Vibrant New York Times Campaign Reframes Time to Stop Viewers in Their Tracks

​The New York Times has launched a major brand campaign, ‘It’s Your World to Understand’, as it looks to further position itself not just as a news source but as a daily companion that helps readers make sense of life’s biggest issues and smallest moments alike.

The work was created by Isle of Any, the agency founded by Laurie Howell and Toby Treyer-Evans, who previously worked with The Times on some of its most acclaimed advertising while at Droga5.

Chanelle Kalfas, The Times’ head of enterprise brand marketing, says the goal was to reflect how the brand has evolved into a destination that “means more to more people.” She points to the full Times experience – spanning News, Games, Cooking, The Athletic and Wirecutter – as central to showing the campaign’s breadth, marking a continuation of a strategy explored by the publisher in recent years.

At the heart of ‘It’s Your World to Understand’ is a film, directed by MJZ’s Camille Summers-Valli, that’s designed to stop viewers in their tracks and reframe the minute they’re in – blurring the line between Times journalism and everyday life with a vibrant, “inside-the-world” perspective that plays with rhythm, scale and energy to invite active engagement and understanding.

“Two things felt interesting to us,” say Toby and Laurie, speaking with LBB. “We liked the idea of stopping the viewer in their minute live – it immediately begins to reframe the time you are spending, here, now.

“Secondly,” they add, “you can’t eat an elephant all at once. ‘It’s your world to understand’ is a big, positive statement, but like any change, or nudge or shift in thinking, it’s easier to start small.” They felt that might be a lovely structure for a film. “If the idea is about building agency through understanding, we liked the idea of starting small, with just a minute, building the sense of empowerment from there up – building up to the world and everything in between.”

That said, the spot was prototyped in a way that the pair developed while at Droga5, working on their highly-awarded ‘The Truth Is Worth It’ campaign. The process involves building out films as they concept. “So we started there, playing with what the feel should be, rhythm and scale.”

As a team, they knew they wanted to reconnect with director Camille, who they worked with on ‘The Truth Takes a Journalist’. “She has a really great energy to her work,” say Toby and Laurie. “ We’ve always loved the ‘chunky images’ and difference in thinking and feel that she brings – so then we worked with her to build out what we would shoot and what journalism ideas [to bring in].” Cartel’s Dan Sherwen cut the work, exploring the threads and pushing how things within the film play together. Wave Studios, who also worked on The Truth Is Worth It, handled the sound design.

Beneath the film’s energy and scale are strategic insights into how Times readers engage with media today, and what they’re seeking from it. “We loved the idea of building off of our audience insights to land on a platform and campaign that empowered readers and showed the breadth and value of being a New York Times subscriber,” says Chanelle.

One key observation underpinning the work is that it’s become easier to passively consume media than to actively interact with it, which can leave people feeling full but not fulfilled. From consumer conversations, the team understood that readers want to invest their time and energy more meaningfully, and that they find a sense of agency by engaging with what matters most to them.

“Our campaign takes inspiration from our most engaged readers and subscribers about how The Times plays a tangible role in their lives,” says Chanelle. “To that end, we wanted to reflect the world through the lens of our journalism, which includes the lived realities of our ‘Curious’ readers, who we’ve spent a good deal of time speaking to.”

She explains that the team repeatedly heard how consumers navigate their everyday routines alongside the biggest stories of the day. “Whether it’s cooking dinner for their kids, keeping tabs on their favourite teams, making crucial shopping decisions, connecting with family and friends through game play, or otherwise living life informed by our visual and audio journalism.

“For the creative,” Chanelle adds, “we used The Times’ products and surfaces as the connective tissue throughout, creating a rich, dimensional picture of readers and how they interact, listen, play, share, cook and connect through The Times every day.”

Toby and Laurie acknowledge that bringing the full Times offering into one creative platform was no small challenge, but also not entirely unique. “It can be complex. But most brands are in their own way,” they say. “The journalistic standards are always there to hold you. We’ve spoken about this before but those constraints can sometimes help, something to push against.”

So, they looked to find a simple empowering thread before going wider and inviting people into The Times experience. “Just one piece of journalism can translate to a simple part of life or a single moment in it – but through subscribing to The Times and all it offers, your whole day, life and world can become richer and more engaging.”

Looking ahead, The Times sees ‘It’s Your World to Understand’ not as a one-off but as a platform with room to evolve. Chanelle notes its strength lies in its ability to “illustrate the relevance of The Times across a wide swath of topics, but put our reader at the centre of it all,” with the potential to flex and adapt as new stories unfold.

“It’s been great,” say Toby and Laurie. “There is a huge amount of trust and connection with Chanelle and the team at The Times. When we founded Isle of Any we felt there would be a right time to reconnect, and after a year or so establishing the team here we pitched for the brand work at the beginning of this year.”

And whilst they love all the work they’ve made together before, as a new company it was important for Isle of Any to develop a new platform and find a new space and tone. “Not just because we felt like it but because the world has evolved and so has The Times.”

They say the reunion has blended the comfort of experience with the excitement of starting afresh. “In some ways it’s business as usual but in many ways it’s completely new,” they say. “The Times has an amazing team and we have put together a really exciting team for this. We’ve worked together for a long time, and we’ve established a really clear brand voice together. But, it was really nice this time to build the new direction from the strategy upwards again – working together early to work out where we wanted to go, and then exploring.

“As a new company we’ve been working with clients (such as A24 and Coinbase) to begin working at a level that plays with the product and the advertising simultaneously. This is the beginning of that work with The Times. It’s early days, but it’s really nice to reconnect with great people again.”

For Chanelle, Isle of Any’s approach confirmed they were the right fit for this moment.“[Their] response to our brief showed clear consideration, vision and depth of understanding of the brand opportunity in a way that our team was really excited to explore, as it feels perpetually relevant, optimistic and future-facing,” adds Chanelle.

“We have worked with Laurie and Toby for years now and they have always put together incredible work that meets the moment. We have a lot of confidence in them as partners, as our teams have great creative chemistry and a shared vision for how to develop compelling work.”


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