GMA News' Integrated Brand Refresh
GMA Intregrated News has become more integrated with the refresh of its flagship and national newscasts which began Monday, December 18.
GMA Network Inc.'s Integrated News division rolls out its new branding for all of its national newscasts starting Monday, December 18, just a week close to the holiday break for most of us.
There were hints of a brand refresh when news reporter Emil Sumangil is officially signed as one of the anchors of the national flagship newscast 24 Oras (24 Hours) Monday, November 20:
JADE VERONIQUE YAP,GMA Integrated News
Unlike the previous logo, the new 24 Oras logo has a different font for the 'Oras' part. Little did we know that this was the start of a major brand roll-out of the country's leading news outlet.
Why 'Integrated'?
The word "Integrated" was applied—and given full emphasis—to GMA News' brand in November last year. The acting head at that time, Oliver Victor B. Amoroso, says that the integration of its national, regional and online news segments into one is an evolution.
“Through GMA Integrated News, we are evolving into a dynamic multi-media global newsroom – integrating the newsrooms of GMA News, GMA Regional TV News, and GMA News Online – while staying true to the journalistic principles and confronting the challenges faced by media organizations in this Digital age. [...]"
Fast forward, Amoroso is now a Senior Vice President for the GMA's news segment alongside Regional TV (which manages clusters of regional stations with news programs catered to various dialects) and Synergy (which manages multimedia events and sports coverages).
Another addition to the integration is its AM radio network Super Radyo and national flagship radio station DZBB (which already had its flagship morning primetime broadcasts aired on sister station GTV prior).
GMA Network released the Integrated News omnibus plug Monday, August 7, focused on the new generation of its News division with the battlecry "Mas Malaking Misyon, Mas Malawak na Paglilingkod sa Bayan" (Greater Mission, Greater Service to the Nation), cementing its goal to be the Filipinos' news authority.
However, GMA was not the first to integrate their newsroom, moreso coin that term. It was their close rival ABS-CBN which used the term during the leadership of Ging Reyes. Nowadays, they just refer to themselves as ABS-CBN News.
Opinion: Also (albeit somehow unrelated), the revocation of ABS-CBN's national broadcast franchise in 2020 led to a paradigm shift that actually expanded their reach through partnerships with their close rivals, thus putting a halt to the heated TV ratings war.
Before and After
There are several noticeable traits in the brand refresh for most of the newscasts:
- All logos use a standard font (of which we assume is Bebas Neue).
- All logos have a glossy glass-like application (except for GTV's "State of the Nation," all backgrounds in each title use straight lines that seems to focus on a common vantage point).
- All opening titles have the anchors say the title of the program (except for the News Bulletin).
We'd appreciate it if they use white text on a red background as a suggestion.
Overall Thoughts
We observe this rollout gives off the same feeling as the time when GMA Regional TV rolled out its standard in regional news branding applications.
The first attempts to have a unified was to trickle down the 24 Oras branding to all regional newscasts more than a decade ago (which did not flourish in the long term, thus reverting back to their previous regional news program names), followed by a green-and-gold package (which is still being used today).
Channeling the 24 Oras brand in all regional news program clusters did not flourish, hence reverting back to their previous names—this is evident with Balitang Bisdak which was previously called 24 Oras Central Visayas from 2014 to 2016.
Going back to the top, we can say that overall, GMA Integrated News' brand rollout for its national newscasts is successful—even with some contentions on the side, some of the newscasts' identity was kept intact while applying a standard format.
Assets from GMA Integrated News
