Sunday Times’ Halifax tie-up features in rival newsbrands
The Media Plan
Halifax’s sponsorship of The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Live Guide aimed to celebrate local areas around the UK with digital outdoor, but ad placements in print also involved some delicate negotiations with rival newsbrands.
News UK’s The Sunday Times has managed to achieve a rare feat through its latest advertising around the new Best Places to Live guide – the ads feature in rival publications.
The campaign, which broke on 10 April, is sponsored by Halifax and featured a dynamic digital outdoor campaign targeting 14 of the 70 locations on the list.
However the media strategy, planned by Halifax’s media agency Zenith, also led to a negotiation in which the Metro and the Daily Mail carried ads for a Sunday Times product in their home and property supplements.
Richard Kirk, Zenith’s chief strategy officer, told The Media Leader: “[W]e wanted the ads, which explicitly note the Halifax and Sunday Times collaboration, to run across national titles outside of News UK who had home and property supplements, as a way to build reach.
“This involved negotiation with both The Sunday Times and titles like Metro, Daily Mail etc. Big thanks to them, as they did run the ads despite them mentioning a rival, which usually wouldn’t be possible.”
The campaign, developed with Halifax’s ad agency New Commercial Arts, aim to build brand favourability by using local print and dynamic OOH creative across 14 of the 70 locations featured in the Guide’s list.
Creative and media ‘cross-collaboration’
The creative consists of geo-specific posters showcasing and celebrating some of the best places to live in the UK and what makes them great. Content is being amplified by geo-targeted social media to deliver a local, tailored message cost-effectively.
The partnership also runs across News UK platforms, with activity live on The Sunday Times’s digital and print platforms, as well as on audio via Times Radio.
“It’s a true example of a great cross-collaboration partnership between creative and media,” Richard Warren, director, marketing communications at Halifax parent Lloyds Banking Group, said.
Warren added: “The strategy behind this campaign is truly unique, geo-targeting the UK’s best places to live with bespoke content, making the campaign incredibly localised.”
Publicis Media’s trading arm led on negotiating the partnership, brokering the deal exclusively for Halifax, while Zenith led the strategy of localised content to build brand favourability and deliver on Halifax’s core goals.
The goal of the campaign is the same as with any, according to Kirk, which is to “boost spontaneous awareness and positive brand associations”.
All 14 locations were chosen because they have a Halifax branch in the local area, so a crucial part of this campaign was to show how “proud” Halifax is to be a part of these communities, he explained.
In practice, however, this meant Zenith had to “work hard” with News UK to be able to develop the data and strategy needed to run a campaign with various addressable messages for dynamic outdoor ads.
“We needed early sight of the Best Places to Live guide so we could cross-reference with the branch network,” Kirk said. “Also the localised ads all needed to contain specific quotes from the report, which again, we needed early access to. The Sunday Times wanted to use Halifax House Price Index in the editorial, which was another connection to make.
“Outside of the partnership, we were also building localised OOH and social campaigns in our 14 towns/cities – these all needed approval by The Sunday Times and we had to coordinate carefully over flighting dates. We also negotiated a change in the original Best Places to Live package that went to market – removing many of the digital advertorial elements in favour of integration with Times Radio, where we felt we’d get stronger brand linkage.”
The campaign builds on the launch of Halifax’s “It’s A People Thing” campaign which launched in 2021, and since then the bank has wanted to localise its marketing to specific towns and cities.
“We have a hypothesis this approach will improve cut through and more effectively improve positive brand perceptions,” Kirk added. “Our partnership with Sunday Times BPTL is the furthest we have taken this approach to date.”
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