Evening Standard relaunches today with promises of better behaviour

The Evening Standard is launching the next stage of its advertising campaign in support of today’s relaunch as the London Evening Standard.

The activity, created by McCann Erickson, includes a 60 second TV ad and a print and outdoor campaign featuring the words “we promise”, with the next stage set to feature outdoor and bus-side ads using bold colours and two-tone prints.

It follows last week’s Standard ads saying “sorry” to its readers for its previous behaviour.

Today’s relaunch will see 650,000 free copies of the paper handed out across the capital (see Evening Standard to go free for a day), while additional marketing activity includes offering the paper half-price to Oyster card-holders and selling left-over titles for just 10p to late-night travellers.

The new-look London Evening Standard has a new masthead, as well as new sections and columnists, while its ES magazine, which comes free with Friday’s edition, has also undergone a revamp.

The most recent ABC figures, for April 2008, show that the paper had a total circulation of 263,312 copies, down more than 6% year on year (see ABC London Newspaper Focus: Apr 2009).