Smarter, Faster, More Colorful

By: Nu Yang

When USA Today turned 30 last year, it redesigned its pages, revamped its website and introduced a new logo. As part of its continued re-imagination, the paper recently launched a marketing campaign titled “Smarter, Faster, More Colorful.”  

“To reinforce how we’ve evolved to truly be a next generation news provider, we wanted to focus on the benefits that our audience receives with USA Today,” said Sandra Micek, senior vice president of marketing. “They learn more about a lot of things, more quickly and they enjoy themselves in the process.”  

According to Micek, the marketing team partnered with One Man in Havana, a New York-based advertising agency to develop the campaign, which featured television commercials and promotions across digital media including Facebook and Youtube.  

“We know our audience and how they consume media so we wanted to be sure to reach them across those platforms as well as through our own print media,” she said.  

The campaign also showcases some of the paper’s best journalists in short Youtube videos. So far, business writer Michael Wolff, sports columnist Christine Brennan and Washington bureau chief Susan Page have been featured, and Micek said more people will be added as the campaign continues.  

“We’ve gotten great feedback from consumers and the newsroom has heard from their readers about how much they have enjoyed the advertising,” she said. “They have really enjoyed the humor.”  

When asked how other newspapers could implement a similar campaign, Micek said it would be “difficult to compare or replicate.”  

“We took a long hard look at what we do best, what people get from our content and why our readers love USA Today,” she said. “We landed on not just a slogan, but on a position that we feel best reflect what makes us different in the minds of our audience.