The Guardian’s Sara Badler on promoting journalism that’s “global, independent and free”
In late September, The Guardian launched its first major U.S. marketing campaign, featuring the tagline “the whole picture.” It’s a bold statement of intent from the 204-year-old news organization aimed squarely at American audiences, which highlights The Guardian’s brand of free, independent journalism.In this episode of The Big Impression, our hosts catch up with Sara Badler, chief advertising officer in North America for The Guardian U.S., to explore the vision behind the campaign, as well as some early takeaways since launch. Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio. Damian Fowler (00:00):I'm Damian Fowler.Ilyse Liffreing (00:01):And I'm Ilyse Liffreing.Damian Fowler (00:02):And welcome to this edition of The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (00:08):Today we're joined by Sara Badler, the chief advertising Officer of The Guardian U.S. She's leading the charge behind the Guardian's first major US brand campaign called The Whole Picture, a bold effort to reintroduce one of the world's most trusted news organizations to American audiences.Damian Fowler (00:29):It's an ambitious moment for The Guardian with plans to expand coverage in New York and DC launch new US podcasts and connect with readers in fresh ways. The campaign is signaling a big step forward for the brand and for quality journalism in the digital age.Ilyse Liffreing (00:44):From that striking yellow billboard in Midtown Manhattan to new approaches in digital marketing and audience engagement, the Guardian is proving that serious journalism can still make a splash and drive real impact.Damian Fowler (00:58):Let's get into it.Sara Badler (01:01):The whole picture is really, it's The Guardian saying, which I think now is more important time than ever, is this idea that we are completely global perspective, we are independent and we have no paywall. Everyone can read us and we are focused and dedicated to journalism. And the whole picture really shows dedicated in every sort of way of telling the facts whether that is culturally, artistically with the World Cup coming upon us. And obviously The Guardian is a massive, one of the biggest soccer ducks in the world, if not the biggest, and really showing up in different ways the whole picture. And so I'm probably talking too much about this, but you see us on the subway, we did a live activation last week in the Meatpacking District and it's just really showing who we are and what we represent.Damian Fowler (01:59):Yeah, it is interesting. It's one of those things like the 1111 thing when you think about it and you notice it. Once I saw the campaign launch, then I saw it on the New York subway and it was everywhere. But I'd read that the editor of the Guardian, Catherine ER had said that this is the perfect time to reintroduce the Guardian to US audiences. And I know it's had great traction in the country for a while. Why is that? Why do you think it is the perfect time, especially in New York and metropolitan cities, why is it the right time?Sara Badler (02:34):I think now more than ever, we really want alternative news sources. And I say that mean the Guardian's been around for 200 years. We are not new by any means, but we are new-ish and more of a teenager here in the US and we have tons of obviously news outlets and a lot of them are owned and operated by billionaires. And there's all different things that are happening to them. There's consolidation, there's putting up more paywalls. And I think now more than ever, having something free and a truly global perspective is unique and something that we have.Ilyse Liffreing (03:11):And the campaign itself has such a striking centerpiece, the creative looking at it, it's bright yellow, there's words that are hidden. I'm curious if you can describe a little bit about that creative choice developed with Lucky Generals and can you walk us through basically the idea behind that concept?Sara Badler (03:32):It was not easy. I would say that it took our marketing and cross organizational functions a long time to come up with this with Lucky Generals to credit to them. They've been amazing and they've worked with us in the UK and now in the US and we also work with PhD as an agency, which also has been amazing. And it just took time of evolving of what our real story is and what we want people to get out of it. And I think the global perspective, free independent journalism that's factual with integrity and talking about culture in these key moments is really what we wanted people to understand. And here,Ilyse Liffreing (04:14):Yeah, looking at the media strategy a little bit, what was the plan for go to market and for reaching those target audiences?Sara Badler (04:24):And I think this is with every marketing campaign. I was actually on talking yesterday on a panel and saying there's no more, my marketing campaign is like a media plan. You've got a podcast, you've got activations, you've got events. So I think one thing to really think about or that we've thought about is how do we consistently beat a drum? And people recognize it throughout, not just one moment, but multiple moments throughout their day, whether it's on the subway through the activation and events. So that's something that we really focused on and I think we're doing that and we're continuing to do that, which I'm very excited about. We've done a few things. We did a fashion collaboration with Lingua Franca with the sweaters that we're really excited in the West Village going there after this and we're having a party tomorrow evening there. And then other things like we are going to be kicking off a residency at the net, which is super exciting with our editors. And so I think keeping the drum beat and showing up at these places is part of what we want to show. We truly are the whole picture.Damian Fowler (05:27):Before we get to the sort of channels you use, I just wanted to ask you about that event planning around media campaigns. Why is that an important part and piece of a marketing strategy these days? The idea of the building community around events?Sara Badler (05:44):Well, I think there's a couple things to that. I think obviously we're still coming out of COVID in the sense that people want to go out, people want events. I also think the cultural moments are just so important and especially for brands like ourselves who, for example, the soccer World Cup coming, which is every four years. This is a huge moment for us. And so I think planning around that and the sense of community I think is important in everything we do. Even here at Advertising Week, there's a sense of community. We live and breathe kind of the same sort of things in day in and day out. Exactly. So I feel like that's kind of something that we're trying to build and I think that if you feel a part of it, it's just so much stronger.Ilyse Liffreing (06:32):Speaking of the World Cup, can you say anything more about your plans there?Sara Badler (06:37):Yes. I mean, as I mentioned, we're one of the largest global soccer desks. We have a football weekly podcast that has been in the UK forever. I actually went to their event a few weeks ago in London and it was truly, when you talk about those cultural moments, it was one of those things that I've kind of heard about it. My husband's British and a huge football fan and listens to the podcast, but I never really understood the true fans was the strike on the tubes were happening of course while I was there. Just lucky, always, always. And then of course it's pouring down rain on and off when you think it's going to be beautiful and there's still fans from all over the world coming and it's not just for one team, it's for every team and for every. And so it's just like that is kind of the cultural moment. And so seeing that we're going to be launching that here in North America, which is super exciting.Damian Fowler (07:35):It's interesting. In the UK there's a very distinct sense of who reads the Guardian. I'm a guardian reader, I admit. And actually it was a Guardian contributor as well for a few years. But in the US do you have a strong sense of the Guardian readership? Is that galvanizing? Is that kind of coming together?Sara Badler (07:54):Yeah, I mean I think to your point of what was your media plan, and I am sure we had a podcast on with Vox that we did there and I think that we're still trying to figure it out, I would say because we don't have a paywall. We really think, and I truly do believe that everyone can be as a guardian audience at one point. We do tend to have different skews of older people that have identified in the past with The Guardian, things like that. But we're also starting to create, I think a buzz in younger generations and being out here and being on the subways and having these activations and the World Cup and other things happening. We're launching other podcasts and newsletters and things like that. We're really starting to grow audience across the board.Ilyse Liffreing (08:45):Are there any other channels that you're experimenting with?Sara Badler (08:49):Everything? We are launching video, podcast newsletters. I'm just thinking events like I mentioned the NED residency, which will kick off October 14th I want to say. So we're kind of trying to do everything. I think that's another thing as we evolve as publishers is that's just something that's kind of happening and we're really excited to be doing it.Damian Fowler (09:15):And I guess maybe touching on the programmatic strategy on the side of things, how has that grown as it were since you've taken this role?Sara Badler (09:27):Definitely. I am sure it was in the press. We were in the press with the trade desk as we launched the trade desk, which was kind of ironic obviously because I think we were, when I was at DOD Dash Meredith, we were the first publisher there and then coming to the Guardian able just do it again, but is we have really looked at our programmatic strategy and we actually kind of reorganized. And so the global programmatic strategy is actually coming out of the us which is very unique for The Guardian, which obviously everything is headquarters in the uk. And I think it really actually ties to our brand campaign of the whole picture and this global perspective is that we're really becoming one global unit. And I don't think it was like that before. I think it's been siphoned in different ways and I think now this is kind of the time. And so tying that back to the programmatic strategy is we're doing that as well. So we have one global programmatic team and strategy that we're super excited about and very good talent and we're just really excited to lean in as much as we can.Ilyse Liffreing (10:33):Okay, cool. So I know the campaign is so newSara Badler (10:36):Still,Ilyse Liffreing (10:36):But what kind of reaction have you seen so far?Sara Badler (10:40):It's really been positive. Not that I was expecting any negative, but it's just been a lot more vibrant than I even thought it would be to your point, like the neon yellow and just seeing the signs and on the subway and just constantly seeing them. We also had billboards in different places and even the meat packing district, the activation we did there, which thank God it didn't rain, but you could take off different of the wording and we had different social media people that were activating on it. It was just cool to see. And it's also cool to see the street traffic that it gets. Also, one other funny thing is we did not funny, but we did the Lingua Franco, we did the storefronts with the Guardian gear in it. And I took my daughters last week and I was so excited and one of the sweaters was sold out and the salesperson was like, I was like, who was it? I was naming colleagues. I was like, was it Jane? Was it? And they're like, no, someone came in and bought it. And I was like, yes. So I think those are the kinds of things also that have just made it really fun.Damian Fowler (11:50):From your perspective as a marketing chief, are there sort of KPIs that matter most for a campaign like this? Obviously sales brand lift, engagement, how do you look at it? And I know again, to Eli's point, it's kind of early days to say for this specific campaign, but in general, what are the KPIs that you kind of track on your dashboard?Sara Badler (12:14):We were just talking about this, we were like, how do you quantify? And obviously my background and life of programmatic, I'm like, give me some data.(12:25):And I think that it's hard for us. It's hard for us to say exactly what it looks like because I would say when you quantify it from how many RFPs are we getting or is our revenue growing or how we're seeing that, but it's really actually now having meetings with proactive ideas of things that we offer that we couldn't offer before. So I think tracking our global footprint and working with clients in a way that's way more collaborative rather than, oh, you're getting this RFP and it's like a circle of something that you're checking a box, giving it to us. You saw this, I think from a consumer perspective, just having presence in all of these places and we know we're growing our audiences and we can see that. We do look at the data and research all the time on this, and actually every Thursday we're figuring out what happened this week that shows that we're still progressing. And I think the other thing that we have to remember about marketing that's been different is it can't just be a one and done thing. You have to talk about this, it launched last week, now it's ad week. What are we doing? What are we doing next week? And then what are we doing in seven weeks that's going to keep this going.Ilyse Liffreing (13:40):On that note, how are you tying your normal content strategy to marketing strategy?Sara Badler (13:47):Is there a tie in? We collaborate all the time on things. I mean, even with the sweater collaboration, we have our voices and our editors wearing these sweaters and they truly are the voices. I'm just in the background trying to make sure brands are aware and audiences grow from it, but they're the voices of The Guardian and they are, I mean, they lead with integrity and independence and we have to look at that. So that's also very important and why it's so exciting for us.Damian Fowler (14:22):Now, I know the Guardian has a unique kind of monetization, it has a trust, but I wondered if you could sort of break down a little bit the Guardian stands, the GUARDIANIST stands. That's a complicated thing to say on monetization between the subscription and the ad supported and everything in between. Do you think about that and how do you approach thatSara Badler (14:45):Every day?(14:47):I think about it every day. It is, it's very unique. I would say we are so lucky to be owned by the Scott Trust because we look at things and we do things like this to the whole picture that are very thought out, methodical, programmatic, they make sense. We're able to do that because owned by a trust. So we're able to say, we don't need to do or worry about something that's happening in Q2. We can think about what's happening in the World Cup or the next one and what that looks like. So that's the trust and that's what we're very lucky to have from what you touched on with reader revenue is our readers really invest in us. And that's kind of something that we can say and we can say that to clients, we can say that to marketers, consumers, everyone. We can really genuinely say people are investing in us because they want to read us, they want us to do well, and that's how we need to put our story out there. And that's how I think we overlap from an advertising and our reader revenue perspective is ultimately we're just trying to grow these audiences and for people to hear our stories.Damian Fowler (15:53):There's something nice about that, asking readers to contribute what they want. That model works to build loyalty. ISara Badler (16:01):Expect completely. And that's something that I think it takes time. And that's why I'm saying I don't know our conversions for yesterday, but I do know that we are building somewhere that's exciting.Ilyse Liffreing (16:15):So you've had senior roles at Hearst, the New York Times and Doc Dash. What would you say are the biggest challenges even legacy publishers face when it comes to capturing readers today? Still?Sara Badler (16:29):I mean, we face all the challenges, soIlyse Liffreing (16:31):Many challenges.Sara Badler (16:32):And I feel like I would say it's pretty consistent to your point of being at a lot of publishers that have been around for a long time and huge brands. And I think some of the things that, the struggle is obviously one, there's a lot, there's so much media to consume. It's like how do you make yourself unique and different? And in that way it's also, there's been a lot of different acquisitions and things that have happened, so it's kind of like how do you make people aware of who your true brand is and where it sits. I think those are, it also is the challenge of the times, meaning the actual time of happening where when I was at Daash and we were living through COVID was a very different time than what we're doing now. I would not suggest live events at that point, but then here we are and this is what we're doing. I would say at the New York Times, it was a place, it was right when elections were happening when I was there as well. And so I think it just, it's really, everyone's got their challenges, but everyone also has placed to their strengths and I think that's really important for publishing.Ilyse Liffreing (17:46):Yeah. Are there any innovations, maybe particularly in digital advertising that you see as giving you optimism for even funding quality journalism in the future?Sara Badler (17:59):I mean, this campaign has given me a lot of optimism. The whole picture has been amazing to see and also because I think it makes so much sense, which is really nice. I think that we also live, I live in a world where everything's just completely over complicated and just what it means is independent, factual and free. That's really, it just makes sense. And I think things like that show optimism in what's going on.Damian Fowler (18:29):Yeah, we talked there on innovation, which means we have to ask you a little bit about ai and that has been framed in some ways as a threat, but also an ally. Where do you stand on that?Sara Badler (18:44):I think we're in the middle, and that's probably the most boring answer ever. But it's good, it's fine. I mean, we are actively using it and try and figure out how and where it fits in different places, but it does not change how we report and our journalism.Ilyse Liffreing (19:08):Good to hear, good to hear. Now some quickfire questions for you. Let's do it. What do you think is one thing the ad market desperately needs but doesn'tSara Badler (19:19):Have? Oh my God, we have so much of everything. The ad market desperately needs maybe some better organization of what our products are and the different types would be somethingIlyse Liffreing (19:36):Or streamlined,Sara Badler (19:37):A different streamlined approach would be somethingDamian Fowler (19:42):Less fragmentation perhaps. I dunno. Yeah, I dunno. I put words in your mouth.Sara Badler (19:47):I think one thing that publishers need is really to work better together to figure out what the future holds for them.Damian Fowler (19:57):And you may have answered this already in the podcast, but a publisher you secretly admire for how they're playing the game.Sara Badler (20:04):I mean, I think the New York Times has been brilliant in just how they've worked through a lot of different acquisitions they've made and things like that has been great to see. But I think all publishers have done a really great, the best that it's been a tough market and I think that even from a programmatic perspective and everything, we are just trying to do our best to get through it and also understand kind of what the world will look like quarter to quarter, which is very different. And it's not those days where you could be, I remember in past lives you'd be like year over year last year at this time and you're like, well, last year at this time was such a different,Damian Fowler (20:47):Such point youSara Badler (20:48):Can't even compare anymore. I know. Yeah. So it's like, well last year this happened. And so I think that it's a tough thing for publishers to do.Ilyse Liffreing (20:59):What would you say is the boldest marketing risk you've ever taken?Sara Badler (21:06):That's a great question. I would say just because, just to go back to also the whole picture, I think this whole thing we've done also the collaboration with Lingua franca and the sweaters, we didn't know how people would react or the world would react or if they would react, but I think that because it's something you're just putting out there, we've never done anything in the fashion world at all. And I think that was kind of something that probably not the most scary but the most scary to me this week of doing that. I was like, I don't know if this is going to work. And we don't know how people react. And you want only positive things to come out, especially after you're doing such a big collaboration.Ilyse Liffreing (21:53):Nice marketing every week is different, isn't it? Yeah. Just depends on the day. Yeah. IDamian Fowler (21:58):Guess here's the last question. If you could steal one idea from another industry and bring it into publishing, what would that be?Sara Badler (22:07):Sorry,Damian Fowler (22:08):These are hard questions.Sara Badler (22:09):No idea. Well, it's funny, I was thinking, I was like fashion week, we just talked about fashion, but now we're in advertising week. So they've definitely done that. I would say, I dunno, I guess we don't have a Super Bowl or anything like that. That would be good. I think we've got enough stuff really. We should stop. Yeah, we should. I'm thinking there's South by there's can we do so many things? And I think that's one thing from my perspective that again, with the whole picture that we're really trying to do is show up in the right way where it matters. And if you try to be everywhere or nowhere, and I think that's really important for us to think about. And so trying to do something that you haven't done yet, you should definitely do, but it should feel natural.Ilyse Liffreing (22:55):Sara, we're recording an advertising week and I'm curious if you have a major takeaway that you could share with us.Sara Badler (23:03):Okay, so I mentioned day two, we're on day two and I think it does feel bigger than it's ever been or busier for sure. And it feels like there's so many things going on. The other thing though is I think because there are so many of these things that it also feels like in this world right now, we're doing a lot of in-house things, if that makes sense. We have tons of our team in town this week. I know that when I talk to clients or agencies, they're doing a lot of internal stuff. So it feels like that's a big something that's changed a little bit.Ilyse Liffreing (23:40):I would say there's definitely a lot more people I think this week then than I remember in years past at least.Sara Badler (23:46):But even every time I talk to someone, they're like, well, we have a lot of internal stuff going on. And I think that there's a lot going on. So I think that that's also something that is happening that maybe didn't happen as often.Damian Fowler (24:05):And that's it for this edition of The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (24:07):This show is produced by Molten Hart. Our theme is by Love and caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns.Damian Fowler (24:14):And remember,Sara Badler (24:15):We have tons of, obviously news outlets and a lot of them are owned and operated by billionaires, and there's all different things that are happening to them. There's consolidation, there's putting up more paywalls. And I think now more than ever, having something free and a truly global perspective is unique and something that we have.Damian Fowler (24:37):I'm DamianSara Badler (24:37):And I'm Ilyse, and we'll see you next time. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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