Partnership with advertiser, tourism agency leads to creative venture for Daily Telegraph

Vivid Sydney is a celebration of light, music, and ideas. It is the time and place where “art, technology and commerce intersect.” To promote these themes to the general public and business community, our goal was to produce something that immediately captured the eye and the imagination. With a boldly colourful transparent execution, The Daily Telegraph delivered just that.

When Destination New South Wales and The Daily Telegraph came together to produce an exhilarating and emotive advertising execution for Vivid, the focus was on the opportunity, the challenge, and the goal to be innovative.

The creation of a transparent wrap was a bespoke solution that was truly collaborative in its application. Neither The Daily Telegraph nor any other newspaper in the country had ever before produced a full-colour transparent wrap. As such there were many unknowns that Destination NSW and the team at The Daily Telegraph faced.

The decision was made for a truly open process; this would only succeed if both parties were able to honestly state what was and wasn’t working for them. Over the course of three months, a comprehensive dialogue was undertaken between Destination NSW, its creative agency WiteKite, and the advertising, editorial, and production teams from The Daily Telegraph.

As numerous tests were conducted, trialling different designs and production processes, results were discussed and dissected. Empowering the creative team with the knowledge of what was and wasn’t working on press meant designs could be tweaked and refined to ensure the final delivery would truly be at the limit of what was technically possible. Meanwhile, every element of the production and delivery process was tested, from room humidity to ink weight saturation, right through to the individual newspaper wrappers used for home delivery. All were examined to ensure the best possible result on the day.

An initiative such as this could not be executed without one person pulling it all together. Chris Chuck, our business development and trade manager, was the glue that kept everything together and on track as the liaison between editorial, production, the client, and ultimately the wider public through trade press, social media and tailored mail-outs to the city’s key movers and shakers.

The final result was an execution that truly captured the essence of Vivid Sydney, a first that highlighted the innovation and collaboration that lies at the heart of The Daily Telegraph.

As Michael Miller, managing director of nationwide news, said: “Destination New South Wales provided The Daily Telegraph with the perfect opportunity to create something truly innovative to help launch Vivid Sydney. The bold, colourful, transparent wrap that we delivered goes to the heart of The Daily Telegraph’s ongoing journey to celebrate, champion, and connect with the very best of Sydney and its festivals.”

As the advertising director, what really excited me, apart from the actual execution, was the spirit of collaboration internally and with the client. This was a significant investment from DNSW as it involved using more than just the four-page transparent wrap. An inside spread was also part of the mix; and, as most old heads in print would know, we generally have to send eight pages through the presses. To ensure the front page of the wrap was visually perfect, the underlying page also had to be designed to suit. Obviously, a lot of planning, effort and dollars went into making this a success

Ultimately you must have a great team to execute such extraordinary initiatives, and that’s exactly what we have in Sydney at the Daily & Sunday Telegraphs.