Fairfax Media reinforces quality and heritage with its new ‘Always’ campaign via WiTH Collective

Fairfax Media has unveiled its latest integrated advertising campaign for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, to celebrate its heritage as Australia’s oldest premium publisher and to reinforce its commitment to quality, independent journalism and focus on digital subscription growth.

The campaign was developed internally with Fairfax Media’s lead creative agency WiTH Collective and digital agency Slik.

The ‘Always’ campaign will be live in Sydney and Melbourne between October 2 and November 25 via outdoor, press, owned digital media, social, display and video.

Featuring evocative black and white imagery from Fairfax’s historic photographic archives, the campaign demonstrates Fairfax’s unique 186 year old relationship with its readers and subscribers and the pivotal role the mastheads have played in capturing Sydney and Melbourne’s growth into iconic Australian cities.

The campaign builds on Fairfax’s  highest number of digital subscriptions to date, with 236,000 paying digital subscribers and a 21 per cent lift in digital subscription revenue reported for FY17.

Says Michael Laxton, chief marketing officer at Fairfax Media: “Our subscription value proposition is focused on quality content, our independent journalism and our long-term understanding of what our audiences value. We know it is these elements – and not tactical gimmicks – that are driving our excellent subscription results and why more people than ever are paying for our content digitally.

“While the Always campaign reflects our historical longevity in market, with it we are also looking to the future; we’re hugely excited to offer both our readers and subscribers a more immersive, engaging web experience with our forthcoming product launches later this year. The highly successful Brisbane Times launch has given our audiences a glimpse into our continuous focus on enhancing the news experience and highlighting Australia’s most trusted journalism. We look forward to bringing this to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age very soon.”

‘Always’ is the sixth iteration of Fairfax’s award-winning brand platform “independent news for independent thinkers’ running across The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Placing a firm focus on the company’s proud history of independent journalism and its most valuable readers – its subscribers – the campaign has tackled the issues making headlines, including the Australian election, the US election and the emergence of fake news trends on social platforms.