Music icon Cher has been revealed as the star of a new advertising campaign heralding the rebranding of the BBC’s advert-funded channels.
In addition to its Licence Fee funded channels the broadcaster runs a portfolio of advert-funded and subscription channels via its wholly owned UKTV subsidiary, including Gold, Drama, Eden, Yesterday and Dave, plus the UKTV Play streaming service.
As part of the roll-out of a new ‘masterbrand’, UKTV Play is being rebranded to ‘U’ and the names of the free to air channels prefaced by ‘U&’ – for example, Drama is becoming U&Drama and Dave will become U&Dave.
The BBC’s UK subscription channels will then be rebranded in the same style “at a later date”.
The new advert features Cher travelling through some of Britain’s best-loved shows on U, performing a new rendition of the iconic song, I Got You Babe.
Penny Brough, UKTV’s Chief Marketing Officer, said: “Following ten months of research, design work and asset creation, I couldn’t be more excited to see U come to life on and off air.
“We’ve taken a bold approach to our new branding, and this has been matched by our biggest ever multi-media campaign and our launch advert featuring Cher, one of the most recognisable women in the world.
“Our aim was to deliver an advert that’s authentic, memorable, creates talkability and feels every bit as dynamic as our new Masterbrand U.
“Cher’s iconic song I Got You Babe perfectly aligns with our campaign tagline “We’ve Got U”, reflecting the depth and range of almost 8,500 hours of free content available on the U streaming service.”
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