Inside Story: All the slogans fit to print

How do you sum up what your newspaper stands for in an image or a phrase? That's where marketers come in. Richard Gillis asked them to explain the latest ad-lines

THE SUN

Latest slogan: We Love It

Naomi Troni, the chief development director at Euro RSCG Worldwide, the paper's ad agency, says: "We always use 'The Sun - We love it' on all television commercials - but sometimes we personalise this for specific adverts; for example, on our latest Pirates of the Caribbean commercial, we have turned the logo into a pirates flag with a skull and crossbones, and for our World Cup ad we used a more bespoke end frame (but still with the logo). The state of the newspaper market currently necessitates the use of promotions as the primary brand communications vehicle, so for The Sun we have developed creative templates that make all their communications stronger, more ownable, more memorable, more distinctive and instantly recognisable.

THE DAILY EXPRESS

Latest slogan: The paper that stands for REAL values

Paul Ashford, the Group Editorial Director, Express Newspapers, says: "We have been rethinking our promotional strategy to take the emphasis off weekend freebies and transfer it to underpinning weekday sales. We have had some tactical price cuts to create wider sampling but the thrust of the plan has been to remind the public of how the Daily and Sunday Express newspapers are pre-eminent in embodying the values of middle Britain. The advertising, which has been developed in close conjunction with our editorial stance, is designed to reflect a paper which takes a strong stand on issues and concerns itself with affirming what is right for the community, as opposed to bitching about what is wrong with individuals. There is another mid-market newspaper which is very good at the bitching side. The history and heritage of the Daily and Sunday Express is that of moral leadership and it is this that Trevor Beattie's ads are designed to capture. Our thinking is that in a changing media market, a newspaper must cultivate and promote its responsibility as a custodian of community values because this is the role in which it is least threatened by newer, colder media."

THE TIMES

Latest slogan: Join the debate

Simon Bell, Times Newspapers marketing director, says: "Communication for The Times reflects the changes in the paper and the changing attitudes towards the paper through the brand campaign. It goes to the heart of why people read newspapers, principally to acquire knowledge enabling them to participate in the conversations of the day. In advertising, this has been expressed through two personalities debating a particular issue, which acts as a metaphor for the balance of opinion, wit and stimulating content in the paper. But it's important to note that it is more than just an advertising idea, but a brand concept that The Times and Times Online aims to bring to life."

THE SPECTATOR

Latest slogan: Champagne for the brain

Kimberly Quinn, the publisher, says: "Champagne is potent and effervescent, just like The Spectator, which is light, witty and clever but with a real kick. Our ad agency, Large, Smith and Walford, identified who should be reading it and wasn't. There will be another campaign this autumn backed by a £200,000 media spend. This is a generic branding exercise which ran in some newspapers and in taxis, and added a couple of thousand copies on to sales at the newsstand, with a big uptake in the City; in part, because we launched a new business section. The head of a company will always read The Spectator - we want the new hedge fund managers, the guys coming down the pike."

NEW STATESMAN

Latest slogan: Expand your mind, change your world

Tim Moore, the head of marketing at New Statesman, says: "Our advertising is all done in-house; we can't afford to pay a big agency £50,000 to tell us what we should say, so it was a collaborative effort between marketing and editorial. There were many hours of soul-searching as there is a difference between how editorial sees things and what marketing want to do. We wanted to convey that the NS is a challenging read and aimed at people who want to be involved and not be "spectators". The result was that we put on 1,000 new readers a month, which was used in a follow up ad under the heading, "What do they know?".

DAILY MAIL

Latest slogan: No tagline

A senior Mail executive says: "We don't have a regular tagline in our ads and do not do brand advertising in the traditional sense. But the content of the ads do reinforce the personality of the paper, using simple and straight messages about what is in tomorrow's Mail. The newspaper is written for a live stage, which is the family. This means men and women, something unique in the newspaper market (the Mail previously used the strapline 'Every woman needs a Daily Mail'). Most papers are written for men, with women seen as a bolt-on. Our advertising must add value to their lives, whether that means providing an electronic babysitting service, in the form of DVDs, or helping them to learn Spanish or French."

THE ECONOMIST

Latest slogan: Sparks and Mensa

Jacqui Kean, The Economist brand marketing manager, says: "The campaign is targeted at those who are intellectually curious, and want to be well and broadly informed on global issues. The 'White Out of Red' campaign has been adapted and used in a test market in the US. The Economist has a circulation of more than half a million in North America but for non-readers, the title can lead to misperceptions. The ads for the US retain the intelligence and humour of the UK work but focus more on product education. The challenge is to move the campaign on strategically, tapping into the zeitgeist, while remaining true to The Economist."

FINANCIAL TIMES

Latest slogan: No FT, no comment

Frances Brindle, FT marketing director, says: "The campaign reasserts that the FT is the business brand of choice for the City professional. The posters convey the message that the FT is an essential daily business tool and will help readers stay ahead of the competition. The campaign was created by DLKW and ran for two weeks from 5 June at key City locations, as well as at Heathrow airport, Paddington, Waterloo and Charing Cross stations. There were three different posters, all prompting the FT as a vital ingredient to start the working day: 'Intercontinental Breakfast' - communicating the FT's international credentials, emphasising its large network of overseas correspondents. 'Made from Concentrate' and 'Unskimmed' conveys that the FT not only offers news but in-depth comment and analysis.

THE GUARDIAN

Latest slogan: Think...

Mark Tierney, the brand manager of The Guardian, says: "This is part of a series of tactical ads using the Think strapline, this time World Cup-themed. Newspaper advertising is about communicating an array of things, this could range from major sporting events to free DVDs, walking in the country to the declining sperm count in the 1950s. This campaign is an attempt to find some commonality between these, and to communicate that we are a cerebral and vibrant brand."

NEWS OF THE WORLD

Latest slogan: Big on Sundays

Naomi Troni, the chief development director at Euro RSCG Worldwide, says: "We have created an executional style and vehicle for the News of the World that captures the true spirit of the brand, aids recognition and allows brand communications to become greater than the sum of their promotionally driven parts."

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Latest slogan: We've got the greatest writers

Katie Vanneck, Telegraph Group marketing director, says: "The campaign idea behind 'We've got the greatest writers' is simply that the Telegraph's team of sports writers is the best in the market. The ads communicate the gravitas of the Telegraph's sport coverage in a witty, confident and inclusive way. The creative, developed by Clemmow Hornby Inge and Hall Moore CHI, features famous Telegraph sports writers depicted as famous British writers - Des Lynam as William Shakespeare, Geoff Boycott as Charles Dickens and Colin Montgomerie as Samuel Pepys. The campaign ran on London Underground 48-sheet poster sites, and Tube cards and escalator panels, and activity also included in-paper support, online advertising, online viral, POS, sampling and direct mail."

SUNDAY TIMES

Latest slogan: The Sunday Times is the Sunday papers

One of the most enduring taglines in newspaper advertising seeks to overcome the issue of pull-through from daily title to its Sunday relation, which is notoriously difficult to achieve. Newspaper marketing departments would be able to reduce costs significantly were they able to promote both daily and Sunday titles together.

THE INDEPENDENT

Latest slogan: The quality compact

David Greene, the marketing and circulation director, says: "Virtually all of our advertising has our distinctive plinky-plink music, as I like to call it. It's an original composition. We use a woman's voice to reflect that our female readership is growing. Acquired intelligence is our theme: maps, information on the environment, foreign languages and our Indypedia. Everything has an element of self-improvement, offering readers complex information in accessible formats."