In February 2011 we had a meeting in the landmark Maspero building that overlooks the Nile and is HQ of the ERTU, Egypt’s State broadcaster. Over the previous three years we had had many such meetings. Little did we realise this was to be our last. Two weeks later, the building was surrounded by tanks and the Egyptian revolution was in full swing. But back to the beginning...
In 2008, we won a hotly contested international pitch to reposition and rebrand Egypt’s Nile Television Network. Founded by ERTU, the network had extensive access and rights to both Arabic and acquired foreign content, but the existing identity did not reflect the breadth and depth of the quality content on offer. We created a simple, contemporary logo for the masterbrand, NTN, that reflected the international standard of the network and its progressive nature, and a family of channel brands based on the concept of ‘reflections’.
Sets of idents were produced for each of the channels. Idents for Nile Film were shot at the Misr Studios which date from Egypt's golden age of cinema in the 1950's and 1960's. We projected much-loved movies from this era onto the sets used in the original films.
The master brand idents were shot in and around Cairo and featured everything from fishermen on the Nile to modern shopping malls, showing all the facets of modern Egypt. The branding system we created allowed for further extension of the portfolio as more channels were added. We worked with a fantastic team of people on this huge project and wish them all the best for the future of their incredible country.
