How reconnecting with its roots helped transform the Mirror into the best performing red top.

THE CHALLENGE WE FACED

For decades the Sun has defined the tabloid agenda with its boobs, casual racism and negative points of view. At the same time, the Mir­ror had lost sight of what made it different and special, with readership lapsing as a consequence. At best, it was ‘not the Sun’ with no real reason to buy. Our challenge was to create a positive connecting that delivered genuine reader engagement.

THE TRUTH WE CELEBRATED

That though a tabloid heart and soul, the Mir­ror avoids the usual reac­tion­ary, knee jerk approach of its red top counterparts. With its award winning journalism, the paper provides a deeper, more roun­ded point of view. It is the ‘intel­li­gent tabloid’.

THE MIND BOMB WE CREATED

The intel­li­gent tabloid? A con­tra­dic­tion in terms surely! This was the tension we needed to exploit, walking the knife edge between boring worthiness and unbelievable over claim. We did this by delivering challenges to current perceptions with an unpatronising sense of humour. Initially, this was a ‘show not tell’ demon­stra­tion which allowed people to come to their own con­clu­sion about the Mirror’s intel­li­gence via the ‘aha’ inducing optical illusions of #Madeu­think. More recently, and more competitively, by dramatizing the risks of reading a certain other tabloid in Don’t Say Stupid’.

THE EFFECT WE DELIVERED

In their 2014 annual report, the Mirror Group Chairman called #Madeu­think an “innov­at­ive brand cam­paign” and cred­ited it with help­ing build a “momentum for fin­an­cial growth” which saw the group increase its pre-tax profits by nearly £3m. More recently, Don’t Say Stupid has helped the Mirror to maintain paper sales in a declining sector, and achieve a no.1 position across all platforms.