5 Brilliantly Creative Ways Brands Use Their Newspapers

Between endless social feeds and overflowing inboxes, connecting with customers isn’t always easy. That’s why smart modern brands are turning to an old classic — newsprint. Whether it's reinforcing your brand mission or offering a peek behind the scenes of your latest photoshoot, newspapers are a flexible, affordable way to communicate what sets your brand apart.

Below, see how five brands use newspapers to elevate their brand experience and keep customers coming back.

Give customers a peek behind the scenes

Customers want to know the story behind your products, and a newspaper gives you plenty of space to share it. Lifestyle brand P&Co interviews the creatives they collaborate with and publishes behind-the-scenes photography in their quarterly tabloid, The Standard.

"The tabloid format is the perfect mix of traditional print and speed of online services."

“Being an online retailer, we jump at any chance to do something tangible and memorable for our customers,” says P&Co. “We’ve experimented with many formats in the past – from postcards to risoprint zines – but the tabloid format is the perfect mix of traditional print and speed of online services. Our customers share photos of the newspaper on Instagram and message us to say what a great little extra touch it was.”

Design by Luther Spicer.

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Keep it down to earth

Your newspaper can help reinforce what your brand stands for. Non-alcoholic drinks company Seedlip, for example, had no interest in making "a precious item that lounged around on coffee tables.” 

 "We wanted printing that reflected the simple ethos of the farm, with creases and folds, ink marks, grubby fingerprints."

They named their newspaper after their farm lab in the Lincolnshire Wolds and use it to celebrate British woodlands and getting your boots muddy exploring the outdoors. “We wanted printing that reflected the simple ethos of the farm, with creases and folds, ink marks, grubby fingerprints,” says Seedlip. “The response has been really exciting. Customers love the design and content and genuinely look forward to setting aside time to read it.”

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Make your unboxing Insta-ready

Think about using your newspaper as a backdrop for eye-catching unboxing photos. When customers share a new purchase from London-based Daisy Jewellery, they make sure to include the latest edition of the brand’s newspaper, The Daisy Times, in the shot. A simple touch that reinforces Daisy’s branding and delights their customers.

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Educate without textbooks

If you offer a high tech service, a newspaper can add a human touch to your communication. Thriva makes at-home blood tests that are used to provide personalised reports and health advice. There’s a lot of science behind what they do, but that doesn’t mean their communication has to be all jargon. 

“Our newspaper is a way for us to bridge the gap between scientific literature and easy-to-digest content."

Thriva uses a newspaper to share accessible health and wellness information with their community and cut down the intimidation factor. “Our newspaper is a way for us to bridge the gap between scientific literature and easy-to-digest content," says Thriva. "There’s a huge amount of misinformation online and a newspaper with evidence-based content cuts through that.”

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Share community stories

If filling a whole newspaper feels like a daunting task, consider that you might have the content at your fingertips already. That was the case for modern underwear brand CUUP. They collected popular posts from their long-running BodyTalk blog series — in which women discuss intimate topics and share advice —  and printed them in a tabloid newspaper. It gave their existing content a fresh new look and customers had a chance to revisit interviews they may have missed.

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