The first was there e
Then came I
Now it is +.
With the proliferation of streaming platforms, the plus sign has become a universal marker indicating endless hours of on-demand shows.
Plus sign streaming services include ESPN + (launched 2018), Apple TV + (2019), Disney + (2019), BET + (2019), AMC + (2020), and Discovery + (2021). On Wednesday, streaming peaked with the rebranding of CBS All Access by ViacomCBS. The company has 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 something extra. Or it could be “a disaster,” said Mike Carr, the co-founder of the brand company NameStormers.
“The benefit is a great short-term idea and a terrible long-term idea,” said Mr. Carr, who has helped come up with names for thousands of customers, including CarMax, the used car company, and Angry Orchard, the hard cider label.
“It’s cool and hip now“, Continued Mr. Carr,” but you cannot have or define a generic term like ‘plus’ because all your competitors are doing the same. “
In any case, the use of the plus sign goes back to 1984, when the French television channel Canal + made its debut. Google was part of the 2011 to 2019 trend, with its Google+ social network.
The streaming platform Hulu used it in 2010 when it launched the Hulu Plus subscription service. In 2015, the company withdrew the plus and the name just became Hulu. “We had a blast with our old friend Plus,” Hulu said when it announced the change, “but it’s time to move on.”
The plus trend came after the craze for dotcom-era names – eBay, Esurance, and Eharmony – which seized the ‘e’ for electronic as a signifier of online leisure and shopping. Apple popularized the famous ‘i’, followed by iGoogle, iHeartMedia and iZotope. Ampersands also flourished thanks to a variety of fashion labels such as Me & You, Me & Ro, Stella & Haas and Stella & Dot.
The plus sign has become so common in the streaming industry that movie star and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds mocked the trend in a commercial for his Mint Mobile wireless provider. His parody was promoted Mint Mobile Plus, a fictional streaming service.
Different professional brand names – the naming industry has exploded from a handful of specialty stores in the 1980s to thousands of outfits – said the use of “plus” could stifle growth. Mr. Carr pointed to financial institutions struggling to differentiate between new credit card offers and have to resort to assigning colors such as silver, gold, platinum and black.
“I can’t say how many times I’ve seen this happen – there’s always a next generation, a version 3.0 or 4.0,” said Mr Carr. “So it will be 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 the craze. But with so many others relying on the symbol, the early adopters “probably feel a little annoyed now that everyone copied them,” said Julie Doughty, who leads the Naming & Verbal Identity practice at the Landor & Fitch brand company.
Now the plus sign can become short for streaming itself, “in the same way that the hash sign became the hashtag,” said Ms. Doughty.
Company naming executives said ViacomCBS and Disney most likely went through months of debates and focus groups, as well as trademark and foreign language controls, before approving the plus marks.
“It’s not that ‘plus’ is the best name,” said Steve Manning, one of the founders of the Igor Naming Agency. ‘It’s the one who survives because everything else is gutted. It’s the least reprehensible choice for a huge audience. “
Mr. Manning, whose firm turned Court TV into truTV, compared the task of selecting a name to choosing a pizza by a committee.
“Someone will get lactose intolerant, someone will not eat meat,” he said. “You’ll be lucky if you eat more than just a gluten-free cheese crust on a good day.”
Alexandra Watkins, whose brand company Eat My Words came up with Smitten for a California ice cream company and Neato for a robot vacuum cleaner, said she tried to avoid names “that look like someone was getting drunk and playing Scrabble.” She acknowledged once selling a customer with a name that included ‘plus’ – and was surprised to make $ 30,000 for it.
With so many streaming companies adopting the symbol, she said ViacomCBS “missed an opportunity completely” by calling the platform Paramount +, rather than doing something more imaginative.
“Plus is the lowest common denominator,” she said. “It’s lazy and the easy way out.”