American Public Media's 'Marketplace' Launches New Brand Identity, Responsive Website And Its Most Extensive Advertising Campaign Since Inception

ST. PAUL, Minn. and LOS ANGELES, July 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Marketplace, the popular suite of business/economic public radio programs produced and distributed by American Public Media (APM), unveiled a new brand identity, a fully responsive, mobile-friendly website and plans for a significant consumer-facing advertising campaign. 

After two years of extensive audience research, one-on-one interviews with engaged Marketplace listeners and direct user experience testing of its website, Marketplace has unveiled its new visual brand identity.  The new identity will launch throughout the week across digital channels including on marketplace.org, on Facebook and Twitter, with public radio stations that carry Marketplace programs and with a growing list of digital/mobile distribution platforms.

As Marketplace approaches its 25^th anniversary year, the weekly cumulative audience for its four signature programs – Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal, Marketplace Morning Report with David Brancaccio, Marketplace Money and Marketplace Tech Report – has grown to nearly 10 million listeners on more than 500 public radio stations in the US.  While public radio remains the core of Marketplace's distribution strategy, a growing audience segment is having a more direct relationship with the brand on mobile platforms.  Audio and text content from Marketplace programs is now available on a wide variety of mobile apps including iHeartRadio, Swell, Slacker Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, GoogleCurrents and Flipboard. 

In recognition of this more diverse audience composition, American Public Media hired Minneapolis based design firm Little, in collaboration with APM's internal creative team, to design its new brand identity.  The new identity includes a new logo and custom wordmark for all Marketplace programs, new typesetting, color palette and tagline, all of which more closely match the smart and accessible tone of Marketplace's radio programs. The logo has been designed to work as a single stand-alone brand and when integrated with the branding of parent organization APM, or with editorial and distribution partners.  APM previously took this successful approach with the evolution of the brand identities for A Prairie Home Companion and the BBC World Service. 

The main logo, consisting of overlapping triangles, in bright shades of blue and green suggests a stock graph and the letter "M".  The wordmark, in grey, is constructed in a custom-built version of the font Klavika.  A secondary font, Seravek, is used as a headline or connective font.  This main identity serves at the logo for the overall brand and for the flagship program, Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal.  Variations on this logo/wordmark have been created for the three other programs – Marketplace Morning Report with David Brancaccio, Marketplace Money and Marketplace Tech Report.  See all of the new logos here: http://mktplc.org/NewLogosJul2013. 

Little also developed Marketplace's new tagline: "Between economics and life."  The tagline reflects Marketplace's unique place in broadcast media as it explores the intersection of real life and the economy.  The new tagline serves as the inspiration for the first phase of Marketplace's consumer-facing ad campaign.   The campaign, which will reach up to 9.8 million print readers and an approximate digital audience of 4.8 million, will start in print in The Economist followed by print and digital campaigns in the Wall Street Journal, LA Times and Fast Company.  The campaign features variations on the Marketplace tagline with smartly designed, elegant iconography to highlight Marketplace's ability to make economic and business news interesting and relevant to people's daily lives.  A second phase of the campaign, highlighting the benefits of brand alignment with Marketplace and its nearly 10 million strong audience will launch later this year. See the sample ads here:  http://mktplc.org/samplead1 and http://mktplc.org/samplead2.   

Viewers of the ads will be prompted to visit a guided tour of the Marketplace experience, (see: http://bit.ly/mpadpage2013, note: the links within this preview experience are not currently active), from which they can explore public radio, online and mobile listening options, subscribe to the daily e-newsletter, learn more about Marketplace shows and on-air talent, submit personal finance questions and more.  The campaign is designed to drive brand awareness, grow Marketplace's audience and to position Marketplace as an indispensable source of smart, accessible coverage of business and the economy. 

"Given the shifts in how audiences consume news, we knew we needed to create a new brand identity which spoke directly to the listener and more closely matched the voice of our on-air brand," said Deborah Clark, Marketplace's vice president and executive producer. "Our new brand positioning allows us to go directly to where our audiences already are and where they're going.  They will have access to our content whether they're on public radio, on a desktop, tablet, mobile app or anywhere else."

Today, the new responsively designed marketplace.org is also unveiled.  The new version of Marketplace's website is now fully accessible from all desktop, mobile and tablet devices.  The new site features a full integration of the new brand identity and a clean, elegant design ideal for viewing on all devices.  The site also features a new HTML5 audio player for easy access to all audio content –both full shows and individual stories – via any device. 

Marketplace has been one of the pioneers of segmented audio production – the production and adaptation of talk/news content for user-driven platforms like iHeartRadio, Swell and Slacker Radio.  Marketplace's digital and editorial teams now produce all audio stories and features as part of the larger full-length programs and as individual segments, giving listeners a consistent audio brand experience, whether they're listening on public radio or on a mobile app.  Later this year, Marketplace will also be unveiling new iPhone and Android apps and a growing number of digital editorial products designed to engage both casual and dedicated listeners. 

About Marketplace and American Public Media
Marketplace is produced and distributed by American Public Media™ (APM), one of the largest producers and distributors of public radio programming in the world with a portfolio reaching nearly 17 million listeners via nearly 800 radio stations nationwide each week ,in association with the University of Southern California. Marketplace, Marketplace Morning Report, Marketplace Tech Report and Marketplace Money are currently broadcast by more than 500 public radio stations across the United States and are heard by nearly 10 million weekly listeners. Content from Marketplace programs is also available at Marketplace.org, iHeartRadio, Swell, Slacker Radio, Stitcher Radio, Flipboard, LinkedIn, Google Currents and iTunes. Marketplace programs are well-known for their timely, relevant and accessible coverage of business, economic and personal finance focusing on the latest business news, the global economy and wider events linked to the financial markets. For more information on Marketplace visit marketplace.org. For more information on American Public Media visit americanpublicmedia.org.
Source: Data are copyright Arbitron, Inc. Arbitron data are estimates only

SOURCE American Public Media's Marketplace