National and regional newsbrands say “Get Boosted Now”

National and regional titles put aside competition to encourage people to get boosted this week as part of a government campaign in the run-up to Christmas.

Cover wraps and homepage takeovers with the slogan “Get Boosted Now” appeared in national newsbrands on 20 December in “a rainbow of colours” (pictured above), with regional titles taking up the message on 21 December, encouraging everyone over the age of 18 to get their booster jab and everyone over 12 to get their second dose (pictured below).

Newsworks provided “a single point of contact” to 35 experts and 600 titles for the government’s dedicated media agency team OmniGOV, part of MG OMD, which has more than 100 people and a projected annual spend of £150m according to its website.

This was the latest stage of the “All Together” campaign which launched in April 2020 with “Stay at home” messaging running in more than 600 local and national news titles, described as “the single biggest collaboration for the most important information campaign in a generation, to deepen public awareness, build trust and change behaviour”.

Since it launch the news industry has worked on 75 briefs as part of “All Together”, covering information about vaccines, testing, education and staying safe, through media like cover wraps, digital creative, videos and content.

Jo Allan, Newsworks CEO, said: “It shows what news brands are capable of – reaching millions of people quickly with highly impactful and engaging creative.”

The Government beat Sky and Unilever last year to be the biggest advertiser in the UK according to Nielsen figures, which put its adspend at £164m in 2020, an increase of 238% from the previous year.

This comes as OmniGOV retained the government media account for another four years after a pitch with WPP’s MediaCom, Dentsu’s Carat and Havas Media.