At significant moments in the global news agenda The Economist journalism has gained recognition and value that reaffirms brand purpose.

This campaign started during a very uncertain period in the world: the war in Ukraine had just begun; in many countries, people were still dealing with the aftermath of covid-19; cost of living had started to rise, and many households were struggling to make ends meet. In these unprecedented times, we wanted to highlight The Economist as a dependable resource for trustworthy information that audiences could turn to for different perspectives.

“Bring the world into focus”, “Sharpen your understanding” and “Perspective changes everything” were our three advertising headlines that aimed to empower the reader. Our brand enables people to see things from different perspectives with clarity, global-mindedness and the rigour of balanced, informed opinion.

Awareness plan was focused on five different categories, including display, video, audio, social and dOOH (Grand Central Station in New York City).

This campaign won at The Drum Awards 2023 in Digital Advertising: Media and Entertainment category .

Creative Direction: John Long (concept), Ruth Azar, Laura Dirzyte
Copy: Ruth Azar
Design and Animation: Laura Dirzyte

The Economist Brand Campaign • 2022

Grand Central dOOH ads were displayed not only on individual screens but next to each other in a row of three. This allowed for another way to read the ads and perceive the message – from left to right the focused words revealed the line “Understanding changes world”.

The text-led HTML5 ads were the interactive pieces placed in various online media sites that our target audience frequents. Ads showed partially blurred headlines but once a viewer hovered over the ad with a mouse the headline came into focus. This responsive HTML5 format ability allowed us to amplify the message as well as show individuals that they can sharpen their understanding by directly interacting with The Economist.

For this campaign we wanted to build on the legacy of the “white-out-of-red” ad style that The Economist is already known for. We brought this design language into the digital environment by using interactive and animated designs. Videos zooming out from photos taken in Ukraine amplified the stark message of the broader context changing perception of a story.