When you mention the name technicolor to most people they immediately think of classic hollywood movies. The wizard of oz was one of the earliest big features to be filmed in glorious technicolor and set new standards in colour usage in film. In 1939 the company itself won a special academy award oscar for its services to the motion picture industry and its advances in bringing three colour features to the big screen.

So we were delighted to be given the opportunity, and challenge, of rebranding this Hollywood legend in April 2009. Technicolor was by this stage owned by Thomson Corporation, a large multinational with 20,000 employees world-wide that was needing to relaunch and reposition itself. One of the most significant decisions was that the parent company, Thomson, would relaunch its entire corporation as Technicolor and that meant the dust had to be blown off the Technicolor brand.

The Thomson business covered everything from the creative end of making films, to production management and final distribution. What that really meant was they were involved in everything from producing incredible special effects, film production,
subtitling, ensuring that the films were delivered and archived securely, to their final distribution on DVD or being downloaded safely to viewers set top boxes.

Time was of the essence, so over a long weekend in May 2009 we ran deep dive brand workshops at the Thomson Paris HQ with key employees from across the company’s organisation. Foran intense 72 hours the focus was on getting to the very heart of the company and brand: understanding what really made it special and the challenges it faced in the future. We contrasted this internal viewpoint with external market research on the company, the business and the competitors, to gain yet another perspective.

Our conclusions and recommendations were clear. Technicolor needed to become much more than just a 1930s Hollywood movie company. To successfully relaunch the brand we would have to create a new identity and brand proposition that positioned the company as being at the very leading edge of technological developments to the media, entertainment and communication industries.

During the summer and autumn of 2009 a crisp new graphic identity was developed, tested and refined. Further workshops were held in California examining how we could fully leverage co- and ingredient branding opportunities for the corporation globally.

Technicolor was also responsible for developing some of the most important new digital technologies that generated a vast IPR portfolio, and drove new products, so we also had to consider how we could bring all of these elements into a coherent new product naming strategy. Whilst all this was happening a new internet site was developed in parallel to help launch the new re-invigorated brand.

In early 2010 the new brand was ready for launch and the first step was an intense programme of internal brand engagement, to fully energise employees around the world and to bring to life the new Technicolor brand for them. At the heart of the company was the new strategy platform we had developed that Technicolor Amplifies Ideas and Dreams and central to this was the brand manifesto that set out how bringing people’s dreams and ideas to life was what the company was all about. The new creative platform, where the world gets its wonder’, brought this theme to the very front. Out of the many attributes that the organisation had, emerged three consistent brand values that truly reflected those that drove both the company and its employees, being Diligent, Inventive and Authentic. It was also important to visually demonstrate that Technicolor had moved on as a company, so a powerful new identity was unveiled called Stage, representing the diversity and breadth of the brand offering.

So if you just happened to be on the croisette this year for the Cannes Film Festival you would have seen a very different and even more glorious Technicolor.