If you’ve been waiting for a train or a bus lately, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen the very first brand campaign for the Guardian Australia as it brings you the top news stories of the day. Partnering with JCDecaux, the campaign tagline is “In the fight for progress, news needs a guardian.”
Mediaweek spoke to Guardian Australia’s director of growth, Jocelin Abbey, about launching the campaign and why they chose to partner with JCDecaux.
The crux of the campaign comes from research conducted by YouGov, commissioned by the Guardian, about people’s perceptions of media ownership.
“We commissioned this research to really seek to understand what Australian news consumers were interested in, and whether or not they felt that media ownership influenced the type of content that was produced,” says Abbey. “The research was astoundingly clear in its response: ultimately 82% of people felt very strongly that the ownership model actually influences the types of content that’s produced.
“With the Guardian, every single dollar that is contributed to us by our supporters goes into the journalism. It’s an incredible cycle, and one that we feel is a story that isn’t widely known in this market.”
Abbey says that now was the time to launch the Guardian’s first brand campaign for two major reasons. The first is that the industry is coming off the back of a huge influx of traffic because of Covid, and the second is because of growing disillusionment with some mainstream news outlets.
“News avoidance is a big factor. Looking at how people consume news, the level of consumption hasn’t changed but people avoiding news is on the rise. It’s a really interesting insight, and I think goes to the heart of some of the trust issues that people have with major media.
“That’s why we wanted to commission this research, and understand more deeply what we needed to do in order to really address that.”
To get their campaign message out into the world, the Guardian needed a helping hand. Abbey says that the team went to the market with a competitive pitch, but ultimately JCDecaux was the best fit.
“Not only did they align with our values from a decarbonisation and sustainability perspective, but they also allowed us the framework in which we could distribute our headlines directly from the newsroom without any interference.
“That for us was a big part of why we wanted to go with JCDecaux, and they’ve been fantastic partners to date.”
For a first-ever brand campaign, the team at the Guardian Australia haven’t started small. The campaign is out and running across TV, digital, OOH, and cinema, which Abbey says gives them the best chance of connecting with people as they go about their day.
“Our job is to really try and inspire the half of Australia that aren’t aware of the Guardian – we want them not only to be somewhat connected to what we do, but to understand our ethos and why we exist.
“The channels that we needed to hit in terms of our target audience were very clear. Our target audience over-indexes in cinema, outdoor, digital, and TV, so those were the channels we pursued partnerships in.”
The campaign is focused on some of the core editorial themes for Guardian Australia, including the fight for progress in women’s equality, Indigenous rights, and the climate crisis. Abbey says that the marketing team collaborated with the newsroom on the decision to highlight these areas.
“These have long been editorial priority focus areas. This wasn’t a marketing call, this was an editorial decision. In terms of the actual pillars we wanted to highlight, we’ve worked hand in glove with the editorial team to help to tell the story of the newsroom and the principles that they’re built around.”