You know Starz for their original TV series and awesome movie programming. We know them for the corporate branding assignments they've entrusted to us.

Fred & Ginger. Lucy & Ricky. Bogie & Bacall. Great entertainment has always been built on great partnerships. That's why the Starz network turned to us when they wanted to improve the partnership between their internal sales and creative teams.

In a classic marketing scenario, the two entities had different agendas when it came to promoting the Starz network.

Sales wanted to aggressively promote offers to the network's affiliates. Creative wanted to preserve the network's image as a premier destination for entertainment.

Direct Partners was commissioned to help Starz' creative department incorporate direct marketing strategies into the different facets of their work, in such a way that they would do no harm to the brand's well-groomed image.

This project became the Starz Toolkit-a collaborative guide for the internal teams at Starz, and also their various marketing agencies. The Toolkit is based on best practices for branding and direct marketing  and includes chapters on:

The Starz Brand Identity

The Starz Message Architecture

Starz Direct Response Tactics

The Visual DNA of the Starz brand

Co-Branding and Co-Blending

Actual creative was developed for everything in the Toolkit, from ad banners and Web pages to full blown :30 and :60 second direct response TV spots for a range of different market scnearios.

Today the Starz Toolkit is a living document that is maintained and updated by Direct Partners in collaboration with the creative and sales teams at Starz.