Mastheads celebrated in national push for hearts and minds

News Corp is launching its biggest marketing campaign in 10 years to the soundtrack of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

A still from News Corp Australia's new brand campaign television commercial

News Corp is building on digital subscription gains in Australia by launching its biggest marketing campaign for 10 years to the ­melodic soundtrack of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life with the strapline: We’re For You.

With plans to double the number of subscribers to the group’s news brands within three years, News Corp Australia will roll out its first unified national brand campaign across all 30 metropolitan and regional publications from today including The Daily Telegraph, The Advertiser, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and Gold Coast Bulletin.

There is reason for great optimism among newspaper executives and investors. News Corp Australia recorded 389,600 digital subscribers in the most recent quarter — a rise of 26 per cent. And digital subscription sales at big newspapers around the world are booming.

Michael Miller, regional executive chairman, News Corp Australia, said: “This is an exciting time for our company, our brands and their evolution.

“The launch of our whole-of-company brand campaign is an opportunity to reignite our story, values and purpose, and to create an emotional connection, which highlights our brands through the commitment: We’re For You.”

A multimedia campaign will progressively roll out across outdoor poster sites, digital media, cinema, radio and print advertisements through the week, culminating with a television commercial on free-to-air networks and pay-TV from Sunday.

As a cover of The Beatles’ A Day In The Life reaches its feverish ­crescendo with John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s famous lyrics “I read the news today, oh boy”, tailored versions of the TV ad show people consuming news brands on smartphones and in print.

Each TV ad is customised for families in the state where it is playing.

Young people and workers are seen enjoying newspapers against a backdrop of famous landmarks and iconic buildings such as Brisbane’s Story Bridge and Sydney’s Bondi Beach as well as local streets, homes, and cafes.

“Across the company, we believe in the quality of our multimedia products and our masthead brands. The investment we’re making in this brand campaign is testament to that, and an investment in our future,” said Mr Miller.

Masterminded by chief marketing officer Tony Phillips, the creative was based on a key insight provided by the market search: emotions are key to driving paid readership.

Research found that pride resonated strongly among readers ­because it gave them a connection to loved ones and the wider community, a sense of belonging, of familiarity, of being somewhere where you count with others.

“We’re For You is about getting people thinking and feeling. We want to deepen engagement and build an emotional connection with our brands, to give readers a true sense of belonging to their community, with the understanding that ‘I read, therefore I know; I know, therefore I belong’,” said Mr Philips.

“Our metro, regional and community newspapers have a loyal following in the communities they serve, and we are looking to draw out a sense of collective pride in readers’ suburbs, towns, cities and states around the country. We want to reconnect with people.”

Mr Philips, who joined News Corp in June 2016, spent the first 18 months in the job working on retention and acquisition strategies as well as retail sales ahead of a multimillion-dollar brand campaign to attract more digital readers and advertisers.

A former paperboy in Melbourne’s suburbs at age seven, ad executive and then marketing boss of grocers Coles Super­markets and Woolworths, Mr Philips was behind one of the most ­successful ad campaigns of recent years: Coles’ “Down, Down” campaign featuring a big red hand and British rockers Status Quo.

The campaign was devised by Melbourne-based ad agency Big Red and ad creative Ted Horton. For We’re For You, Mr Philips turned to Mr Horton again to bring the same magic touch to News Corp’s brand campaign.

Before joining News Corp, Mr Philips said he had long harboured a wish to acquire the rights to A Day In The Life from the Lennon-McCartney catalogue for a newspaper marketing campaign.

“I had been considering this track for many years before I ever got here, thinking if I was ever at News this is what I would do,” he said.

“The ad writes itself with a track that ­refers directly back to what it is we do every day. You get the worm in the ear. You want people going ‘I read the news today’. It ­becomes telepathic — people don’t have to think too hard.”

With newspapers still facing major headwinds, Mr Philips said it was important to invest in the brands over the long term to sustain a recent bump in subscribers.

“I think the assumption was that these incredible brands would last forever without any support because they are so iconic,” he said.

“The ­investment was being wasted simply because you didn’t have that unification and you weren’t building residual value.

“The last thing We’re For You will be is a burst of brand activity where you stick it on the TV, make a lot of noise for four weeks and then it goes away, and in a year’s time people say ‘whatever happened to that?’ ”

To introduce the campaign, each editor has penned his or her own letter to readers as a double-page print advertisement in all metro and regional mastheads, with Sunday metro newspapers to follow on February 25.

Chris Dore, editor of The Daily Telegraph, wrote in his letter to readers, which appears today: “Our journalists and photographers from Macquarie St to Newcastle, Wollongong, Parramatta and everywhere in between live and breathe this place. Our greatest stories come from you. Inspired by you, for you.”

Ben English, editor of Gold Coast Bulletin, wrote: “It’s not just about bringing you the breaking news. We also have a role in championing our community, to fight for justice and hold those who lead our city to account. We’ve been the bodyguard of this city since 1885.”

Newspapers around the world are building on a period of solid digital sales growth with investment in marketing campaigns amid continued interest in the ­administration of President ­Donald Trump and the proliferation of “fake news”.

The New York Times, which is focused on increasing its subscriber revenue, last year launched its Truth campaign.

The Financial Times ran a Facts. Truths campaign, and The Washington Post’s slogan is Democracy Dies in Darkness. The Australian also unveiled a new positioning statement last year: For the informed Australian.