 | | | Los Angeles Times to Launch New Multimedia Branding Campaign | LOS ANGELES, April 12, 2000 - The Los Angeles Times is launching a new multimedia branding campaign this weekend that uses dramatic images of Southern California and around the world to demonstrate the strong emotional connection readers have with the newspaper.
Ads with the tag line, "Connecting Us to The Times," will begin appearing throughout The Times' market this Sunday, April 16, on television, cable television, radio, buses and billboards as well as in The Times through September. The ads were created by Ground Zero Advertising in Marina del Rey, Calif. Campaign budget figures have not been released.
Kathryn M. Downing, publisher, president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Times, said, "Through our exceptional journalism, we enrich and inform Los Angeles Times readers of news and events in Southern California and around the world. Our readers know that their worlds are connected to a larger world through The Times. Our campaign highlights that important connection."
"The ads are intended to be as provocative as our newspaper," said Jim Helin, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at The Times. "The campaign is an integral part of an overall effort to promote our extraordinary journalism and highlight the unique role of The Times and our web site, latimes.com."
The ads feature engaging images of Southern Californians juxtaposed with compelling dramatic images of the world from the pages of The Times. For example, a man and woman sunbathing on a beach are along side a dead soldier in Kosovo. A traffic jam on the 405 Freeway appears next to a military tank parade in Pakistan. Women in bikinis stand in contrast to Muslim women draped in chadors.
"The goal of our campaign is to connect with readers on an emotional level and get them to read the paper on a daily basis," said Dennis Shirley, vice president, marketing at The Times, who led the development of the campaign. "The side-by-side images of Southern California and another part of the world provide a sharp contrast and are intended to make people think about how The Times connects them to their environments and the world at large."
Jim Smith, managing partner of Ground Zero, said, "We believe that The Times excels in its field but that excellence alone is not the key. The Times also understands, and speaks for, the people of Southern California in a unique way. That's the key. This linking of the paper's excellence to the lives of its readers is at the heart of the message of the new campaign, which positions The Times as the way to stay truly connected in Southern California."
The Los Angeles Times, winner of 24 Pulitzer Prizes, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country with a daily circulation of 1,098,347 and 1,385,787 Sunday. In addition to its National Edition, The Times publishes four daily regional editions covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Fernando Valley, and Orange and Ventura counties.
Ground Zero is based in Marina Del Rey, California and is best known for its work for ESPN and espn2; gloss.com; Virgin Cola; Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas and lucy.com. | |