Our first task was to deeply research and analyze topics that Atlantic readers would find culturally rich, leveraging those interests to demonstrate the shift across international borders. Once those were established, there was a level of sheer manpower involved in unearthing up-and-coming British innovators in each field whose stories had not yet been told. In many cases, much of the complementary content emerged as a result of recommendations from the changemakers in each field. This allowed a natural storyline to develop, with both individual talent and locations becoming characters.

The campaign’s exceptional scope of content and research combines experience with service: Readers can, in taking in the experience as a whole, become de facto experts in each field and be encouraged to seek out more (as did much of our team).

The British Impact was a large-scale production, including two international video shoots and numerous interviews. The program’s highly visual multimedia format, with each chapter headlined by a short documentary on the interactive video platform Verse, made it incomparable as a story and resource. Through Verse, readers could take in the documentaries but maintain their independence, exploring other artifacts that made the story even more compelling. The program contained 39 crafted pieces of content altogether, ranging from photo galleries to interactive Q&As to lists of recommendations.

Excerpting each video documentary for social channels proved crucial in driving readers to the experience. A longer promotion timeline for each chapter (7-8 weeks) also allowed readers to fully explore the story of each innovator and the complementary content. This flexibility in distributing the program offered a more visible impact from both an audience and brand perspective.

The program had considerable success, over-indexing on all engagement benchmarks. Page views were nearly 3.5 times the average, and social actions were double the average. Each topic excelled in particular aspects: “Food” had the most social actions, almost 5 times the average; “Music” registered a scroll depth (reader interest) 80% above index; “Design” showed the most time before scroll (2.5 times), indicating readers’ attention was held by the headlining documentary.

The program had external ripples as well, receiving widespread positive responses from top influencers in each field. It also boosted Jaguar awareness among both existing and prospective buyers by at least 10 times, to the brand’s own success: Jaguar was the fastest-growing auto brand in the US in 2016, and the F-PACE model is now its fastest-selling model in history. The British Impact proved its manyfold success as a business case, a storytelling unit, and a breaker of media barriers.

This work creatively launched a new Jaguar model via a rich content program, putting the vehicle in good company as an organic part of a larger narrative. The program offered a deep understanding of cultural trends that travel from Britain to America in a uniquely intricate experience for users. By pairing video documentaries with detailed content pieces (articles, photo galleries, audio clips), readers could explore the story’s most compelling aspects.

The Atlantic was a strategic pick for this launch, as its audience significantly over-indexes on likeliness to own or purchase a Jaguar in an environment known for world-class cultural storytelling.

In preliminary research, we found many similarities between the audience Jaguar wanted to reach and the Atlantic reader. The target is intellectual, culturally clued in, and interested in diving deeper into every story. The choices of jazz, dining, and typeface design as topics were deliberately aligned with an audience who would appreciate culture and complexity. In order to reach that audience but also bring the brand to life, we centered on the idea of a British Invasion—not the familiar one of the 1960s, but a subtler migration of ideas.

How could we make American consumers not only care about cultural movements on another continent, but also see them as significant? We explored those cultural connections by having premiere talent and influencers in both the U.K. and the U.S. demonstrate them. We also conceived cultural commentary to deeply interest the reader in forms like image galleries, audio clips, and articles.

To launch Jaguar's first SUV in the American market, the brand was looking to reach an audience likely to key into a luxury brand. To that end, they sought a media partner that could speak with cultural authority and demonstrate the British brand’s effortless transition to American roads. In order to translate that to Atlantic readers, we set out to explore the emerging British influences over American culture.

What emerged was a first-of-its-kind branded content campaign, prominently featuring an interactive video platform and complemented by multimedia artifacts. We aimed to highlight British cultural innovators in the worlds of jazz, dining, and typeface design, and demonstrate their influence on American counterparts. Along the way, we would create a rich, dynamic experience for readers to explore, and an effective case for the brand to use as a springboard.