First there was and.
So came I.
Now it’s +.
With the proliferation of streaming platforms, the plus sign has become a multifunctional marker that signals endless hours of programs on demand.
Positive signal streaming services include ESPN + (started in 2018), Apple TV + (2019), Disney + (2019), BET + (2019), AMC + (2020) and Discovery + (2021). On Wednesday, streaming peaked with the redesign of ViacomCBS ‘CBS All Access brand. The company decided to call it Paramount +.
Putting the plus sign in the name of a well-known movie studio can be a very effective way of telling customers that the platform offers movies and more. Or it could be “a disaster,” said Mike Carr, co-founder of the branding company NameStormers.
“The plus is a great idea in the short term and a terrible idea in the long term,” said Carr, who helped find names for thousands of customers, including CarMax, the used car company, and Angry Orchard, the hard cider label .
“It’s cool and modern now, ”Continued Mr. Carr,“ but you cannot own or define a generic term like ‘more’, because all your competitors are doing the same thing ”.
The use of the plus sign dates back to at least 1984, when the French television channel Canal + made its debut. Google was part of the trend from 2011 to 2019, with its social network Google+.
The streaming platform Hulu used in 2010, when it started the subscription service Hulu Plus. In 2015, the company subtracted the plus sign and the name simply became Hulu. “We had a lot of fun with our old friend Plus,” said Hulu when he announced the move, “but it’s time to move on.”
The positive trend came after the dot-com craze – eBay, Esurance and Eharmony – that clung to ‘e’ for electronic as a signifier for leisure and online shopping. Apple popularized the tiny ‘i’, followed by iGoogle, iHeartMedia and iZotope. The ampersand also flourished, thanks to a number of fashion brands like Me & You, Me & Ro, Stella & Haas and Stella & Dot.
The plus sign has become so common in the streaming industry that film star and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds scoffed at the trend in a commercial for his wireless operator Mint Mobile. Your promoted parody Mint Mobile Plus, a fictional streaming service.
Various professional brand names – the name industry exploded from a handful of specialty stores in the 1980s to thousands of clothes – said that using “plus” can stifle growth. Carr pointed to financial institutions that are struggling to differentiate between new credit card offers and need to resort to the allocation of colors such as silver, gold, platinum and black.
“I can’t say how many times I’ve seen it happen – there’s always a next generation, a 3.0 or 4.0 version,” said Carr. “So he became Paramount Plus Plus? Paramount Plus Plus Plus? “
Last year, new streaming services, like NBCUniversal’s Peacock platform and AT&T’s HBO Max, managed to resist fashion. But with so many others featuring the symbol, early users “are probably feeling a little irritated because everyone copied them,” said Julie Doughty, who directs the practice of Verbal Identity and Nomenclature at the branding company Landor & Fitch.
Now, the plus sign could end up becoming an abbreviation for streaming itself, “just as the pound sign became the hashtag,” said Doughty.
Names company executives said ViacomCBS and Disney probably went through months of debates and focus groups, as well as checks on foreign brands and languages, before approving the plus signs.
“It’s not that ‘plus’ is the best name,” said Steve Manning, founder of the Igor Naming Agency. “It is the one who survives, because everything else is eviscerated. It is the least questionable choice for a large audience. “
Manning, whose company turned Court TV into truTV, compared the task of selecting names to choosing a pizza by committee.
“Someone is going to be lactose intolerant, someone is not going to eat meat,” he said. “You will be lucky if you eat something more than just a gluten-free crust with cheese on a good day.”
Alexandra Watkins, whose branding company Eat My Words created Smitten for an ice cream company in California and Neato for a robotic vacuum cleaner, said she tried to avoid names “that look like someone who got drunk and played Scrabble”. She acknowledged that she once sold a customer a name that included “plus” – and was surprised to earn $ 30,000 for it.
With so many streaming companies embracing the symbol, she said ViacomCBS “completely missed an opportunity” by naming its platform Paramount +, rather than using something more creative.
“Plus is the lowest common denominator,” she said. “It is lazy and the easiest way out.”