Nickelodeon’s new branding – or is it?

Have you seen Nick’s new branding? yes? well you must be in North America then!

Back in September, after reading about Nickelodeon‘s plans to re-brand and seeing the images I thought I’d wait a while before commenting on the marque and whether I believe it to be an improvement.

At the time I remember thinking it’s a great idea and I really liked the new logos and the explanation from president Cyma Zarghami, that went with it:  “We decided that the splat was dated,” and concluded that tying it to each sub-brand “just couldn’t be done in a streamlined way. The “i” in the new wordmark makes a nod to the old “splat,” and is tied to the past in on-air promotions.”

Which is all well and good, except that as I sat back to write up my positive reflections of two months of new branding I thought I’d check out how the rest of the World was incorporating the new image into it’s local channel marketing, through the Nick web sites.
I was surprised to find the UK site had the old logos and so too the rest of Europe. Ok, never mind, I tried Australia, old logo, then India, old logo, New Zealand, you guessed it and so it went on. It appears that the only countries in the world with the brand spanking new Nick logos are USA and Canada.

I’m amazed! In these days of instant media and zealous brand protection and licensing I’m stunned that Nick are allowing their brand to be muddled in this way.
I’m sure it’s only a short term thing but I can’t understand why it wasn’t done simultaneously. Ok there is licensed product on shelf with the old splat but surely this is the case in the USA? I don’t believe that Dora product will be reduced in value by having the splat on the back – children know the brand logo is new and therefore won’t mind!

It’s left me wondering why Nick would do this. I’m not sure. Are they worried that the new logo’s will not be a success and therefore they are testing them on Nth America. I doubt this, but if it is so it shows a distinct lack of brand confidence; which is not something I would have thought Nick would suffer from.

So come on Nick, Let us know the reason.

Oh, and I love the new branding; I want it here in the UK!!