#readlocal squad
The #ReadLocal Squad campaign introduced personas for our news products: a newspaper, phone, tablet, and laptop. These characters, featured in emails, social media, digital ads, and other assets, encouraged customers to stay connected to local journalism.
The team
Art director, illustrator and animator (It’s me, Holly Braford)
Copywriter
Email designer
Email deployment specialist
Q1 campaigns are always a challenge, but could dancing devices win the hearts of potential subscribers?
The challenge
An illustration used in abandoned cart marketing.
Q1 campaigns often come with big, big challenges and require creative approaches to break through marketing fatigue. Our goal was to have a positive, bright campaign that showcased the many formats to read local journalism. We needed to balance any amount of fun with respect for journalism.
We also wanted to expand our acquisition campaigns with other subscriber-facing initiatives, such as print to digital migration.
The approach
We used this dancing newspaper in print-focused marketing.
The #readlocal squad featured “Eddie”-torial the newspaper, Tabby the tablet, Gabby the phone, and Browser the laptop. Each character highlighted unique product benefits while using bright colors and cheerful illustrations to get the attention of our audiences. Simple animations and playful messages reinforced the idea that local journalism could be engaging, modern, and accessible without undermining its importance.
We retained the vibrant color palette and double button structure from a prior campaign to assess their impact on conversions.
There is a small McClatchy DC easter egg inspired by Emma Dumain’s coffee drinking during Lt. Col. Vindman’s testimony in an impeachment hearing.
Result
This asset was used to let subscribers know about weather delays affecting their home delivery.
While the campaign was cut short due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and McClatchy’s bankruptcy, it delivered promising results in its brief run. Users responded positively to the campaign and we observed year-over-year improvements in click-through rates and conversions.
The #readlocal squad demonstrated the power of creativity in marketing local journalism, offering lessons we carried forward into later campaigns.
