The Economist is investing more in experiential marketing locally in a bid to raise brand awareness and drive subscriptions.
The international news and current affairs magazine is using experiences to bring its future-focused content to life, centering on the theme of sustainability. The most recent activation saw Sydneysiders given the chance to try “man-made meat tacos”, which aligned with an article written about sustainable meat and dairy products.
Last year the masthead ran an insect ice-cream stunt in Europe, Asia and Australia. The activations have little to do with economics or politics to demonstrate to a wider audience how The Economist is diversifying its content.
The Economist global SVP of marketing and retail Marina Haydn tells AdNews the publisher is increasing investment in this area to become 20% of the marketing spend globally, following the success of the stunts.
“The Economist has a heavy digital marketing presence but we didn’t want to completely leave the “real world”, so experiential marketing helps us find ways to talk to people directly,” Haydn says.
In the last 12 months it has garnered more than 20,000 subscriptions from experiential marketing. These are paid 12 week trials, which Haydn says have a conversion rate of 65%.
She says of the people that attend the events, depending on the activation, 10-30% of people sign up to subscriptions.
Former Economist vice president of PR Charles Barber previously told AdNews the publication has struggled with brand perception as it has evolved its coverage to a broader range of topics beyond global politics, business and finance.
Haydn believes experiential marketing is a key way to change The Economist’s brand perception and build awareness in Australia. She says expect to see more activations popping up in key cities across Australia.
“It enables us to change the mindset of potential readers. The Economist often struggles with our overall brand perception because the name is strictly limited, however the topics we cover are much broader,” Haydn says.
“What sets the Economist apart is the range of active future orientated coverage which we can transform into particularly creative experiences unique to the brand.”
Recently Heineken announced it is investing more in experiential marketing. You can read more here.
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