In 2003 Māori Television was formed to support the aspirations for the revitalisation of Te Reo Māori. Over the following two decades, the way we consume media has radically changed, along with a new generation of audiences with totally different expectations. We were brought in to help support a brave shift towards Māori Television being more than a television channel.

The strategy was to capture the energy of a warm and passionate community. A movement of manaaki that welcomes all New Zealanders in to experience the creativity and beauty of Te Ao Māori.

Māori Television was challenged by needing to deliver too many expectations from a community hungry to revitalise te reo Māori. Through a deep review of all the contributors to the language revitalisation movement, it became clear that Māori Television needed to narrow its focus to a purpose that was unique.

Te Whare o Te Reo Mauriora defines how iwi, hapū and the Crown will work together in language revitalisation. Through this came the clarity that Māori Television is the kuaha (doorway) into te ao Māori. This required a shift in the commissioning of content, programming and branding to attract a wider audience and a younger audience.

For Māori Television to reach new audiences an entirely new brand strategy and identity was created. The strategy focussed on the brand promise of feeling the mana and manaaki of a welcoming community. The brand needed to feel energising, inspiring and to have mana through charisma and not being old fashioned. Manaaki needed to welcome people into the brand experience and create opportunities for connection.

We worked closely with staff, holding workshops over shared kai to understand the values that create a successful Māori movement. These helped shape and reinforce the values that would attract and retain staff to build the movement from the inside out.

The brand was bloated with multiple sub-brands, colours, graphics, typefaces and different expressions of the logo. Our proposal was to reduce back to Netflix simplicity and be clearer and simpler in how the brand presented itself. Smaller brands need every impression to aggregate affinity and loyalty and consistency makes this more likely.

We introduced a controlled colour palette, updated from CMYK print colours to more vibrant RGB colours, more suited to digital. We removed all graphics and replaced them with a singular motif inspired by the logo that can be cropped, repeated, rotated or given expression through motion.
We proposed a shift from Māori Television as the name. Phase 1 was the reduction of the word Television, to highlight Māori. Phase 2 was to remove Television all together, eventually to move towards Whakaata Māori. This was completed in 2022.

Prepared for the future, Māori Television has now emerged as Whakaata Māori.

A full suite of on air graphics, website design, social content templates, collateral design and merchandise removed 20 years of various versions of the brand in favour of a single minded brand identity across all mediums.

In 2022, Māori Television made the brave leap to rebrand as Whakaata Māori. While we did not design this final logo, our work laid the foundation in streamlining the identity in preparation for the new name. Whakaata means to present, display, mirror. Whakaata Māori displays the best of Te Ao Māori, presenting a thriving and vibrant community for the world to be inspired by and be part of.