The Economist: The Word on The Street, 1

Credits & Description:

Media: Print
Media: Media
Advertising Agency: FHV BBDO, Netherlands
Title: Surprising Reads
Client: The Economist
Geo: Europe, Netherlands
Title campaign: The Word on The Street
First publication: September 3, 2012
Concept: Paul Falla
Art Director Bas de Graaf, Martin Cornelissen
Copywriter: Paul Falla, Mark Muller, Simon Carbery
Designer: Bas de Graaf
Photographer: Bas de Graaf
Responsible client:  Marina Haydn, Kate Cooke
The brief: The Economist is well known in the UK. In Germany it has an awareness of 2%. We needed to change this.
The idea: We know potential readers love reading, so we gave them something to read. Our idea: a campaign bringing media, creative and the board of editors of The Economist working as one. We focused on Berlin. We asked our media partner to map out the locations where we could find our potential readers. The media became the brief for the editors to find a topic and write the articles to create a smart match with each media type,
The solution: We turned media space into reading space. Giving Berliners a fresh view and a taste of what The Economist is about. The campaign got Berlin reading… and talking. Awareness went up to 12%. We even got a compliment from the editor in chief Wolfgang Blau of the biggest local competitor, Die Zeit. He just needed 109 characters. Germany is now aware of The Economist.