PROJECT: Name a new entertainment and social action television network that will air feature documentaries, reality TV, drama series, variety shows and an open source talk show.

THE NAME: Beyond just turning and rotating, pivot is the one central thing that something — maybe everything — depends upon. It can be a structured course correction or a re-alignment of priorities. Pivot is all about thinking on your feet, adaptation and informed change. Also connotes pivotal, as in being of critical, essential importance.

POSITIONING: The all-lowercase pivot brand is empathetic, and connotes the dance of collaborators, the auteurs and the audience, learning to work together, to understand and inspire each other. The pivot network doesn’t strong-arm or browbeat you, it uses compelling, entertaining stories to get the audience to gently pivot in their thinking, and to inspire them to action.

Explaining the thinking behind the new network’s name and brand position, Pivot president Evan Shapiro says that “the world is on a path right now, but there are many different paths that we can choose. We’re not necessarily saying which one’s the right one, but we know where we’re headed right now is not working. So it’s time to shift, and it’s time to pivot.”

As the promo video below says, pivot is all about action, direction, inspiration, and entertainment, “a place to begin, a place to put our foot down, a place to call home. We need change with a twist and a turn for the better.”

The world is changing, and when Pivot launches on August 1, 2013, it will be right there in the middle of that change. And with its innovative digital distribution strategy, Pivot may just turn the television industry upside down as well. The name pivot is perfect for this ambitious network that is both television and post-television. The old ways of thinking, acting and relating to each other and the world are not working anymore. It’s time to pivot.

pivot. it’s your turn.

VISIT: Pivot | Pivot Press Release

PROJECT: A revolutionary new wi-fi service for commercial aircraft.

THE NAME: From “go-go” — full of energy, vitality, or daring; stylish, modern, or up-to-date.

POSITIONING: The name had to be memorable, fun, short, universally known, be available for trademark and easy to pronounce globally, and map to both the travel experience and the Internet connectivity experience.

VISIT: Gogo

PROJECT: Name Shaw’s next generation telecommunications network, offering high-definition television, on-demand programming, high-speed Internet and advanced telephone capabilities.

THE NAME: Derived from the prefix “exo-,” meaning “outside of” (exoskeleton, exosystem). Shaw Exo is short, sweet, cool, futuristic, and works great as a graphic “bug” on TV, computer and mobile device screens.

POSITIONING: Shaw Communications, the leading cable television and Internet provider in Canada, wanted a name for its next generation television and communications network that was short, powerful, and different from the competition. Exo deftly delivers, positioning the product as beyond the usual, beyond expectations, beyond what has been done before in this space, and “outside the box,” both figuratively and literally (the TV cable box). The name is aspirational and future-forward:

“Shaw Exo is a promise that we will continue to innovate, lead, and provide the latest in technology and entertainment offerings to customers,” said Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications. “With Shaw Exo, the power of our network allows us to continue delivering the products and services that our customers are looking for.”

“Above and beyond” the parameters of the competition and most definitely outside the box, Exo is the perfect name for Shaw’s network of the future. Available now.

VISIT: Shaw Exo | Shaw Exo 2012 Super Bowl commercial

PROJECT: Re-name a hyperlocal event listings mobile app to create an evocative brand that will become synonymous with finding great things to do near you, wherever you live or plan to visit.

THE NAME: Gravy is the good stuff, the “secret sauce,” a source for discovering all the juicy things going on around you. Like the gravy you eat, the event listings in the Gravy app flow smoothly to your mobile device, and the feeds are customizable in a variety of ways.

POSITIONING: C’mon admit it, you want another scoop of Gravy. The brand positioning for this app, which we helped our client develop, began with “Get Engaged” – have an active lifestyle, be out and about, take part in life by discovering great events and experiences right in your own backyard. It is all about serendipitous discovery, finding your fun, getting the scoop with “insider information” about cool happenings near you. Think of it as your very own hipster tipster!

Finding and having fun, memorable experiences shouldn’t be hard, shouldn’t be a time-consuming chore, shouldn’t be work; it should be natural and easy. Like Gravy. The brand embodies — and the new name demonstrates — a rich and flavorful experience; it brings out the best and makes everything taste better. Gravy shows you the way, but doesn’t get in the way.

Have you ever kicked yourself for missing an event near you that you would have attended if only you had known about it in advance? Do you ever suffer from FOMO — Fear Of Missing Out? Then get Gravy, and you’ll always be in the know.

More Gravy please.

VISIT: Gravy

PROJECT: A new upscale online window treatments brand.

THE NAME: Derived from a very small and remote Australian Aboriginal settlement called Jupiter Well.

POSITIONING: Evocative, memorable and differentiated from the crowd of boring, mostly descriptive names in the window treatment space. This name elevates the brand above the goods being sold; is charming and disarming; emphasizes style; has some familiarity/meaning; and sounds vaguely like it could be both a designer’s name and/or evoke a non-specific sense of place. Jupiter Wells demonstrates, rather than explains, a unique, entirely new perspective, creating emotional engagement with its audience.

VISIT: Jupiter Wells

PROJECT: Name a new upscale urban business hotel in downtown Chicago.

THE NAME: Keen perception, sagacity, intelligence and humor.

POSITIONING: “TheWit” captures the essence of a remarkable hotel experience infused with intelligence, creativity and joie de vivre, in a business hotel that refuses to take itself too seriously.

VISIT: TheWit

PROJECT: Naming CamelBak’s first water bottle product with a built-in filter.

THE NAME: A literal and metaphorical groove.

POSITIONING: The name Groove captures the spirit of life in motion, of being “in the groove,” “getting your groove on” and “feeling groovy.” It also maps nicely to the physical attributes of the product, with the filter slipping into a “groove” within the straw chamber and the patented CamelBak “bite valve” mouthpiece playing off the phrase “tongue and groove.”

VISIT: Groove

PROJECT: Name a startup company and mobile app that keeps track of all your perks and reward program memberships in one place. The name had to be free of any app competition in the iOS and Android app stores and have an exact-match .com domain name available for purchase at a sub-exorbitant rate.

THE NAME: Larky is a quirky play off “lark,” a carefree or spirited adventure, harmless prank, or family of birds who communicate with sustained, melodious songs. The “-ark” of Larky is very similar to the “-erk” of perk, so Larky naturally alludes to “perk,” but in an associative, non-literal way.

POSITIONING: Larky is fun, playful, joyous, melodiously singsong, and also conjures up a “lucky” feeling. In other words, it is the perfect name for an app that is ever-vigilant about alerting you to special deals sure to surprise and delight you with all the perks and discounts you deserve from your memberships. If you belong to AAA, AARP, USAA, an alumni association, professional association, museum, or any one of thousands of member organizations covered by Larky, you’re entitled to valuable discounts on stuff you buy every day. It’s fun, free, and really easy — no membership numbers, no account passwords, no cost, no pain.

Get Larky and get what you deserve.

VISIT: Larky

PROJECT: New name for Nokia’s top-of-the-line 8800 mobile phone.

THE NAME: State of the art, a work of art.

POSITIONING: The new Arte and Sapphire Arte, mobile phones that are truly works of art, among the most beautiful consumer objects available.

VISIT: Arte

PROJECT: New name for Court TV.

THE NAME: Television vérité.

POSITIONING: The new name reflects the network’s popular line-up of series that offer first-person access to exciting, real-life stories, and is no longer restricted to court-themed shows.

VISIT: TruTV

PROJECT: Name a new sales/CRM software platform. So successful was the chosen name it ultimately became the new company name too.

THE NAME: Overwhelming success (a landslide victory); great energy; a force of nature; powerful and unstoppable.

POSITIONING: Maps to software and service that prepares you for a shifting sales landscape, setting you up for overwhelming success, a Landslide victory over your sales quota. The name has great depth and multiple meanings; the negative meaning adds friction, which helps make the name even more engaging and memorable.

UPDATE (2/6/2012): j2 Global Acquires Cloud-Based CRM Provider Landslide Technologies, Inc.

VISIT: Landslide

PROJECT: New solid state drive (SSD) product and product family name.

THE NAME: A evocative astronomical term meaning “one of several hundred known celestial objects, generally believed to be rapidly rotating neutron stars, that emit pulses of radiation, esp. radio waves, with a high degree of regularity.”

POSITIONING: Seagate needed a name for a new product family that captured its futuristic essence and conveyed key concepts of speed, small footprint, power, capacity, durability and reliability. Pulsar is the perfect metaphorical name for this product family.

VISIT: Pulsar

PROJECT: Name a selective brush control herbicide product.

THE NAME: Ease, precision, reliability.

POSITIONING: The name Streamline underscores the precision with which this product attacks only invasive brush, not native plants.

VISIT: Streamline

PROJECT: Rename DirecTV’s 101® Network of original programming.

THE NAME: The Audience is the essential element of all entertainment.

POSITIONING: This project was an opportunity to create a television brand that was different, with a name that was about the audience rather than about the product or the network. Amazingly, though the word “audience” appears in virtually every movie review and every article about a television network, it had never been used as a name in the television / film production industry or in the entertainment business. It had been hiding in plain sight, overlooked.

VISIT: Audience Network

PROJECT: The luxury hotel centerpiece of the new Las Vegas CityCenter development.

THE NAME: From opera, an elaborate song for solo voice.

POSITIONING: The name Aria perfectly captures the experience of art and elegance that this hotel represents, and maps to the concept of a performance by a star that is nonetheless part of an ensemble. Aria is deftly positioned as the antithesis of the stereotype Las Vegas experience. Think cool and classy, not cheap and trashy, with none of the “theme park” pretense so prevalent in most Las Vegas hotels.

VISIT: Aria

PROJECT: Name for a new eco-friendly mobile phone.

THE NAME: Move boldly into the future; transformational; a call to action.

POSITIONING: Nokia wanted a name that would describe the environmental benefit of this particular model, but also serve as a rallying cry for environmental awareness both within the company and among consumers.

VISIT: Evolve