The Guardian wanted to create an impact using cinema’s high-attention, premium environment to reach an ABC1 adult audience to relaunch its Saturday Magazine, as a super-sized 100+ page format which would sit inside the day’s paper.
Plan
The Guardian specifically chose to run its 30” copy in showings of The French Dispatch – a movie which itself focused on the story of a fictional Kansas newspaper supplement produced in the late 60’s by American expatriates. The 30” cinema spot became the hero piece of the relaunch, with its creative then being re-purposed in shorter formats in paid digital, social, and online video to increase awareness amongst both a current and prospective audience.
This was also planned alongside non-video formats including physically sampling copies of the magazine, using OOH and using the full suite of the Guardian's own channels.
Results
The campaign was hugely successful at hitting key ROI targets, with cinema playing a crucial part at engaging audiences in a premium environment.
18.2%
market share in it's launch week, the Saturday Guardian's highest market share for 19 months (since March 2020)
+52%
higher subscriptions from the previous period due to the campaign, 44% higher than target
