With a readership of over four million worldwide, The Economist aims to increase brand awareness and encourage a rise in readership in South Africa. This forms part of wider investment plans for future growth in the Middle East Africa region that target cities rich in potential The Economist readers. Johannesburg is one of the first cities to be so targeted.
"Proximity demonstrated a fantastic understanding of who constitutes our target audience in Johannesburg and how best we can reach them," said The Economist brand communications manager (CEMEA) Charlotte Smith. "They've come up with some exciting ideas to ensure that our global brand will resonate in a real way with the local audience and we look forward to working with them on this project."
According to proximity#ttp executive creative director Stuart Stobbs, his team will focus on continuing the traditions of a brand with such a history of iconic work. "Our approach and thinking will be anything but traditional, though, because we'll be combining a number of different types of media to achieve the campaign goals. It's going to be a truly Joburg campaign for a truly great international brand."
"Clearly, our individualistic style, and use of multi-disciplinary creative strategies to solve commercial, and not just advertising, problems gave The Economist the confidence that we can match them for non-conformism," says Brendan Wade, proximity#ttp MD. "That's where we live as people. And that's why we can help change perceptions of The Economist and get readers to see that its content is so much more than just politics and finance."
New kid on the block
Three-years old, proximity#ttp is not only a relatively new kid on the South African block, but also one of the youngest in terms of team complement. "In many ways, we represent The Economist's target market," says Wade, who took over as MD from founding partner Nici Stathacopoulos at the end of November 2008. "So we will, in this campaign, in effect, be talking to ourselves.
"That aside, the fact that we won the pitch against some heavyweight competition reinforces our belief that multi-disciplinary studios, such as ours, are best equipped to deliver creative strategies that can reach and inform the intellectually curious and, therefore, change their behaviour.
proximity#ttp's campaign for The Economist, kicks off in the winter months.
