Last week, in the first of my two posts about the renaming of the Sci Fi Channel, I credited (or blamed) Landor Associates for the new name, Syfy. Now comes word from Landor Executive Director Ken Runkel, writing in the company blog, that Landor was an innocent bystander:
Yes, we worked with the Sci Fi Channel, and it hired us to consult on the project. However, Syfy was a name generated internally and pre-tested at the channel before our involvement. Once Landor was involved, we explored new names as part of the process, but it was the Channel's call to go with Syfy.
If I were Runkel, I'd want to separate myself from the Syfy name, too. What isn't clear is why Landor took more than a week to announce the disclaimer. I learned about it yesterday, when the agency's senior director of naming and branding, Jeremy Faro, posted a terse comment on a LinkedIn group discussion.
Looks like someone (not Landor) is being credited with developing the new Syfy name. Michael Engleman, VP Creative:
http://dennytu.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/landor-distancing-self-from-syfy-naming-credit/
Posted by: Joseph Keeter | March 26, 2009 at 01:25 AM
I think Landor should have let the story die, instead they are drawing attention to it. All they are accomplishing is driving home the fact that they were paid to rename the channel, but the client didn't care for any of their ideas.
Posted by: steve | March 26, 2009 at 03:21 PM