The public image: HMV's tie-up with 'The Twilight Saga'

Client: HMV Agencies: Qd design & venturethree Territory: UK and Ireland Verdict: ****

HMV, the entertainment retailer, has been attempting to reinvent itself to counter the decline in physical CD and DVD sales and reach out to the digital generation. It has successfully diversified into online retailing and operating live music venues.

It might make commercial sense, then, for the company to revamp its longstanding logo of a dog listening to a gramophone. But instead of a wholesale rebrand, it has cleverly elected to adapt its brand occasionally as part of tie-ups with entertainment releases rather than opt for a wholesale redesign.

To coincide with this month's DVD release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon , the second film based on Stephenie Meyer's vampire-themed teen novels, HMV's dog Nipper has been transformed into a wolf howling at a crescent moon. The logo is being used in press advertising, shop windows and in-store marketing materials.

Twilight is a good franchise with which to tie up: its hardcore fanbase has helped the film become HMV.com's most pre-ordered title ever.

HMV previously adapted its logo in 2007, when Gromit, the animated canine hero of Wallace & Gromit fame, stood in for Nipper as part of a promotion on children's DVDs. HMV benefited from the relative simplicity of its own brand, which can be easily adapted to tap into the latest entertainment craze.

More strategic rebranding can be expected; it not only helps drive awareness of the product but will also prevent HMV's own image growing stale.

Esther Bintliff