The Financial Times (FT) is celebrating the globally recognised colour of its pages, which represent the heritage and innovation of the brand, with a new film titled ‘Without fear and without favour’.
The film is part of the FT’s ongoing ‘fearlessly pink’ campaign and was launched by projecting the 80-second spot onto County Hall, across the Thames from Westminster.
Produced in partnership with creative agency Orange Panther Collective and projection specialists Pixel Artworks, the campaign is designed to deliver 500 million impressions from various brand and consumer activities.
Showcased across billboards in London and New York, the digital ads will reach users in both Europe and North America on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and news sites.
The animation – developed by studio H5 (represented by Partizan Studio) – highlights how the words on the paper’s original 1888 masthead have inspired its journalism and underline the vital role of the press in a functioning society.
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The film begins with a tongue-in-cheek statement that “for 135 years the Financial Times has used a couple of F-words”, before revealing they form the publication’s motto and campaign title, “without fear” and “without favour”.
The creative features collage historic headlines, photographs and articles, as well as footage from the County Hall activation, alongside phrases that include “the pen is mightier than the fraud” and “whoever wrongs, we right”.
In addition, the campaign is supported by collaborations, such as with Paul Smith, Brompton Bikes, Rosslyn Coffee and artists Christabel Blackburn and Martha Freud.
“As we look to 2024, with elections taking place in more than 50 countries including the US, UK, India, Indonesia and Taiwan, it’s vital that we remind readers of our brand promise – to report fearlessly, making sense of global events,” said FT chief communications and marketing officer Finola McDonnell.
Orange Panther Collective co-founder Simon Hewitt added: ”The Financial Times is a bastion of integrity and unbiased reporting.
“We felt it was important to remind both existing FT fans and hopefully a new swathe of FT readers how that integrity has been baked into its DNA since its inception, and will never wane.”
The campaign follows a successful year for advertising for the publication – 2022 being its strongest year since 2015 and its best-ever year for events revenue.
Recently published UK accounts for FT Ltd’s UK accounts on Companies House reveal operating profit rose by 179% to £13.4m, and profit before interest and taxation increased by 547% to £11.7m.
This, the accounts said, was “achieved through careful control of operating costs in the face of growing inflationary pressures”. Revenue also grew by 14% to £422.5m.
