Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace (DNA) recently launched a new advertising campaign to emphasise our high standards of proximity and legitimacy. The campaign, “Home Grown since 1877,” is inspired by the global willingness of a return to close proximity, locally made products and the development of “home grown” regional brands and concepts. 

The objective of the campaign was not only to reassure our loyal readers that this publication was going to remain a part of their community and lives, but also to attract new subscribers by portraying an image of authenticity, quality, and local news coverage. 

The message, “Home Grown since 1877” (in French “Producteur local depuis 1877”) comes with a double graphical proposition, which refers to the agricultural codes of local production. Showing a stork (the Alsacian symbol) standing up not on a haystack but on a print roll of newspapers refers to the local and regional anchorage of the DNA.

We have launched campaigns of this size in the past, most recently in 2011 for the launch of our new formula and design of the newspaper. The “home grown” concept is a modern and popular concept in France, however, and it felt like the right time to launch a large campaign based around that idea.

The campaign was deployed through a variety of media. We employed billboards on buses and in heavily trafficked areas including an extra-large billboard (40 meters x 20 meters) in downtown Strasbourg. Web communication included Google display ads (both text and images) and geo-located pre-roll videos on YouTube with links to the subscription page.

We also utilised radio spots on the main stations of the region, ads in the print versions of DNA and on dna.fr, and video spots on our regional television station Alsace 20 to get the word out about the campaign. Throughout the campaign, we offered a time-limited special subscription offer.

Over the course of the 31-day Web campaign, more than 4.4 million ads were viewed and more than 11,500 clicks led to the subscription page, according to Google.

Though we’ve held campaigns of this type and scale in the past, such as over the holiday season, “Home Grown since 1877” was our second most successful one with 466 new subscribers within the month.

We have been very happy with reader interaction and the number of subscriptions obtained through this campaign. Anecdotal feedback from an online study to test the campaign after it ran backed up our belief that our customers were satisfied as well.

Reader comments include: “I like the fact that it is ‘regional’ and evokes the image of our Alsace,” “The stork in the field is really Alsace” and “It emphasises our country with humour.”

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