NPR — National Public Radio — is a mission-driven, multimedia news organization and radio program producer. It is a go-to source for informed, reasoned, engaging news and cultural programming.
Signature programming such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Planet Money, and Wait, Wait ... Don’t Tell Me, and distributed programming such as Fresh Air, Car Talk, and World Café, exemplify the organization's approach and impact on their audiences; consider the nearly universal story shared by fans — of arriving at their destination, but staying in the parked car until the end of a segment.
NPR content is more engaging, more personal, less surface, less knee-jerk, offering an unexpected take with an inspirational undertone.
Each program has its own social channels, but the organization needed a dedicated channel to deliver content separate from programming, a one-stop shop for information, insight and excitement about NPR in total.
Using the name NPR — no program name linked — implied NPR News, a miscue to consumers. The name had to communicate that there is more to NPR than what is heard on air — the stories behind the stories, the people and personalities, additional tidbits and meaningful content that fans of NPR would love to hear.
NPR Extra
The word extra has two relevant associations:
• Beyond the usual, expected, or necessary — a good description of the corporate communications content
• In film and television, extras are the supporting cast, the unsung, the rarely noticed — an aspect of the type of content these social channels will spotlight
Defines a space for NPR fans to deepen their discovery, or for a casual listener to learn more about what they just heard
Clear, direct, and accessible, yet exciting and full of possibility
At a deeper level, the word extra has a journalistic precursor, used to announce a special edition of a newspaper — a playful tip-of-the-cap from radio to print in this digital format of social media.
Grounded in strategy, and linguistically well-rounded, NPR Extra is a simple yet deep name, strongly rooted and meaningful on all levels. It properly sets expectations with clarity and vibrancy.