A Braille cover wrap showed the power of print in last month’s Newsworks Awards in London.
Grand Prix winners the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) put accessibility at the front of readers’ minds with the wrap of commuter paper Metro.
“The front page carried a message exclusively addressing people with visual impairments,” says Newsworks content and social media executive Lewis Boulton.
“Even rendering Metro’s masthead in Braille acknowledged that that moment may be the first time those with visual impairments could read a newspaper.”
The campaign contributed to a wider campaign to raise money for Braille letters to visually impaired children from Santa.
“The wrap proved not just that innovation can happen with any medium, but that innovation has the power to do good,” he says in an INMA blog.
Boulton says the night was a brilliant display of what advertisers can achieve when they explore the full range of platforms where readers interact with news brand content.
“Whereas contextual ads would once only appear cleverly placed next to a story in print, now brands can place in print and wherever they might be relevant to consumers around stories online.
“A whole new set of consumer expectations around platforms allow for striking subversions from the norm, hammering home key messages in trusted environments.”
A partnership between The Guardian’s Feast Saturday food supplement and grocery delivery brand Ocado saw advertising in print edition and alongside digital versions, using QR codes to link to recipes curated by top chefs.
The brand also embraced the indulgent side of food by sponsoring a portion of the Guardian’s ‘Comfort eating with Grace Dent’ podcast.
Another standout was TSB’s promotion to increase awareness of its new Fraud Refund Guarantee.
Using print and online space, the campaign appeared around content both directly dealing with fraud and indirect cultural moments with a fraudulent angle, such as ‘The Tinder Swindler’. With digital stories, the brand placed ads using Ozone’s scale and targeting capabilities, as well as advanced natural language processing and semantic technology.
Lloyds Bank’s takeover of the Evening Standard’s special edition for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee put the brand front and centre for the thousands pouring into London’s streets. Ads throughout the free newspaper commemorating the Queen’s 70-year reign and the transformation of British society reminded readers Lloyds had been by their side every step of the way.