The Guardian & Observer Own The Weekend Through Digital First

The Guardian & Observer’s new tongue-in-cheek ad campaign marks a new, bold direction for the newspaper group’s January marketing approach which has, in previous years, focused primarily on promotional giveaways. Devised by award-winning creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), the cinema creative comprises 60’ and 30’ versions of a 3-minute film fronted by Hugh Grant, who was not paid for his involvement in the campaign.

Running on Fridays and Saturdays in January and February, the cinema spots have been booked to coincide with the on-sale dates of weekend editions over the course of the three week campaign. The media planning by PHD Networks draws on insight into the Guardian and The Observer readership, which is known be made up of light TV viewers, but includes cinema in its leisure pastimes. This makes Guardian News & Media one of the first advertisers to take advantage of cinema’s new flexibility to book spots by the day instead of by the week, following DCM’s recent switch to 100% digital.

[embed width=550]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVySc2Qu3WI[/embed]

It also marks the first time Guardian News & Media (GNM) has launched a January advertising campaign to champion its weekend newspapers, with ‘Own the Weekend’ featuring established Guardian weekend editorial supplements, including ‘Review’, ‘Weekend’, ‘Observer Food Monthly’ ‘New Review’, ‘Observer Magazine’ and ‘Guide’, as well as highlighting the launch of a new weekly section, ‘Cook’.

“The Guardian set the standard for excellence in cinema advertising last year with its exceptional ‘Three Little Pigs’ creative,” says DCM’s Commercial Director, Joe Evea. “The new possibilities offered by digital cinema mean we can be responsive to the newspaper’s tactical promotional needs by scheduling spots that support the ‘Own the Weekend’ theme.”

Directed by Tim Godsall and produced by Biscuit Films, the film is a pastiche of a Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster trailer and communicates the campaign message of ‘owning the weekend’ through a series of spoof scenes. The three-minute film will run in its entirety on digital channels (guardian.co.uk and YouTube), with the 60 and 30 second cut-downs shown in cinemas during the course of the activity. ‘Own the Weekend’ takes a sideways look at weekends, with the satirical premise behind the new campaign being the Saturday Guardian and The Observer produce such exciting, varied and rich editorial content that the newspapers effectively ‘own the weekend’.

“We wanted to continue last year’s marketing successes by experimenting with a new, bold approach to January marketing in 2013,” says Guardian News & Media’s Chief Commercial Officer, David Pemsel. “We're delighted to have Hugh Grant on board, helping us create a fun and irreverent style which taps into the spirit of our weekend papers. By championing the award-winning editorial content produced in Saturday Guardian and The Observer each week, we believe the new campaign promotes our newspapers as the very best that the weekend has to offer.”