Speaking at the unveiling ceremony at Planet One Entertainment, Maryland, Lagos, Afolabi Adesanya, managing director, NFC, said the new logo was informed by the need to have a real identity which the public could easily and generally associate with, and with which the corporation could run for some years before deciding on a new one if it is absolutely necessary.

According to him, the first edition of the festival was conceived within the NFC due to some technical problems, but the need to come out in a big way this time, was what necessitated the signing on of ADSTRACT. "This time, we really want to come out in a big way, and in the process, we have realized that we need a real identity and that essentially informed having a logo that we could run with for some years before deciding on a new one if it is absolutely necessary. But, essentially, the logo is to give us an identity which the public can easily and generally associate with the Zuma Film Festival each time they see it, even if the name is not written there just like the AMAA Awards", Adesanya stressed.

The NFC boss noted that the new logo captures the theme of the Zuma Film Festival 2008: "Real Life Real Action" which adequately explains the creativity of the Nigerian movie industry as storylines are brought alive in real fictions.

"It is also a reflection of the ingenious and creative manners with which the Nigerian movie industry has grown rapidly in the past few years", Adesanya said, stating that when the industry grows, the country would witness two to three festivals in each state of the federation and in Abuja.

He lamented that the movie industry is really under siege by pirates, whose activities, he said, are really eating deep into the pockets of producers and also affecting the residual values of films.

"Ideally, when you have good returns in terms of value, it will trickle down to the artistes especially if the producer has a contract with the artistes. But this is not happening because pirates are the ones really earning the money".

However, Adesanya said that government, through the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), the reconstituted Copyright Commission and the Corporation is cutting the excesses of the pirates by ensuring that films are duly registered before they are censored.

At the presentation and unveiling of the logo, Charles O’Tudor, principal consultant, ADSTRACT, said the essence of the logo for the film festival was simply to create a unique identity for the festival and to ensure a consistent profiling that cannot be mistaken for any other brand.

O’ Tudor stated that the new logo was meant to foster an emotional bonding between the brand and its stakeholders, a process of putting in place those differentiating factors that give the festival a unique personality, stressing that beyond this, the logo would ensure that the equity of the brand goes beyond the film festival.

The ADSTRACT principal consultant is optimistic that the logo would drive the Zuma brand and the market to the next level because it is a world class standard, and it is abstract and timeless.

But Charles Novia, a filmmaker and CEO, November Records, said the launch was not about the logo or branding as such. According to him, it was basically about how to move the motion picture industry forward. He noted that festival was a very good idea for bringing practitioners together.

He noted that the practitioners needed to go for courses, for refresher courses, for seminars, for workshops, among others in order to take their acts to the next level.

He is, however, of the opinion that if the organisers of the festival pursue the visions and projects of festival vigourously, to move Nollywood forward as a body, the branding and the logo itself would just be an appendage of the general concept.

The brand consulting firm in conjunction with its affiliates-AXLE and STRATIS are saddled with the responsibilities of creating a unique identity for the festival, manage its image and as well as provide strategies for its media buying.