Daily Telegraph Launches Nation-Wide Ad Campaign
The Daily Telegraph is supporting its forthcoming redesign with an estimated £8 million worth of marketing activity, as part of a wider strategy to attract new readers.
The ad campaign, created by Clemmow Hornby Inge, includes three TV executions that will air throughout March on ITV and Channel 4 and Channel Five South. There will also be a nation-wide outdoor poster campaign and point-of-sale ads in newsagents.
The marketing investment follows a reallocation of Telegraph funds after the newspaper abandoned the practise of bulk sales, which is currently used by a range of newspapers to supplement circulation figures (see Telegraph Group Puts An End To Bulk Sales).
Charles Moore, editor of The Daily Telegraph, commented: “Too many newspapers try to promote sales from week to week on the basis of special offers. We wanted to introduce an advertising campaign that built on the huge strengths of this newspaper. We think we are about to find many new readers who will soon wonder why they did not read us before. I am delighted that we have a paper that is so strong in so many areas that the best way of advertising it is to talk about the paper itself.”
The marketing campaign will highlight the re-design and editorial changes that are currently underway at the paper (see Daily and Sunday Telegraph Set For Major Re-Design).
Much has been made of the Telegraph’s desire to appeal to a younger readership and a series of editorial changes, including a new-look front page and title design, will be implemented in March.
The format of the Arts And Books supplement will be re-sized into a 32-page tabloid, with expanded ‘staying in’ and ‘going out’ pages. A promotion offering 50,000 pairs of cinema tickets will support the re-launch.
New columnists at the paper will include Anne Robinson, Allison Pearson and, in a move that has raised a few eyebrows, controversial Trainspotting author, Irvine Welsh.
Moore added: “It took courage for this company to move away from the production of those bulk copies that do no more than boost a circulation figure. We realised that we could spend the money more efficiently by investing in journalism and marketing the result.”
However, advertisers should not doubt that the Telegraph will remain true to its core readership. An expanded Telegraph magazine on Saturday will feature an enlarged food and home section and a new column about the travails of being ‘a man about the house’. The paper’s legendary fashion correspondent, Hilary Alexander, will still be a regular feature of the new look title.
The latest ABC results for the six month period ending January 2003 show that the Daily Telegraph‘s circulation decreased by 4.8% year on year to 972,619, down from 1,021,851 in the same period in 2002. Analysis of the paper’s circulation over a 5 year period reveals a steady decline in circulation, which has been exacerbated recently by the paper’s decision to axe bulk sales.
Telegraph Group: 020 7538 5000 www.telegraph.co.uk
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