Case Study: The Truth is Worth it

The brief
In 2019, the global news media business was in flux. Users had become used to free news, and legacy publishers were struggling to cover the costs of producing the quality content that their reputations were built on. Against this backdrop, The New York Times (NYT) was operating a paid subscription service. They wanted people to understand the value of quality, paid-for journalism, over free news.

The project fell to Creative Directors Toby Treyer-Evans and Laurie Howell at Droga5. They explain it as follows: "The brief was all about creating a way to show why people should support and pay for good quality journalism in the times we live in."

The idea
So the team at Droga5 set about showing everything it takes to bring home an NYT story for the world to read. "People assume The New York Times is written from the safety of high-rise towers in New York," Treyer-Evans and Howell explain, "but we wanted to show the reality—the risk, the guts, the perseverance and the courage it takes to find the story. We wanted to shed light on the rigour behind the reporting, and the journeys taken to write the stories, all in the pursuit of the truth."

And so the team landed on the line 'The Truth Is Worth it'. The concept spoke to both the transaction value of a subscription, as well as the lengths the paper and its journalists go to report on stories.

Bringing to life the core creative concept would be a series of tv commercials featuring a continuously rewriting headline. The film advertising narrative would lead viewers through the journalist's journey to tell their story. "We put the viewer in the shoes of the journalist in the most visceral way possible," describe Treyer-Evans and Howell.

Production
The team chose some of 2019's 'juiciest' stories and then worked with the journalist to find the truths behind them. They used the journalists' long in-depth interviews and phone calls to map out a timeline—where they were, what they did, and when they did it. These recordings would eventually form the scripts for the films.

It was as though the viewers were there with the journalist, in their footsteps, thinking what they were thinking, in their stream of consciousness." Say Treyer-Evans and Howell, "This effect became the basis and glue of the films. Each tv commercial headline linked to the next, with incremental changes to show the evolution of the story, adopting the tone of voice of the journalists themselves."

Before moving into film advertising production on all the films, Droga5 made a prototype of the film 'Fearlessness' using footage found from The NYT's archives.

When it was time to work on the real tv commercials production, director duo Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin (AKA Lindsay and Martin) were brought onboard through the film production company Furlined. The pair had received the Academy Award for best documentary feature for 'Undefeated' in 2012 and had worked with Droga5 before on 'Love The Monster' for MET-Rx. Both of these films demonstrated a knack for building suspense, with their dramatic use of music, cinematography and editing.

Footage was gathered from the journalist's phones, and audio recordings helped support the story. With such personal assets being used, the journalists needed to be involved in the approval process for each round of edits.

"Advertising's often in the business of embellishment, but with these films, no headline could be exaggerated, no word could be misleading, and no picture could be misrepresented", say Treyer-Evans and Howell, "the challenge came in keeping the viewer hooked throughout while telling, in some cases, over two years' worth of investigative, rigorous reporting in just a minute—while at the same time not letting anything but the truth come through in the storytelling. This was a huge challenge and meant some films took longer to release than others."

The launch
The final films were released between October 2018 and March 2019, beginning with 'Perseverance' and 'Rigor'. The last film, 'Fearlessness', could only be released once the associated journalist was safely back on US soil.

Each 'The Truth Is Worth it' tv commercial's release was timed to coincide with the news cycle. 'Perseverance' launched when Trump's administration denied enacting *their* own immigration policies, and 'Fearlessness' was launched as ISIS lost its final stronghold in Mosul.

For Treyer-Evans and Howell, the impact of the films was two-fold "People were shocked and moved by the stories. But the spots didn't just grab attention; they shifted perception."

That perception-shifting earned the overall campaign two D&AD Black Pencils – for Writing For Advertising, and Film Advertising. The films also picked up Yellow Pencils in categories including Editing, Writing and Art Direction, and took Furlined to second place in D&AD's Production Company of the year list, the NYT to second place in the Client of the year list, and Droga5 to win Advertising Agency of the Year.

Furthermore, following the films, subscriptions to the New York Times began to rise, and The New York Times became the first media company to reach 3 million digital paying subscribers.

For more D&AD Black Pencil winning campaigns, see theD&AD Awards winners. If you are looking for creative inspiration and insights on how the best advertising campaigns and design projects are made, read more case studieshere.