The ABC’s main television channel, ABC1, is being renamed ABC and will have a new tagline, encompassing a social media hashtag for the first time: #ourABC.

The public broadcaster has labelled the rebranding exercise “bold, simple, raw and real”. It includes new on-air station identification material, known as idents in the trade, featuring everyday Australians and ABC personalities.

A rerecording of the Hunters & Collectors song Throw Your Arms Around Me will become the channel’s anthem.

The ABC “worm” or lissajous image remains.

For two decades the corporate tagline “It’s your ABC” symbolised the audience’s sense of ownership of and connection to the ABC. In 2010, ABC1 introduced the current tagline “think entertainment”.

Now a new tagline “#ourABC” will emphasise “inclusion, togetherness and connection”, ABC Television’s head of marketing and communications, Diana Costantini, said.

“The new branding work has allowed us to create a new on-air look and a new tagline,” Constantini told Guardian Australia.

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“#ourABC was a position we arrived at because it’s inclusive, it’s about togetherness and it’s connecting Australian audiences with us and vice versa.

“The hashtag was introduced so we could hear from Australians and share their conversations.

“The ABC is for everyone, everywhere, every day and this tagline reflects that perfectly.”

The corporation believes the hashtag – used on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – will encourage audiences to engage and enable a collation of their posts on a new ABC website which will launch on 20 July.

In 1997, when the ABC had a single TV channel, the "It's your ABC" station idents were launched along with a multicultural theme showing people drawing the ABC logo in the air.

In 2008 when multi-channelling brought a suite of television channels, the ABC sought to avoid confusion by renaming the main channel ABC1.

But six years on, they now say an extensive qualitative research project revealed that ABC1 never caught on and audiences continued to say they watch the ABC rather than ABC1.

“Now more than ever, ABC Television needs to be relevant to all Australians and our new positioning and branding demonstrates the role of our main channel beautifully,” the ABC’s director of television, Richard Finlayson, said.

“ABC also acts as our gateway to more targeted content on ABC2, ABC4Kids, ABC3, ABC News 24 and increasingly ABC iview. There really is something for everyone on ABC Television – everywhere, every day.”

The new ABC station idents have been produced using existing footage of regional communities, sourced from ABC Open’s own library.

“We’ve captured absolute gold using real-life Aussies in our idents,” Costantini said. “This rebrand is about providing a stage and the magic comes from authenticity, diversity and a few damn fine yarns as told by colourful Australian characters.”

Station idents from the 1970s presented the ABC as "The good-looking Australian" or "At home with ABC".

In 2010 the corporation ran an advertising campaign with an internet-focused concept of "Enter_ the ABC”, which explained all the different platforms, including radio and iview.