The New Yorker Launches New Advertising Campaign, Created By SS+K

New York, NY – November 23, 2015 – The New Yorker introduced a new advertising campaign, created by SS+K, a year after the successful launch of its metered paywall and the recent debut of “The New Yorker Radio Hour.” In its ninetieth year, The New Yorker is enjoying its largest audience ever, with subscriptions from newyorker.com up 61 percent and web traffic increasing 25 percent compared to a year ago.

“2015 marks one of The New Yorker’s most successful in its ninety-year history, with record audience numbers across print, web and mobile,” said Monica Ray, Executive Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Condé Nast. “It’s against this backdrop that we’re making an investment in our readers-existing and new alike-by creating an advertising campaign that captures the essence of The New Yorker: It’s where things get interesting.”

“Readers and potential readers of The New Yorker share a code: they are readers who are innately curious, with eclectic, contemporary tastes,” said Rob Shepardson, partner and co-founder of SS+K. “Only at The New Yorker can you enjoy a diverse range of stories expertly told, with iconic depth and accuracy, on multiple platforms. Today’s readers—no matter their interests—will find their place in The New Yorker. We set out to tell that story.”

SS+K created an online video and social campaign that dramatizes this theme, supported by a print and digital campaign that shows the audience’s total engagement with The New Yorker. The New Yorker is the place where everyday experiences are transformed into fascinating stories, thus inspiring the campaign’s tagline: “Where things get interesting.”

For the online video, Hollywood director J.C. Chandor (best known for A Most Violent Year, All Is Lost and Margin Call) directed the film in historic Union Station in Los Angeles. The piece celebrates the anticipation before one dives into The New Yorker. The film follows a determined young man making his way through a splintered crowd in the train station. We witness the stories unfolding around him. The suspense and anticipation continues to build as he arrives at his train, opens his New Yorker, and finds the story he wanted to finish all along. The video is available online here.

Award-winning photographer Stephen Wilkes produced print executions showing an eclectic crowd of readers enjoying the same edition of The New Yorker on a beautiful beach and a packed subway car.

“This campaign is about the everyday stories that exist all around us, the stories The New Yorker is so good at delivering,” said Bobby Hershfield, Partner and Chief Creative Officer at SS+K.

The campaign will run broadly across print, digital and social-media outlets. The film will appear on Hulu, YouTube, while the print will run in the Financial Times, The Economist, Food & Wine, People, Travel + Leisure, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit, Vogue and other leading publications. Digital ads will run on TechCrunch, across the Condé Nast network and on select partner sites.

About SS+K
SS+K is the agency that emerged from the harsh, hyper-competitive world of politics to become a creative agency in the harsh, hyper-competitive world of brand marketing. Political instincts blended with creative talent bore effective, original work for Wells Fargo, Pfizer, VW, Kraft, HBO, College Board and a mop closet full of awards. SS+K introduced the yellow wristband for LIVESTRONG, created the competition for America’s Most Honest City (for Honest Tea) and reignited youthful enthusiasm for an incumbent (Obama for America—For All Campaign). We work best not just with leading brands, but with brands that lead. SS+K is based in New York. For more information, visit www.ssk.com.

About The New Yorker
The New Yorker is a national weekly magazine that offers a signature mix of reporting and commentary on politics, foreign affairs, business, technology, popular culture and the arts, along with humor, fiction, poetry and cartoons. The New Yorker takes readers beyond the weekly magazine every day with groundbreaking reporting, authoritative analysis and creative inspiration on newyorker.com and on mobile and tablet devices.

Primary Contact:
Rebecca Sullivan
Press Contact
SS+K
(617) 501-4010
[email protected]