Why the Max Logo Is Blue and Other Questions About the Streamer Answered

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.”

What’s the meaning behind Max?

Though rumors swirled for months ahead of the announcement that the service would indeed be named Max, Spagnoletto said the company went through a lengthy name exploration process in partnership with several agencies.

Warner Bros. Discovery looked at possibilities that included everything from keeping HBO Max to something completely different.

In ending up with Max, Spagnoletto explained that equity had already been built into the HBO Max name, but the company still wanted to signal change.

“It didn’t need to be a sharp left turn because the product is not a sharp left turn. It’s an evolution of HBO Max,” he said.

The new typography, Max Sans, is aimed to give the service a “distinct visual voice,” and the changes extend to the intro and mnemonic of former Max originals, which have been redesigned to “feel more approachable.”

“Max, like any name, is what you make of it,” he added, noting that the name is short, and from an SEO and brand perspective is relatable.

For Warner Bros. Discovery, the new name acknowledges the company’s history while still looking ahead.

“It had a lot of things that we thought were just right for us,” Spagnoletto said. “It had enough of the past, but it also had enough to help bring us into the future.”

The company is hopeful that by dropping the HBO name, the new brand will encapsulate the full breadth of content the combined service will offer and not stretch the HBO brand beyond its capacity.

What’s the messaging?

With the new tagline, “The one to watch,” Warner Bros. Discovery has a three-phase marketing rollout planned.

The first stage began last week with the announcement of the name and will continue this week with digital, static and out-of-home campaigns across Los Angeles and New York.

Second, talent-hosted anthemic creative, designed to connect with consumers, will launch in early May on OOH, TV, radio, digital and social.

And just before launch, the campaign will continue with media across all platforms.

“The entire premise of the merger and the product in our campaign is that consumers watch different things at different times,” said Spagnoletto. “We have some of the most iconic brands, franchises, characters; the next part is how do we tell consumers that without shoving it down their throats, but letting them feel it more than hear it.”

Though the campaign will last only 10 weeks, Spagnoletto knows a new brand takes far longer to solidify itself in culture.

“Our job is to keep going at it and fine-tuning until we start to resonate and build that love with our consumers,” he said.

How did everything come together?

The company didn’t create the Max rollout in a vacuum.

Warner Bros. Discovery teamed up with DixonBaxi, Known and Siegel+Gale, as well as the in-house WBD team, which Spagnoletto described as “the ones who made [WBD] successful to this point.”

DixonBaxi worked on the name and the logo design around the branding, and Known partnered with the team to develop and produce multiple phases of the creative campaign. In addition, Siegel+Gale has been with the company since the beginning and went through the initial search for a new name.

“[Siegel+Gale] helped us go through the exploration and the name, DixonBaxi helped us visualize it, and Known is the ones that helped us bring it to life,” said Spagnoletto.