. Yeah, I mean, now it's a blue accent. And I think, you know, as we dive into BNC, go, we kind of develop more of this gray and this vibrant yellow, we're starting to kind of dive into, you know, this other, you know, new over the top app for these guys, and how do we kind of extend the colors in the brand? Where does it push?
And how does it move? You know, I think that kind of goes back down to, you know, the guidelines that you write at the beginning, making sure that it's going to be something that serves the brand in the future. Yeah. Black, white, and blue, it's pretty simple.
You have the ability to expand from there. Yes. You know, the thing I like about it, and I'll just, you know, chime in here is the, you said simple page, and I would just add clean, it's a very clean look. And you know, that's one of the things that we were looking for in all of our discussions with Michael and his team, you know, we were very consistent with that desire to have a very clean look.
So I'm going to completely merge away from this part of the conversation and ask you about the sonic piece of it. There was a music partner dynamite laser beam, just Michael, tell me to what degree you worked with them in terms of music. What was the sonic branding piece? I was just simply scoring, or what was the involvement of the music and the sonic branding to this point?
Yeah. I mean, dynamite laser beam came in. Kristoff and his team did a fantastic job for us, Kristoff Eagleton. He really kind of listened, and you know, we brought Prince L in the beginning, and by this time, Prince L's team really started to kind of, you know, expand, and we brought in D-Wane, who really kind of helped on the BNC side, and where we kind of, we made the introduction between BNC and dynamite laser beam, and we were there every step of the way.
As we were animating, they started to kind of ideate on music, and what that sonic brand was going to be, that that, that mnemonic, that theme, where it was going to land, making sure that we weren't creating your grandfather's news channel, but making sure that we were also being truthful, being news-like, but more future and modern, and more progressive with it, paying homage to what people expect from news, but pushing it even further, and then as we started to kind of look at themes and the way that it would line up with the animation and how we might shift some of the animation to line up with the music, how some of the music and the theme might change a little bit to line up with the graphics as they move, and they animate it for those key pieces. Kristoff and dynamite laser beam came back with these simple notes, B and C, and this kind of look, you know, and Duane and I kind of looked at each other and went, you know what, it's so simple, and it really works. It's almost as simple as B and C truth, and the B and the C note, and Kristoff was just super excited about it, and we were like, that's it, that's, you know, when you see it and you hear it, and you put it all together, and you're like, wow, this stuff is all lining up, and there's a reason it's lining up, is because you're putting the time into it, you're listening, you know, to what the audience wants, you're listening to your clients, you know, you're building the vision together, and then when you pull it all at the end to have the music encapsulated it all, and that team comes in, like dynamite laser beam to really kind of help pinpoint it, and they're like, hey, we know your process, we know you guys have been super simple, and then like, the B and C, it's the notes, B and C, and it just, it hit with the animation, it became, you know, memorable, and, you know, I think it really works, and, you know, I know Prince L was really happy with it, and you can speak probably more to, you know, how you guys, you know, embrace it over there, and how you guys are loving it. Yeah, you know, this was another one of those moments that I spoke about earlier, when they came back with that, it was just like, wow, that's it, B and C, it reminded me a little bit of, of, of GE, you know, the notes have done, done, done, our GE and C on the piano.
So, you know, for us to be able to have, you know, kind of this defining sonic brand, done, done, done, it, it really actually exceeded my expectations. I was expecting us to, you know, to have a, you know, a cool music, you know, music band and a cool sonic brand, but I didn't think that we would have, again, this kind of iconic note progression that really defines B and C, and we were so excited about, you know, having this, it was ours, it was a, again, a product of collaboration and just listening, getting on the phone once a week, sometimes twice a week for an hour, two hours at a time, and really just, you know, talking about how we feel about the music and what we want in the music and, you know, going through the various samples, picking things that we like here, what we like there, and the composer listening to us and, and composing something that we could really just get, you know, galvanize around and really get excited about. I also think if you're someone like me who really likes it when things fit together neatly, for whatever reason, all that's very appealing, like the B and C plus the B and C choose plus using the notes B and C, like, oh, this all is of a piece, and that seems very, yes, clean, organized, logical, though I would like all that myself. Yeah.
Yep. Last question. So Michael, if I was a potential client and you were going to use this B and C project as an example of your work, how would you summarize it to me? Well, I think it's got to be, you know, Prince, I mentioned the word collaboration, you know, a couple of times.
We always look for a couple of things when we look at data driven creative. We look to collaborate with our clients, we look to listen to the data, and if there isn't data, how do we listen to the past, the present, where we want to go in the future? How do we really kind of get attuned to what it is that we're going to be working on and making sure that we really start to kind of align with expectations and spend the time. And like you said earlier, none of CEOs really have the time to dedicate to this, but Prince , I knew how important it was.
And I think, you know, as Prince, Elle has started to grow his team, you know, I think the rest of his team, you know, knows how important it is. And, you know, we work really closely with Dwayne over there who really is now like, you know, Prince, Elle's proxy on the side when it comes to creative and the design and the elements of it, working to make sure that we spend that time to really understand the brand core, as since the core brand values, to set those guardrails up in place and make sure that we can dive in together to create something that is a great leaving off point for a brand. Brands are made day in, day out. You know, we come in as an agency for those big heavy lifts, and in this case, complete rebrand, complete redesign, new brand identity, you know, three distinct looks and, you know, morning, afternoon and evening, you know, coming up with the original series logos, you know, writing the brand manifesto, multiple spots, the website, the social, the digital, the music, how it all kind of works together, making sure that you really at the core essence, you are listening to your client, you're listening to your audience, you're listening to your consumers, and you're, you're creating something that feels authentic and fills the need that they were looking for.
It's not easy, but it's just, you know, it's really taking the time, you know, and making sure that you're thinking about it, you know, and simplifying it sometimes. And then like, you know, we talked about like, it was right there the whole time, we just needed to spend countless hours. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And then you can actually, you know, over the next 13 years you've been placed on this, but princesses, now you've brought this brand foundation, laid where, where are you guys looking to take it in the next year to what sort of the future for this brand for you guys? Yeah. You know, the VidaDIO collaboration has really helped us establish a strong brand that really changed the look, sound and feel of B and C, it's not even a year old yet, but it's time to build on that.
We've launched a separate and distinct OTT brand and B and C go that exists on all of the major OTT platforms, completely different look, there's still a lot more to be done. including home improvement, travel, finance, restaurants, health care, mental health, we really are only just scratching the surface. The brand is going to continue to evolve as many of these areas of interest continue to, and we will continue to super serve that black audience. We're working on an SVOD product that we are calling BNC+, that really speaks to those content areas that we don't have the time to cover in our news.
BNC+, is really everything but news. So the sphere of BNC is continuing to expand and we fully anticipate that we will continue to work with the zero to help us accomplish these things. Okay. All right, that's a good place to wrap it up.
Thank you both so much. I appreciate it. And I'm looking forward to posting all the stuff I'm going to see what you guys are talking about as well as here. And congratulations on the brand.
Thank you. Have a wonderful day. Okay. Bye.
That's it for this episode of the Daily Grease Podcast. If you have suggestions for conversations, please reach out to us on Facebook and LinkedIn at Promax Global or on Instagram and Twitter at Promax underscore Global. You can also email us at dailygrief at Promax.org and you can subscribe to the Daily Grease Podcast on Apple Podcast. We can also read and review us or on Google podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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