Warner Bros. Discovery Brand Strategy for Max Isn’t Fully Baked

The long-awaited grand reveal of Warner Bros. Discoverys new streaming offering was, you might say, a bit anticli-Max-tic.

WBD leadership unveiled the new version of its HBO Max service Wednesday with a press event weighted with grandiosity: This is our time. This is our chance This is our rendezvous with destiny, intoned CEO David Zaslav by way of an introduction. What followed was essentially a glorified sizzle reel for the new Max, one that served to confuse more than clarify the identity of WBDs flagship streamer.

All in all, it was an awkward event, aiming for the poise and polish Disney typically brings to its presentations but falling short. The absence of any talent on hand to promote all that new content, for instance, was conspicuous.

Yet perhaps that awkwardness was fitting for the launch of Max, a service that will be awkwardly positioned and awkwardly branded as it reenters the crowded battlefield of the streaming wars.

Max, as WBDs president/CEO of global streaming and games, JB Perrette, explained, is a family-friendly service that will lean heavily into kids content, hence the decision to drop the edgy HBO brand from the name. (Never mind that animation and kids content saw some of the biggest cutbacks in WBDs year of downsizing.)

But, Perrette hastened to add, HBO is still HBO, and an integral part of the Max service so much so it gets its own button at the top of the homepage! And dont forget the vast array of Discovery content HGTV, Food Network, the Gaineses Magnolia brand coming to the platform upon relaunch!

WBD leadership clearly intends the new moniker to convey the breadth of content available on the service beyond HBO; indeed, unrivaled breadth is practically an unofficial slogan for Max, judging by how often the phrase was repeated at Wednesdays event.

There is a certain logic at play here. Ive never been a big fan of the HBO Max branding, which belied, yes, the breadth of WB-owned content it hosted. Warner Bros. is perhaps the most recognizable legacy brand in Hollywood besides Disney, with a storied movie studio, a major superhero arsenal, historic animated characters and much more under its vast umbrella.

Still, if Warner Max or even WB+ would have been better, HBO Max at least offered a concrete idea of what subscribers would get for their money. Just Max, on the other hand, conveys exactly the opposite of what WBD wants this service to be.

Were not a giant, undifferentiated blob of programming, declared content chief Casey Bloys during the presentation. But what does a streaming service called Max suggest if not a giant, undifferentiated platform?

Not for nothing, furthermore, content breadth is hardly an unrivaled proposition in the streaming wars, in which nearly every service on the market highlights the breadth of its offering.

Simply put, in the overcrowded streaming landscape, in which consumers already struggle to differentiate the many available SVODs, clarity and brand identity are paramount, and Max offers neither.

To WBDs credit, the redesigned app will present its various brands and IP as tiles from which to choose a good strategy, and a tactic cribbed from Disney+. The presentation also took care to highlight and emphasize those tiles in turn, from Magnolia to DC to the hallowed HBO.

That may be the best tack for WBD to take under the circumstances. The fact is, no one has really figured out how to distinguish a general entertainment service. Netflix did so simply by getting there first, leaving all the other players to scramble for distinct identities. By highlighting the key jewels of its portfolio, WBD seems to be positioning Max as the premier competitor to Disneys offering, with discrete premium brands all housed together on one app.

Yet the question still looms as to how many additional subscribers the new Max will be able to reel in. Despite its initial plans for a single, merged offering, WBD decided to keep Discovery+ as a separate service after all, suggesting many subscribers were not interested in the more expensive HBO Max service.

How big, then, is the overlap between Discovery+ and HBO Maxs total addressable markets? There are, no doubt, some consumers out there who will be interested in all Max has to offer, but how many? And if those users currently subscribe to both services, will WBD see a significant drop in streaming ARPU at a time when it desperately needs all the revenue it can get?

But WBD is hardly doomed. Again, the company is armed with one of the best libraries in the business, is still churning out hits and is relatively healthy in terms of subscriber scale among the newer streaming combatants. But PR blunders and clumsy branding are becoming a pattern under Zaslav, and hes not exactly helping his standing with a rollout thats already cringeworthy to the Max.