Newspaper adverts tend to fall into one of two categories. They are the ones that make no sense whatsoever and the horrible cringeworthy ones that The Daily Mail or The Daily Express show on TV when they have something to give away with their paper. I’ve never seen anything like this though. Roy Greenslade from The Guardian explains the new strategy unveiled by the Evening Standard:
The London Evening Standard today launches one of the most daring of publicity campaigns by apologising to Londoners for its previous behaviour. Buses and tubes will carry a series of messages throughout the week that begin with the word “sorry.” The first says “Sorry for losing touch”. Subsequent slogans say sorry for being negative, for taking you for granted, for being complacent and for being predictable. The ad posters, some of which will also appear on hoardings, do not mention the Standard by name but carry its Eros logo instead. It’s the first stage in a three-week publicity blitz that will also see the Standard relaunched on May 11, though details of what that will involve are not yet clear [full disclosure: I write a weekly media column for the Standard].
This new campaign came about after market research discovered the Evening Standard to be very negative. Geordie Greig, the editor of the London paper, is addressing these problems head on it seems and apologising for their mistakes. It is certainly set to be a massive talking point but only because of the nature of the advert. There’s just one real problem though…
It won’t work. The free newspapers like the London Lite, The London Paper and the Metro have single-handedly wiped out some of the revenue of the Evening Standard and they are now struggling badly. Why would you pay 50p for a newspaper, which has featured some absolutely ghastly articles in the past few months and years, over getting a free newspaper? If you look at what papers people read on the Underground now, it ain’t the Evening Standard or any other proper newspaper but a free read.
