In a market undergoing constant transformation, AXN decided to reinforce its identity and move closer to its audience with a new brand awareness campaign. More than reaffirming its territory in action, the brand aims to broaden this concept, making it more human and more present in viewers’ everyday lives.

In this interview, Diogo Gouveia Bettencourt da Câmara, Marketing Manager at AXN Portugal, explains how this strategy stems from the evolution of consumption habits and translates into the concept “Do you see action everywhere?” and the signature “Films. Series. Action!”. An approach that brings together content, communication and activations, with the aim of strengthening awareness, clarifying the positioning of the channels and consolidating the brand’s relevance in a competitive ecosystem.

AXN launched a brand awareness campaign in Portugal at the end of 2025. Why was this the right time to invest in strengthening the brand?

In 2020, the claim “Create your moment” was launched, with the aim of conveying the idea that our channels offered viewers a variety of choices and multi-product content, suited to the experience they wanted at any given moment and mood.

However, viewers have changed, and so have their habits. In this sense, 2025 was a year in which we strengthened AXN’s positioning as a leading brand in the field of action and entertainment. From European productions to American epics, AXN’s programming brought major productions to Portuguese audiences, featuring some well-known faces that helped shape the concept behind our new claim.

We wanted to show that, with AXN channels, viewers can expect action at every moment of the day. Not only in our content, but also in our communication and in the activations we create. And action can be anything, from an explosion or a police chase to a simple look.

AXN channels are the home for those who enjoy pure excitement, with addictive stories and protagonists facing moral dilemmas, dangers and conspiracies… and that identity helped shape the concept of the brand campaign: “Do you see action everywhere?”. A concept that reflects the brand’s values and brings us even closer to the viewer.

AXN has always been associated with action, but today the channel spans several genres, from thriller to romance. How does this campaign help broaden or redefine that perception?

Above all, it helps humanise our content. Our programming consistently brings protagonists and villains to Portuguese television who face moral dilemmas, dangers and conspiracies. Who has never felt caught up in a conspiracy? Or faced a moral dilemma? On the other hand, it is also human to create unrealistic expectations about someone we have met or to experience a more turbulent relationship…

We believe this way of communicating brings us closer to the viewer because it shows that all of this is action. And it is intrinsic to human nature to imagine, create scenarios and make films in our heads… even from the most ordinary situations. I think that is something we can all relate to and one of the great strengths of the channels — being able to reach across all these genres.

The new signature “Series. Films. Action!” marks an evolution in the brand’s tone of voice. What does this new claim represent for AXN’s future strategy in Portugal?

This is a signature that perfectly defines what the brand represents: content filled with pure emotion and always with a cinematic aesthetic.

This expression, alluding to the classic “Lights, Camera, Action!”, which sets everything in motion, prepares us to see the magic happen and fits perfectly within the AXN universe, where every second is pure adrenaline, always accompanied by a strong narrative.

This was already part of our identity, whether in the way we communicate on social media, engaging our community with content and the leading stars of series and films, or through our competitions. I can give the examples of the activation we created for the premiere of the first season of “Red Eye”, in which we held a series marathon inside a flight simulator; the preview of “Nine Bodies”, during which we recreated a morgue and had a group of fans watch the preview lying on tables; and, more recently, our Anime watch parties, created to amplify our “Sekai Anime” special.

This will be how we operate as a brand and as a company: close to viewers and fans, bringing them distinctive and engaging content and activations, always with plenty of action.

What is this new campaign and how will it be presented? Across which media? What role does each medium play in the awareness and engagement funnel?

The campaign we launched in March is the embodiment of everything we have been talking about: action in its purest form. We have special programming that will bring together some of our leading series on the channel at the same time: “Hudson & Rex”, “Red Eye”, “NCIS”, “Chicago Fire” and the premiere of the new season of “Criminal Minds”.

As such, we felt this was the right time to bring our claim back to the streets. This will be a multichannel campaign: outdoor, television, social media and digital in general. A campaign with plenty of surprises that will culminate on 24 March, a day created by the AXN channels: “International Action Day”. A moment designed to celebrate the genre, bring our fans closer to the brand and offer something special to everyone who enjoys or seeks action in their everyday lives. This moment will be celebrated by AXN across all its markets.

Who did you work with on this new campaign and what was the collaborative process like? What creative challenges arose when translating AXN’s DNA into the local context?

This campaign was developed by Comon, an agency that has been our partner for many years, both in social media management and in the development of activations (such as our “Red Eye” marathon and the “Nine Bodies” preview), while the media strategy and plan were developed by Nova Expressão, our partner in this area.

And, of course, our own internal creative team was also part of this project, creating all the materials and on-air videos for multichannel promotion.

This campaign is ultimately still evolving, since what we wanted when we launched the pitch to the market was to have a claim and concept that would allow us to communicate several times throughout the year, in different ways and from different angles.

We are fortunate to have two partners, as well as our own internal AXN strength, with creative and professional teams that are fully aligned with the brand’s values, together with in-depth knowledge of the market and the latest trends. They are always ready to take on our challenges, while also challenging us with innovative ideas and projects.

We could not be more grateful and satisfied with the concept, creation, development and execution of this campaign. I believe the key — and the greatest challenge — to ensuring the campaign was successful was being able to bring in visual and communication elements that would connect with any viewer, whether a fan or someone unfamiliar with our productions, through everyday situations from their own lives. I believe that objective was achieved.

Which indicators determine the success of this campaign? Awareness, recall, audience growth?

For us, at this stage, the focus is really on awareness and recognition. Although we believe the brand is strong and well known among the public, we felt there was still some lack of awareness regarding the brand’s three channels and how each of them is positioned. We saw this campaign as a way to showcase our content, as well as the way we communicate and how we are developing our relationship with consumers.

In an increasingly fragmented television market dominated by streaming platforms, how does AXN strengthen its relevance among Portuguese audiences?

Through content and the connection with the brand. Streaming has its own positioning and an almost unlimited content offering, which can also lead to greater fragmentation among consumers. AXN has a clear identity, with iconic productions that are already firmly established in our market and in consumers’ minds, such as “SWAT”, “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS”, while continuously introducing new franchises and productions that win over viewers, such as “Sandokan”, “Red Eye” and “Doc”. This was the main reason behind refreshing the brand. The content is already in consumers’ minds; we felt we needed to bring it closer to the brand, and we will continue developing initiatives that allow us to keep moving in that direction.