Horse & Country TV (H&C) is a Sky television channel aired throughout the UK and available internationally via the Web. H&C's audiences include equestrian, country pursuits, agricultural, and livestock communities. The channel currently prides itself in producing an inclusive, community-spirited, passionate approach to equestrian and country activities and interests, addressing the needs of a wide range of viewers from all walks of life.
H&C was looking for a partner with proven experience developing brands across multiple channels, as well as extensive experience with user experience design, particularly related to video on demand. The Horse & Country TV brand consisted of two properties, a television channel and a website. The relationship between the two entities lacked balance, and programming and brand positioning lacked focus and consistent messaging. Likewise, the website had no function beyond channel promotion. We worked with H&C to begin to re-balance the relationship between the two properties. The television channel supports a more integrated promotional model as a "barker" channel - literally calling out to the audience to drive traffic to website - and the website provides opportunities to extend content from the TV and serve discrete communities more fully, as well as grow audience numbers and drive revenue generation.
As part of refocusing and re-balancing of the brand the name was changed from HCTV to H&C. We re-designed the identity mark and developed a brand language for use on the TV and web. We developed new online brand experiences for their multiple audience types, leveraging video while introducing a variety of content types for communities: events, blogs, commenting, and rating.
The increased importance of the website provided new, greater opportunities for monetization of the brand. To this end, Method collaborated with H&C on ways the website could support sponsorship, online advertising, and e-commerce.
We worked closely with the product and technical development teams throughout the project to bring the site to market as quickly as possible and deliver returns on investment.