The Spinoff
// Concept & Copy //
NZ’s renowned independent publisher forays into marketing itself.
Making an icon
even more iconic
The Spinoff had been around for seven years, becoming renowned for its hot takes, unparalleled political analysis and forging the frontier of innovation in Aotearoa’s digital news landscape by rejecting the ‘churn and burn’ tendencies of modern journalism.
They were after a platform line that encapsulated its kaupapa and a campaign to launch it, elevating the brand beyond its digital walls.
So we developed ‘Aoetearoa published daily,’ to encapsulate its journalism of all forms (social, podcasts, events, investigative, pop culture… you get it), its commitment to diversity and te Tiriti o Waitangi and its slower, daily publishing approach.
Launching The Spinoff Covered
Once the platform was launched, we needed a campaign to bring its kaupapa to life. Springing from the insight that a digital magazine doesn’t get the luxury of an iconic front cover, despite The Spinoff’s reputation of working with some of the best creatives in the country, we created Covered.
Working closely with their editorial team, we turned 12 of their top stories from the year into digital front covers to be used for an above the line campaign as an end of year wrap.
From there… Sponsored weeks.
We then developed the concept of sponsored weeks for The Spinoff’s editorial team, treating these like separate advertising campaigns within the site’s ecosystem, that would enable sponsoring partners to engage in the sharper edges of topics and conversations they wanted to be a part of.
First cab off the rank?
Death Week: Opening up about the end.
Illustrator: Ezra Whittaker-Powley.
The campaign rolled out across social, editorial, EDM and across sponsors’ owned channels, reaching over a million people.
This thinking and format proved to be one of the most successful partnerships for the media platform and opened up a whole new realm of ways to connect brands with the audiences they’re trying to reach in new and engaging ways.
The art direction also leant itself to an entire design system that could cascade across each comms touchpoint, enabling us to build a whole world that could live effortlessly between two brands.