The Guardian, in partnership with in-house creative agency OLIVER and Omnicom Media Group’s PHD, has this week launched a range of new marketing creatives across the UK to support the launch of its flagship current affairs newsletter, First Edition.
The Guardian’s First Edition newsletter, which began last month, offers readers a closer look at one important topic or news event every weekday morning, alongside a selection of the day’s key stories from across the Guardian. Written by Archie Bland and Nimo Omer, the newsletter goes beyond an urgent summary of the headlines to feature original reporting and a sharp analysis of global news events, built around a sense of conversation and community.
The marketing campaign centres around the tagline ‘scroll less, understand more’, positioning the newsletter as an antidote to doom scrolling. The bold and bright creatives invite readers to cut through the noise and find clarity with First Edition, helping to better understand the day’s top stories and learn more about the world.
The promotional activity, which runs throughout May, includes: train card panels on the London Underground, Glasgow Subway, Manchester Metrolink and Liverpool Rail; high impact digital screens in busy London train stations, such as Liverpool Street, Cannon Street and Blackfriars; audio ads running across politics, news, education and learning podcasts, and paid social and search activity to help people easily find the First Edition sign up page.
The out-of-home train card panels feature QR codes to allow people to quickly scan and sign-up to First Edition, while the digital screens are day-parted with two bespoke designs to cater to both morning and evening commuters.
Joel Midgley, head of brand, Guardian News & Media, said:
“It’s an exciting time for Guardian newsletters as we take marketing activity beyond our own channels for the first time to showcase our new offering. This campaign for First Edition is informed by the very same insight behind the newsletter itself: many mornings get off to a hectic start, with push notifications competing with the school run and much more. We’ll be finding new subscribers when they most need First Edition: on their daily commutes at travel hubs nationwide. We hope to drive many new sign-ups, offering readers a deeper understanding of the news alongside a daily dose of the main headlines.”
In addition to paid activity, the Guardian is also running activity across its own social channels, online and in print, as well as host reads within our top Guardian podcasts such as Today in Focus, Politics Weekly UK and Politics Weekly America.
Subscribe to the Guardian’s First Edition newsletter here.
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For more information please contact: media.enquiries@theguardian.com
Notes to editors
Archie Bland
Archie Bland is the editor of the Guardian’s new current affairs newsletter, First Edition. Archie was previously joint executive producer of the Guardian’s daily news podcast Today in Focus, and has been a senior reporter and editor at the Guardian for seven years. Before the Guardian, Archie held several roles at the Independent, including foreign editor, Saturday editor and deputy editor.
Nimo Omer
Nimo Omer is the assistant editor of the Guardian’s new current affairs newsletter, First Edition. Nimo was previously a reporter at Tortoise Media, working across audio, newsletters and digital publishing and winning new journalist of the year at the 2021 British Journalism Awards.
About Guardian News & Media
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the world’s leading English-language news websites. Traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.
