Creatively pitching The New York Times

Droga5 have been working with The New York Times for 5 years.

In that time the agency has produced some stunningly impactful work.

As we have outlined here before the newspaper have recently chosen to reposition themselves as a global media brand with a keen focus on subscribers, rather than advertisers, as their primary customer.

The result is a modern media brand that has not only ridden through the radical disruption that all media outlets have endured over the last decade, but have used it to their advantage.

The brand most certainly leads the business, and financially; the business has never done better.

In a recent keynote presentation organised by the online industry publication It's Nice That - Droga5 creative directors Toby Treyer-Evans and Laurie Howell give us a few insights as to how they have gone about creatively pitching the new, New York Times value proposition in its advertising.

From the off, Toby and Laurie showed us how Droga5 has used type on its campaigns to create a “visual poem” – i.e. creating a voice with no audio through typing words – and to make a “tennis rally through history”. The ad agency has also figured out how to reflect not just a subscriber but a whole life using headlines from The New York Times in the film campaign Independent Journalism for an Independent Life. Digging into other fascinating concepts like how to depict the “the symbiotic relationship between the person and the reader”, and create a portrait by painting people’s minds, Toby and Laurie proved that the agency’s work with the paper is about more than just one concept; it’s a rich tapestry of things, just like the publication itself.

A strong brand, brought to life through creativity and excellence is truly a thing of beauty.