The one-off edition is being created to celebrate the opening of the 24-hour service on the tube on August 19, with a supporting marketing campaign which started yesterday.
As the solus partner, Vodafone will have eight pages of branded content in the Late Night Standard, plus four native articles on standard.co.uk. The paper’s masthead will also be edited to reflect the Vodafone partnership.
Vodafone will take over standard.co.uk’s ‘Going Out’ channel for the three days leading up to the late night edition. In addition, all content from the print copy will be repurposed on standard.co.uk, with a sub channel within the ‘Going Out’ section sponsored by Vodafone. Sponsored social posts will run from launch onwards and there will also be 250,000 in feed mobile traffic drivers to the Vodafone native content. The partnership was brokered by MEC.
Jon O’Donnell, Managing Director, ESI Commercial, said: "As an innovative media first, the Late Night Standard recognises the excitement in London that surrounds the night tube. Vodafone has embraced this key moment, making them the perfect partner to work with as we build on our brands’ influence in this powerhouse city. It’s a brilliant example of how we can work with advertisers to bring London to life for our audience and make this a night to remember.”
To promote the edition, a multi-platform marketing campaign will run throughout this week with co-branded advertising in the paper and online, plus a Vodafone-sponsored cover wrap of the Evening Standard. Following a competition run by ESI Media, integrated marketing and advertising agency WCRS won the opportunity to design the marketing campaign.
80,000 copies of the 36-page, Late Night Standard will be handed out by Evening Standard vendors, with Vodafone branding, between 5.30pm-11.30pm on 19th August 2016 at key stations in Zone 1.
Bilge Ciftci, Head of Brand, Vodafone, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Evening Standard to celebrate this exciting time for our customers traveling through London. Vodafone empowers people to feel free to live life their way and the night tube is the perfect demonstration of this, as it allows people to enjoy our capital city whenever they want to - so celebrating the launch with the Evening Standard was an obvious choice.”
Janna Ferraro, Communications Director, Team Red at MEC, said: “We are really excited to be working with ESI Media on this special Late Night Standard as it provides us with great context to speak to our key connected audiences in a really disruptive way.”
Like the actual London Evening Standard, the Late Night Standard will celebrate everything London offers, but with an additional focus on what to do, where to go, what to eat and what to wear after dark in the capital. It will cover everything from night tube etiquette, to tales from the workers who keep London up and active throughout the night, says ESI Media.
