2016 Silver Best design or art direction

Agency Wunderman UK: Part of Pulse Creative

Client The Times - News UK

Campaign summary

Your Times Membership has been backdated to 1 January 1785

Campaign overview

89% of new Times members dropped their subscriptions after the initial three-month promotional offer ended.

The challenge was to increase retention by 10% and to reinforce the value that membership gave customers.

Strategy

The campaign identified a segment of people who’d taken up the promotional offer, around 10,000 in total, who were in their 50s or older, lived outside the main metropolitan areas and who rarely looked at the papers online.

Profiling these individuals, they massively over-indexed for their interest in culture and history.

The Times and Sunday Times knew that this was an opportunity to reinforce the value of membership, rather than highlight the end of the promotional period.

So the campaign tapped into the audience’s passion for history and turned to the vast and fascinating archive subscribers can access.

The Times is one of the oldest newspapers in the world, and its journalism includes eye-witness accounts of some of the most memorable events of the last 200 years. With postal addresses for the audience (but few email details), prospects received a special piece of direct mail.

Creativity

The DM stressed the extraordinary (and unique) nature of the history of both papers.

An antique-looking outer said: ‘Your Times Membership has been backdated to 1 January 1785’.

Inside was a beautifully designed, limited edition history of The Times and The Sunday Times told through their iconic front pages and world exclusives.

Short, compelling copy described the events in question and the role of the papers in them. Produced on newsprint (to bring out the importance of the newspaper), this supplement showcased the power of The Times and The Sunday Times to report on, and change, the world.

The call to action directed the reader to the archive and to exclusive content - the Unquiet Film series - where there were further opportunities to explore the past history of the newspapers.

Results

Normal churn rates saw around one-third of customers leaving when the (overgenerous) acquisition promotions ended.

After this DM went out, however, it was found that 39% more customers were continuing their membership versus the control group, delivering over half-amillion pounds in incremental revenue.

Team

Nigel Webb (Creative Director) • Richard Kenyon (Creative Director) • Stephanie Reeves (Designer) • Tilly Tang (Account Director)