The FT’s pink pages have been a shorthand for quality intelligence for over a century. However, in our digital world, more people read the FT online than on physical paper. We know from research that the key driver of consideration globally is that we’re a brand people are ‘proud to be seen reading’. The rise in digital rather than paper access to the FT has contributed to the watering down of a key brand code. It was a business challenge we needed to tackle.

Our objective was to reinforce the premium positioning of the FT by linking pink - in a fresh and surprising way - to our journalistic values. We wanted to champion the signature colour FT Pink, a precious, and waning, element of the brand's equity, alongside the promise made on the masthead of our very first edition: to report the news “without fear and without favour”.

At the heart of our campaign were two films; each telling the oldest stories of the FT in a uniquely modern way. They focus on two highly tangible, historical examples of the FT’s defiant attitude and Fearless dedication to truth.

The first focused on the unique salmon-pink of the paper itself, an idiosyncratic cost-saving decision that marked the brand out as both a maverick and an icon. However, this film isn’t just about the colour; pink is an emblem of the willingness of the FT to make difficult (even contrary) decisions when they are right. Pink is the colour of fearlessness.

The second told the story of ‘Without Fear, Without Favour’, the mantra that appeared on the masthead of our first ever edition and continues to guide the principles of our journalism today, from our exposé of the Wirecard scandal to our coverage of the WPP misconduct investigation.

Our brand tracker data showed a downwards trend in how many people associated the FT with the colour pink. Given that the FT’s main driver of consideration is being a brand ‘people are proud to be seen reading’, we knew we needed to harness our 130th "pink anniversary" to breathe new life into our core brand code.

We built the campaign around two brand films, each forging a radical new look & feel for the FT, with the aim of appealing to an emerging generation of business leaders. A restless collage combining newsprint and the texture of paper, reportage photography, archival footage, historic fonts and brand iconography. The films captured a wide-ranging, contemporary visual world; an approach with one foot in the world of the brand, and one foot in the world around it - one that has been shaped by the reporting of the FT.

We launched the Fearlessly Pink media campaign in September 2023, centred around a stunt to launch the brand film, Without Fear and Without Favour. On the eve of The UN International Day of Democracy, we projected the film onto the facade of County Hall opposite the Houses of Parliament to highlight the role of the press in a functioning democracy. The stunt was supported by an OOH campaign in London, activations in New York and Hong Kong and a social media campaign in the UK and US which rand from September - October 2023.

Breathing fresh life into old truths didn’t end with these high impact films. The look & feel evidenced in these films opened the doors for us to explore unexpected types of partnerships and activations, finding ever new ways to engage with a new generation of business leader.

The Fearless campaign succeeded in re-engaging audiences with our core brand code and message on a global scale.

This film series has served the vital function of reminding readers of our brand promise: to report fearlessly on global topics that matter. This promise lays a strong foundation for our storytelling for the next 130 years.

- 500m impressions from brand and acquisition marketing carrying the “fearless” message.

- +10% uplift in enterprise subscriptions over the period of the “fearless” campaign.

- 20m advertising impressions for brand creative alone.

- 330k combined reach of influencers who wrote about our Martha Freud activation, contributing to 150+ stories and posts.

- 4,000 scans of the QR code featured on the “fearless” brand activation plinth.

- +10% uplift in unaided FT brand awareness across social platforms and 5% lift in recall.