Cinelatino to Unveil New On- and Off-air Rebrand Package to Reflect New Positioning and Programming Strategy

Cinelatino, the leading Spanish-language premium movie channel in the United States, will unveil a comprehensive on- and off-air rebrand initiative beginning on January 1, 2009 that will include a new logo and a new on-air graphics package, followed by a new broadband website to launch in early 2009.

“We are the premium destination movie channel in the U.S. with the largest selection of the best, most recent and most popular Spanish-language films, and we have created a new brand identity that reflects the quality and appeal of our programming,” said Jim McNamara, president of Cinelatino.

Carolina Bilbao, Cinelatino’s creative director, led the channel repositioning and rebranding. She tapped CA Square, the New York-based, award-winning brand strategy, design and animation studio, to create a new logo and on-air and off-air graphics package that reinforced the channel’s premium status and new U.S.-based programming strategy.

As part of the graphic exploration of a new logo, the channel — formerly Cine Latino — merged its name into one word.

“Through the quality and diversity of our movies, we own the category of cine Latino on TV. We felt this subtle change in our name was an organic, contemporary way of conveying the pride and confidence we have in our programming offer,” said Mr. McNamara.

The logo has two executions: one stacked and one unstacked, in which the red dots of the letter “i” resemble exclamation marks, alluding to specific use of punctuation in Spanish-language grammar.

“This subtle infusion of Spanish-language grammar into our logo is like a wink at our audience,” said Ms. Bilbao. “We are letting them know we speak their language, while conveying the passion and enthusiasm we share with them for Spanish-language movies. These are very potent qualities to have in a mark.”

Beginning on January 1, 2009, Cinelatino will reveal a new on-air identity built around the new logo design.

“The new package is simple, yet elegant and memorable,” said Carlos Ferreyros, CA Square’s creative director. “The color palette uses different hues of red, black and white, the new typeface is Gotham and the animation style of all the graphic elements is very organic — the overall effect being very premium, functional and contemporary.”

Visual appeal was not the only consideration in creating this graphics package. During the design phase, promo break strategy, hierarchy of messaging within the break and the richness of Cinelatino’s programming offer were all factors taken into account.

“Our package is very premium and memorable, but just because we are Hispanic doesn’t mean we need to fill it with cultural cliches; the movies successfully address the Latin American element on their own. The identity we’ve created avoids cultural preconceptions and focuses on reflecting the premium status of Cinelatino and conveying the program to the viewer in the most intuitive way,” said Ms. Bilbao. “We are very pleased with the results and enjoyed collaborating with CA Square.”

Since New York-based private equity firm InterMedia Partners acquired a 50% interest in Cinelatino in 2007, the channel has aggressively acquired virtually every major current Spanish-language movie and has split its feed to create a separate channel dedicated exclusively to the U.S., under the direction of Mr. McNamara. The U.S.-dedicated channel allows Cinelatino to tailor its programming to its U.S. Hispanic audience and has facilitated the acquisition of hundreds of first-run movies in Spanish.

As part of the channel’s new programming strategy, Cinelatino recently announced license agreements with five of the world’s leading film distributors, including Sony, Disney, MGM, Lionsgate and Gussi. Through these acquisition deals the channel has acquired more than 90 major new titles, many of which are premieres of blockbuster hit movies. Cinelatino offers more films than any other Spanish-language movie channel in the U.S.

“Cinelatino has always been the leading U.S. Spanish-language channel, but now we have a strong and memorable on- and off-air look that is reflective of our new channel and reinforces Cinelatino’s position as the leading destination for Spanish-language movies in the U.S.,” said Mr. McNamara. “Our rebrand accurately depicts our premium status and reflects the caliber of high-quality Latino films viewers can only find on our channel. We are committed to making Cinelatino the premiere entertainment destination for Hispanics on television.”

Cinelatino has plans to launch a completely reformatted new broadband website in early 2009 as part of the channel’s repositioning strategy. “

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