First it was HBO. Then HBO Max. Then Max. And now… back to HBO Max. Again.
A billion-dollar game of musical chairs with brand names. Why? To chase a different audience. To sound cooler? Or to signal change?
I love the rebranding stories of logos, or objectives, but not of their names. If your brand needs a new name to feel fresh, you're not solving the right problem. It's clear that this wasn't a branding decision, it was a panic button.
Rebrands often try to fix perception without fixing the product. And when it flops you just switch the name back and pretend it never happened. Just an undo of rebranding.
Rebrand the visuals, but don't forget the vision.
Real brand work is slow. Honest. Organic. It's what HBO did since '70s. Changing the label doesn't fix what's inside the box.