Just in time for the festive season, newly formed company GAC Media rebranded and relaunched two networks with an assist from Atlanta- and New York City-based Definition 6 (D6).
GAC Media—which is owned by Dallas-based Hicks Equity Partners and Bill Abbott, former CEO of Crown Media—acquired Great American Country (GAC) from Discovery and equestrian channel Ride TV from private holders to form GAC Media in July. The partners are now rebranding GAC away from its country roots to focus on wholesome family and lifestyle programming with GAC Family and GAC Living. Both channels, which debuted Sept. 27, have an emphasis on holidays and celebrations and in particular, Christmas.
GAC Family, formerly Great American Country, premiered with its new tagline “Stories Well Told,” encapsulating American culture, lifestyle and heritage with original holiday-themed, family-friendly movies and series. GAC Living, formerly Ride TV, uses the slogan “Life Well Lived,” and serves as GAC Family’s unscripted companion full of lifestyle, decor and cooking shows.
Led by SVP and Creative Director Crystal Hall, D6 developed the creative strategy and visual brand identity for the new GAC family of networks, working closely with Abbott, who conceived the brands as opportunities to share timeless and entertaining programming.
“The D6 team approached this ambitious project with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and successfully brought our brand vision to life for our new flagship networks,” said Abbott in a statement. “Fan feedback has been incredible, and we look forward to using this momentum to launch our original slate of family-friendly Christmas programming this holiday season.”
D6 was tasked with visually and tonally articulating two distinct entertainment brands in GAC Family and GAC Living. The agency also was asked to reinforce the larger GAC Media brand’s dedication to creating family-friendly content across multiple genres and touchpoints. Deliverables included network logos, mnemonics, on-air graphics packages, a launch promo campaign and websites.
“We wanted the brand identity of each network to express a sense of family, joy, and togetherness in their own unique ways, making the viewer feel at home, whether they are tuning in or engaging with GAC content and talent online,” said Hall, also in a statement. “As both GAC Family and GAC Living hang their hats on the celebrations that bring families together, we future-fitted these brands so they could evolve with the seasons in a unified way.”
For the channels’ new logos, D6 landed on circular concepts alluding to themes around family and home. Designed with matching lock-ups, the GAC Family and GAC Living logos both feature an encircled GAC brand stamp in a lower-case script font called Vadelma by Melvastype. The words “Family” and “Living,” respectively, are oriented to the right using the same typeface.