Proximity London

Client: The Economist
Title: British Election Campaign
Product: The Economist
Media: Integrated
Country: UK
Date Of Campaign: May – June 2017

Background: When the UK was thrown into a snap election, The Economist had to react. Events like these represent big opportunities to grow its readership. However, the result was seen to be a foregone conclusion and people were 'switching off' from the subject. So the idea was to offer every person in Britain free access to The Economist's alternative perspective to help encourage them to engage and inform their vote.

Idea: To jolt a numbed electorate and get them reading their election coverage, The Economist reacted to developments as they happened using its trademark wit across out of home, press and even Snapchat. On the morning of the result, they'd worked through the night to produce digital billboards at King's Cross that reflected how destinations from the station had voted mere hours before. The famous red branding was even turned blue, orange or green depending on which party had triumphed (though even The Economist was caught off-guard by Labour's resurgence and how much red they needed to use.)

Results: In a short space of time, the campaign created a huge new audience with almost 170,000 retargettable prospects. 2,878 people chose to pay for a subscription off the back of the activity, delivering a ROMI of £6.47:1