Max once again is HBO Max: When the brand and the business don't have the same objectives
«Don't kid yourself, you never stopped calling us HBO Max.» That's how the email from Warner Bros. Discovery announcing that the service streaming would use its original name again. Accompanied by memes, GIFs, and cultural references, the announcement seemed more like a millennial “mea culpa” than a corporate statement. And, honestly, it worked.
By Eduardo Gutiérrez
In 2022, after the Merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, a new strategy for the content portfolio was born. A strategy designed to compete with Netflix and Disney+, integrate the best of both worlds (the prestige of HBO and the volume of Discovery), and, incidentally, simplify the service's name. Thus, «Max» was born: shorter, more generic, broader.
From a business perspective, the logic was clear: grow, attract more audiences, and don't alienate anyone with a brand that some might perceive as “too sophisticated” or “too serious.” But from a brand perspective, something broke. What was it?
The tension between what is convenient and what connects
The decision to rename HBO Max to Max wasn't an arbitrary one. It was driven by a real vision: to broaden the user base and reflect a more varied offering, a result of the merger. In terms of brand architecture, it involved getting rid of the co-pilot “HBO” to keep only the suffix, “Max,” which could consolidate the entire content portfolio.
The problem was that in that transition, one of the product's most powerful assets was sacrificed: its name. HBO wasn't just a channel; it was a promise of quality, a cultural reference, a seal of approval. Removing it from the title was like removing the heart from the brand. And that can't be compensated for with more content variety.
And, most importantly, it already had user recognition. Not for nothing, as their email aptly stated, “we never stopped calling it HBO Max.”.
The user also votes (and generates conversation)
The public quickly reacted, flooding social media with memes and posts. Max generated confusion, diluted the positioning, and broke an emotional bond that had taken years to build.
When HBO Max announced its return, it didn't just correct one decision namingrecognized that brands are not just business vehicles, but also living organisms that breathe in culture and in the minds of their users.
The comeback campaign, with humor and self-criticism, wasn't just fun. It was a smart way to reconcile. A message that said: “We understood, we were wrong, here we are again.”.
It wasn't a failure. It was a timely correction.
More than a fail From a brand perspective, this case is an example of a company that knew when a strategic decision had become disconnected from its identity and knew how to correct course before completely losing the symbolic capital it had built.
Because it's true: business decisions sometimes demand uncomfortable compromises. But brands can't afford to forget what made them relevant in the first place. True value lies in knowing how to listen, not just to the market, but to the culture around you.
In Gerund, we believe that brands are not defined in a rebranding. They are built on the consistency between what you do, what you say, and what you stand for. And that, like HBO Max, they also get stronger when they are able to say, «I was wrong.».
Returning to the original name was not regressing. It was reconnecting.
