Great campaigns don't just shape brands. Great campaigns infiltrate culture. The Guardian had a bold ambition: To introduce its model of ‘open journalism’. Against a declining newspaper industry, we had to stamp the Guardian as a 21st century platform harnessing diverse contributors for the whole picture. To demonstrate the explosive power of open news, we took the simplest of stories - The 3 Little Pigs – and showed open interrogation exposing a bigger truth behind the fairytale ending. We followed brand philosophy with product communications. Print, outdoor and digital communications detailed the Guardian’s diverse contributors creating superior coverage in its stories. The campaign made global headlines. Not only did it cement the relevance of the Guardian brand, it ignited wider debate about the role and nature of news in today’s world. This wasn’t just a campaign for a newspaper, this was a campaign that shaped the news.

The campaign was a sensation within the UK and globally. Over 1.6m online film views, 100m Twitter impressions and 65,000 tweets were generated by the campaign. It instigated debate on the nature of news and was featured by international commentators, including Australia’s top breakfast show. Fans made their own versions of the film and clamoured to buy the posters. The campaign was showcased throughout the Guardian building and re-instilled pride within the news organisation, defining its role in new media and giving its team a sense of purpose. In the words of Guardian CEO Andrew Miller, “We have created something truly memorable and long lasting.” But best of all, the campaign delivered a 19% uplift in readership to the Guardian site.

The channel strategy was designed to maximise impact and provoke discussion - key to engaging the Guardian’s target of intelligent progressive readers. A 2-minute brand film was the lynchpin for the launch. In the lead-up, unbranded fly posters, film teasers and print ads stoked intrigue and drove viewers to the ad spot. Breaking on prime time on Channel 4, the film was followed by homepage takeovers across Channel 4 OD (online), YouTube and the Guardian site, and consecutive displays in the Guardian newspaper. These drove traffic to the microsite housing the film and content on the Guardian’s open philosophy. In the days post-launch, print and outdoor executions showed how open contributions enabled better coverage in the Guardian’s sections from music to politics. These were topical and location-specific (e.g. a music billbooard near creative hub Shoreditch), and landed the benefit of open news for readers.