A selection of the assets and collateral used in the More than news campaign. Motion graphics were a consistent through line throughout.
Newsela More Than News
Challenge
Our brand research showed that many educators only knew Newsela for their News product. As a result, our Premium product offerings were often overlooked even though they nearly doubled the amount of content users had access to and solved common problems in the classroom. We needed a campaign that showed dynamically how much non-news content we had and could follow our comms wherever they may go. We also had to use the “More than news” moniker as it was favored by our executive suite.
Solution
We needed to meet our educators where they were, Teacher burnout was high and rather than add one more thing to their plate we wanted to entertain and inform. So working with the Senior Director of Corporate Marketing I created a campaign concept centered on a scalable series of videos known internally as our “Doodle Videos” and two quick awareness videos made for social (right). This campaign broke several video engagement records for the company, with one video alone garnering over 1 million views on a single platform. It was also celebrated by our sales team as just what they needed in the field.
Concept
Showcasing the many components and layers of Newsela that existed beyond our news content these layers are literally baked right into the creative treatment. This concept was focused on highlighting the product letting it speak for itself (with a little design support/license to help the viewer focus) We also highlighted the diversity of our content through color, and in featuring the images from the content.
The doodle videos played a central role - establishing a connection to our educators that made our other content feel more approachable and increasing awareness of our premium offerings.
Role: Creative Director
Tools: Adobe illustrator, Creative Strategy
Team: Junior and Mid-Level designers to implement, Agency - Demo Duck, and Senior Director of Corporate Marketing
Awareness Videos Produced for this campaign
Viral Doodle Video
This video received over one million views on YouTube alone.
The doodle video on the left is one of a set of videos created at the center of the More than News Campaign. I worked with stakeholders to create the video formula for these and then contracted with an agency to create the final product.
Because we were trying to meet educators where they were, all videos are short - tailored to social media. They were also humorous - we were looking to entertain and inform.