For World Press Freedom Day, we convinced the world’s most prominent news organizations to rise above the fiercely competitive nature of journalism and come together to tell their audiences to read, listen to and watch their rival publications—all in support of quality journalism.

In a seismic move, news outlets used their own media space to promote other publications, even competitors. Full page ads were published in their own newspapers and magazines and space on their homepages was given away. Across the country, publications offered up their outdoor placements, posted from their social channels and even, gave air time on their own broadcast stations.

For the first time, diverse voices became one voice, reminding everyone to seek out all sides of a story to gain a clearer picture of what is happening in the world.

In order to earn the largest share of conversation possible, we consolidated activity into one day using a two-pronged communications approach.

First, in the absence of a paid media budget, we coordinated full-page print messages within a range of local, national and international print publications to intercept readers within their existing echo chambers. To reinforce the message, we implemented high-impact banners on publishers’ online properties and video units on owned social channels. We also gained significant scale by utilizing broadcast partners to air :30 promotional spots ahead of popular national news programs.

Next, we captured the attention of the prospective audience outside of their echo chambers by leveraging prominent, donated digital OOH spaces in top DMAs heroing relatable local publications. In addition to this contextual relevance, we used donated highway OOH inventory to scale the campaign and feature a wide range of often-unexpected publications to explore.

Across print, digital, OOH, and social, the campaign drove a combined 724M of Total Impressions in a single day, all without paid support.

+ Print placements in partner publications drove 7.9M impressions, while digital banner placements on publication websites generated an additional 25.3M+ impressions.

+ Static and digital OOH generated 6M+ impressions.

+ Broadcast partners secured an additional 34.8M impressions.

+ Partners leveraged their social channels to post about the campaign, totaling 299M+ impressions.

+ In terms of PR, the campaign generated an estimated 290.1M+ earned media impressions, and an advertising value equivalent of $2.7M.

+ The campaign also generated organic conversation across social and online, driving over 31K mentions across 87 countries. On social media specifically, campaign mentions reported an 81% positive sentiment.

+ The campaign also contributed to a +361% YoY increase in World Press Freedom Day conversation.