125 Year Anniversary Client: Financial Times Campaign: 125 Year Anniversary Creative Agency: Adam and Eve DDB Date: February 2013 The Financial Times chose to launch a campaign celebrating their 125 year anniversary via a global press, online, experiential and digital OOH campaign. The campaign will be rolled out globally throughout the year but began in London, the birthplace of this prestigious publication, on the 13th February 2013. Ocean’s high profile, digital OOH spaces were selected by the brand as they were viewed to be premium, innovative and relevant to the campaign’s objectives: creating an engaging message to their consumers that the FT is “still guiding the way for global business”. The use of digital OOH allowed the FT to communicate its conscious shift towards its online offering, allowing their audience the publication anytime, anywhere. The spaces chosen are all full motion digital screens and target business professionals in the city. The Financial Times is a publication with staying power, relevance to new and existing audiences and a willingness to invest in the digital medium. Brief The newspaper turned 125-years-old on the 13th February which is being marked with a global print, digital, experiential and digital outdoor campaign created by adamandeveDDB. The creative shows a wrapped up publication carrying the strapline “still guiding the way for global business”. The Financial Times is a celebrated business institution over and above its status as a global provider of financial news and business information.
Strategy The Beginning of a story From its beginnings in 1888, the Financial Times has adapted to changes across the newspaper publishing sector, expanding into new territories and adopting new channels of delivery. The rise of modern day technology offers alternative ways to offer their readers the same trustworthy, accurate and expert information – in a modern, succinct and user friendly way. A far reaching & integrated campaign Through various digital initatives the 125 year anniversary campaign will look to drive engagement with its brand online. Another of the brand’s objectives is to increase online audiences by looking to reach new people whilst also broadening out the demographics to 18 to 24-year-olds or markets.
Execution A Global Celebration The Financial Times is synonymous with its salmon pink colouring. Therefore it made sense that the experiential element of the campaign kicked off first with a pink hot air balloon that flew above around London on campaign launch day, allowing people to ride in it. The newspaper’s office in London Bridge was also illuminated in pink. Activity will continue around the globe for the rest of the year across key financial centres such as New York City. The first tablet-shaped hot air balloon will fly over New York City alongside the iconic Empire State Building which will be lit in pink. The FT is also offering a special anniversary deal for a one-year subscription to its website. The activity, which marks the FT’s “most far reaching and integrated campaign” hopes to not only appeal to a business audience but to emphasise that business is relevant to everyone in some way. In addition, three iconic Ocean digital spaces, located in London’s financial district, showcased the creative in premium environments to a relevant, business audience. Dynamic creative played out across these screens for the first weekend the campaign helping to create further awareness. Results Initial figures so far show that overall the 125 year anniversary campaign has performed extremely well for the Financial Times. It’s been the biggest subscription acquisition campaign in such a short period and there has been significant coverage on social media. The experiential element of the campaign (the FT branded hot air balloon and the office illumination) also created a lot of comment in the press and on social media channels such as Twitter, creating an engaging campaign. The use of Ocean’s three city screens allowed the FT to capture close to 3 million people during the course of the campaign launch.
Screen @ Canary Wharf: 685,000 impacts over the 1 week campaign period, AB: 28% Eastern Motion: 532,011 impacts over the 1 week campaign period, AB: 17% Two Towers East: 1,577,716 impacts over the 1 week campaign period: AB: 40.8%
“The use of Ocean’s premium digital outdoor sites in central business districts allowed us to target key audiences for the FT. Having an outdoor digital creative as the leading part of the campaign, the Ocean sites provided us with the perfect platform to ensure a premium execution. Reinforcing our strength as a multi-platform media owner through spectacular outdoor locations created the perfect environment for us as a forward thinking iconic media brand, enabling us to reach new audiences through equally smart platforms.” Catherine Jacklin Head of Marketing at the Financial Times
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