What is temp?

In November 2013, Metro partnered with celebrated Canadian author Douglas Coupland for a 20-part serialized fiction story – TEMP. Douglas approached Metro with his concept because he believes we are “the new face of traditional media, in front of the curve in delivering the news and information Metropolitans want, when and where they want it.”

The goal:

To provide Metro readers with an exclusive, fully interactive reading experience that combined Metro’s print, online and social media platforms, allowing simultaneous discovery and discussion of a brand new story from a renowned author, and to bring readers back each day. Metro’s Editorial, Interactive, Creative and Marketing teams would work in unison to make this goal a reality.

Execution:

Running an installment a day from November 4th- 29th, in paper in Metro’s 10 English markets, as well as online at metronews.ca/temp, TEMP explored the current reality of the working world – and the idea that temping may well be the future of employment. Each installment included a news story complementing the theme of the day’s chapter, as well as a “random fact of the day” related to the story’s protagonist. Each installment was also categorized online at temp.metronews.ca and promoted via Tumblr (a Metro first), developed by Metro’s own TEMP at iamtemp.tumblr.com.

Reader engagement:

As an added bonus, fictional advertisements ran throughout the campaign, both in-paper and online, featuring businesses from TEMP’s storyline. These ads served as a national contest platform to both promote and re-enforce the world of TEMP. This contest ran for three weeks through Metro’s Club Metro platform, asking readers to submit a series of promotional codes found within the “fake” ads for a chance to win 1 of 3 “Ultimate TEMP Survival Kits”. A second contest exclusive to Toronto encouraged readers to enter to win a meet and greet with the author at a November 12th free event. Hosted by Metro’s own Richard Crouse, the evening included a reading of TEMP by Coupland, as well as a book signing.

Promotion:

TEMP was promoted through various avenues, including print ads in Metro, as well as the Toronto Star and The Grid. We leveraged our distribution network by including promotion in all our boxcards across Canada throughout the month of November. To launch the project, a press release was sent out October 28th, targeting both B2B trades and the online community appropriate to the desired audience of 18-34. Metro’s social media channels leveraged not only their own followers, but Coupland’s as well, tagging Coupland’s Twitter account in each tweet during the campaign.

Results:

This campaign, in addition to driving traffic and exposure for both Metro and Coupland also reinforced Metro’s unique multi-media brand – a medium delivering a unique experience.

• The campaign generated 73 million impressions.
• National contest received over 19,000 entries.
• Online activity exceeded projections with over 87,000 pageviews on temp.metronews.ca.
• Traffic drivers:
  • 21% (18,600)were direct visits to the URL
  • 28% referred from Twitter
  • 24% via clubmetro.com
  • 10% organically.