Is the expression "read all about it" about to become a piece of history? Not if the Vienna, Va.-based Newspaper Association of America's new campaign is successful in re-energizing a medium and an industry that has struggled to keep up with a tidal wave of technology that delivers flashier, interactive news at the click of a mouse.
The non-profit organization, which represents over 1,600 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, recently launched its first-ever advertising/PR campaign this past September to promote literacy through - what else - reading newspapers.
The three-year, multi-media campaign is "designed to encourage newspaper readership among young people," and has enlisted football stars, former presidents and a rapper to appear in print and TV ads to give newspapers a spin that promotes them as providers of knowledge and information.
"Our aim is to promote reading, education and literacy and thereby showcase newspapers as a vital, vigorous and valued medium," says John Sturm, NAA president and CEO. "The campaign's strategy is to create advertising that adds excitement and momentum to newspapers - a medium too often taken for granted."
The NAA hopes to achieve other long-term goals besides promoting literacy. Accordingly, the campaign is "expected to, over time, support advertising sales, encourage readership and help build circulation by increasing literacy, especially among children."
"Kids do read the sports section, and the living/entertainment is a strong section for them," says Deborah Hernan, VP of advertising and marketing at NAA.
And while the campaign's tag line, "Encourage your children to read every day," and the TV spots' concluding visual (that features a child lying on the floor turning the pages of a newspaper) has put kids at the center of the message, the majority of the campaign's advertising is directed at the 18-and-over audience, and their parents. According to Hernan, the NAA spent $5 million on its print, cable and TV ads and says that "the estimated value of the newspaper space" in all of the newspapers that ran the ads was $12 million.
Creative Strategy Works at National, Local Levels
The creative strategy of the campaign was to create an advertising format that would both launch the campaign on a national level and provide local newspapers with visuals that they could then take and customize, says Hernan. All of the creatives for the campaign were created by New York-based Jerry & Ketchum Advertising.
During the first phase of the campaign, for example, which ended Oct. 31, NAA member newspapers ran ads with the tag line, "Encourage your children to read every day."
Newspapers were supplied with camera-ready ads featuring celebrities such as George Bush and Jimmy Carter, Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, rapper LL Cool J, retired general Norman Schwarzkopf, and MTV news personality Tabitha Soren reading a newspaper.
Local newspaper could use them as they were or substitute the national celebrities that appeared in them with local ones.
The Chicago Tribune used local celebs Gene Siskel and Ann Landers in the ads, while the Bagnor News used Stephen King. According to Hernan, approximately 70% of NAA's membership participated in the campaign.
The choice of former presidents and generals helped to infuse the campaign with a degree of integrity, says Hernan, all of whom participated in the campaign for a modest fee that was then donated to a charity of their choice.
"We were trying to create awareness and using presidents in a campaign does create that," says Hernan. "You need to go out with something that breaks through the clutter." Simultaneously, NAA ran print advertorials in Advertising Age, Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek and The Advertisor. The NAA also took out inflight advertising on six major carriers, including American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and U.S. Airways.
NAA also ran a series of TV spots, also created by Jerry & Ketchum Advertising, featuring the same celebrities. As the spots begin, the celebrities' identities are hidden behind a newspaper as they talk about the importance of reading a newspaper daily. During the spot, they lower the newspaper and reveal their face to the viewer.
The spots aired on 10 cable television channels, including MTV, Discovery, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, USA, E!, CNN and CNN Headline News and on spot television in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The accompanying combinations of personalities and messages would seem to appeal to both kids and parents.
One spot features quarterback Elway saying "Newspapers will make you a winner in the most important game of all - the game of life," while the text as the bottom of rapper L L Cool J's print ad says, "Read a newspaper with your kids every day and just watch them get rapped up in their future."
The campaign is slated to run for at least two more years. Future plans call for exploring "a greater variety to the media mix as well as venues that would have greater reach among a younger audience."
(John Sturm, NAA, 703/902-1600; Deborah Hernan, NAA, 212/856-6315)
NAA's Campaign
- Kicked Off: September 1997
- Goal: Increase newspaper readership, particularly among children
- Tagline: "Encourage your children to read every day"
- Tactic: The association's first advertising and PR campaign across all media
- Ad Firm: Jerry & Ketchum Advertising
- Price Tag: $5 million on print, cable, TV ads
- Duration of Campaign: At least 2 more years
- NAA Team: John Sturm, president and CEO; Ron Weathersby, Director of PR; Deborah Hernan, VP of advertising and marketing