The Sunday Times broke an editorial taboo this past Sunday. An advertisement for the Woolworths WREWARDS programme was wrapped around the newspaper, with the editor seemingly giving up the bottom half of their hard hitting lead story, ‘Zuma’s secret deal with dictator’.
Of course the paper is wrapped in plastic so at point of sale the rather impressive ad could not be seen and was apparent only when opening up the broadsheet. As such copy sales would not have been compromised.
In total three and a half pages of advertising wrapped around our biggest Sunday newspaper was booked by the client who achieved high visibility and created a talking point.
Times Media Group’s general manager of advertising sales and strategic communications, Trevor Ormerod, confirms this was a first for the Sunday Times. The idea emanated from their sales team after Woolworths, who wanted to wrap their ad around the paper’s Lifestyle section, was told it was already sold. No problem for Ormerod’s team. They simply made a plan – and a big splash on the front ‘page’.
Advertisers are lining up apparently and they tell me print is dying?
