challenge

For more than 160 years, The Times has pursued quality independent, original journalism. But, in the wake of widespread misinformation dissemination and with trust in media at an all-time low, support for world-class reporting had become more difficult. The New York Times needed to reminded readers of its existential commitment to the pursuit of truth.

Campaign

The Times’s first broad scale brand campaign, The Truth is Hard, debuted during the 2017 Oscars after Sting’s tribute to journalism. With millions watching, the campaign put the iconic institution at the center of a national conversation on the role of a free press and the importance of reporting the facts.

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Not only is the truth hard to know but it is also hard to find, and The Times is unsurpassed in its dedication to—and investment in—original, reliable, on-the-ground reporting. Working with award-winning director Darren Aronofsky, the subsequent campaign transported readers to the front lines of the refugee crisis in Greece, war in Iraq and climate change in Alaska through the real photos and audio captured first-hand by our journalists. To maximize the impact of the work, films were placed in environments relevant to their subjects and boosted whenever the subjects were trending in the news cycle.

Results

The work earned shining awards from Cannes to the Effies; catalyzed a national dialogue at the highest political levels; and catapulted subscriptions so that Q1 2017 became The Times’s, at the time, best quarter for subscriber growth ever and, by Q2, The Times passed two million digital-only subscribers, a first for any news organization.