The Background
Growing paid digital news subscriptions is one of the hardest briefs in media. Audiences are surrounded by free content, increasingly consuming news through social platforms, and under ongoing economic pressure to rationalise what they pay for. Trust in media institutions, remains a live challenge.
The Irish Independent is Ireland’s largest newspaper brand, with a heritage spanning over 125 years. But heritage alone does not convert into digital subscriptions. In 2025, Mediahuis set an ambitious commercial target: reach 87,000 digital subscribers by year end, while reinforcing the Irish Independent’s position as Ireland’s most trusted national news brand.
This was Havas’ first year as the Irish Independent’s media agency. Rather than iterate on the past, they used the opportunity to rethink the media strategy from the ground up. The brief was clear – but the challenge was significant. Subscription growth in the news category is not driven by awareness alone. Audiences pay for brands they trust, brands that feel relevant to their lives.
The objectives were:
- Grow digital subscriptions to 87,000 by year end
- Build sustained brand presence through an always-on media approach
- Reinforce the Irish Independent as Ireland’s most trusted national news brand
- Demonstrate national scale and regional authenticity through media placement
This campaign won the Grand Prix award and the award for Best TV Strategy at the 2026 TAMI Awards
The Challenge
The starting point was a question: why do people pay for news when they don’t have to?
Research gave a clear answer. Irish audiences do not subscribe to a news brand because of price or convenience; they subscribe because they believe the publication reflects their world. Trust, local relevance and cultural presence are the drivers of subscription intent. In a market saturated with free content, the Irish Independent needed to feel not just credible, but essential – a publication woven into Irish life, not simply reporting on it from a distance.
This insight gave Havas the strategic platform. The Irish Independent’s brand positioning; ‘Written All Over Ireland’ (WAOI) – was not just a creative line. It was a strategic truth that media placement needed to prove, not just state. If the Irish Independent claimed to be embedded in communities across the country, then every media touchpoint needed to reinforce that claim. National scale and regional authenticity had to coexist.
A second critical insight shaped the channel approach: the power of contextual attention. Audiences are measurably more receptive to brand messaging when they are fully engaged with the content surrounding it. Live sport, major entertainment programming and trusted radio create states of heightened attention that passive digital environments simply cannot replicate. For a news brand asking consumers to make a considered, recurring financial commitment, appearing in high-attention environments was not a media luxury — it was a strategic necessity.
From these two insights, the strategy from Havas crystallised around one principle: be present all year, but most powerful in the moments that matter.
We moved the Irish Independent away from short-term campaign bursts — a model that generates spikes but not sustained growth — into a fully always-on framework. Consistent year-round TV presence would build the brand equity and mental availability that converts awareness into subscription intent over time. Strategic investment amplification around culturally significant moments would then convert that intent into action.
TV was the natural lead medium for this strategy. It is Ireland’s highest-reach, highest-trust advertising environment – uniquely positioned to deliver both the scale required for national brand building and the contextual prestige needed to elevate a premium subscription product. Supported by a fully integrated AV ecosystem, outdoor, radio and live event activations, TV anchored a strategy designed to make the Irish Independent feel present, relevant and trusted across every corner of Irish life.
The strategy was organised around three pillars:
- Meaningful Context
- Appearing within the content environments where Irish audiences are most engaged and most receptive
- National Scale with Regional Authenticity
- Proving the WAOI platform through media choices that spanned the country, not just Dublin
- Attention-Led Media
- Prioritising environments where attention is highest and brand messages carry greatest weight
The Strategy
The plan was built to make good on every strategic promise.
Television: The Always-On Backbone
A deep-dive analysis of TAM and Nielsen TV data established the optimal weekly linear TV weighting for the core audience, maximising reach while maintaining sustainable frequency throughout the year. Ad-stock modelling was overlaid to ensure the halo effect of our TV investment extended beyond individual bursts, creating cumulative brand equity that compounded across the year. In total, the always-on TV campaign delivered over 2,700 TVRs, 109 million impacts, and a total campaign reach of 82.5% — equivalent to 3.3 million adults — at a frequency of 33.
Premium and Cultural Content Strategy
Consistent weekly reach was the foundation. But the strategy demanded more than presence — it demanded relevance. Using Havas’s proprietary Converge planning system, including the Smart Planner and Attention Design tools, the team identified the highest-affinity, highest-attention content moments of the year and built a programme of spot buys, sponsorships and packages to secure the Irish Independent’s presence within them.
Utilising Havas proprietary planning tools from the Converge System (Smart Planner & Attention Design tool), the team supported the TV campaign with a fully integrated AV strategy that would maximise attention, relevance, and trust throughout the year.
BVOD, YouTube and Premium Online Video placements worked in tandem with linear TV, extending reach to digital-first, light TV viewers while maintaining the impact of premium video environments. The content strategy extended to both BVOD and YouTube, and saw Havas overlay targeting and package buys to ensure access to the year’s biggest content pieces and environment – specific buys into Six Nations, Love Island and the World Athletic Championships featured here.
The plan was built to deliver on each of our strategic pillars;
Meaningful Context – aligning creative with highly engaged environments.
- Sports-led creative ran during live sport and sports-related programming ensuring the message felt relevant and timely, and reached high audiences particularly around key peak content
National Scale, Regional Authenticity – bringing the “Written All Over Ireland” platform to life by combining national AV media with regional media, reflecting the communities the paper represents.
- TV provided large-scale national reach, while appearing around key content in GAA Allianz League, League Of Ireland Football, the Galway Races provided a local element to our TV campaign
- Outdoor executions targeted high-dwell commuter locations and key match-day environments, reinforcing contextual relevance at moments of high footfall & attention. National & regional radio amplified local connections — bringing trusted voices from communities across Ireland into alignment with the Irish Independent’s brand promise.
Attention-Led Media Choices – prioritising environments where audiences are most engaged
- Featuring premium television, live sport, commuter outdoor, trusted radio and our live sport activations
The Results
The campaign delivered across every objective, commercially, from a brand perspective, and in terms of media performance.
Commercial Results: Subscription Target Exceeded
By year end, the Irish Independent achieved 90,280 digital subscriptions – surpassing the 87,000 target by 4% and delivering 16% growth from the start of the year. Critically, this was not a spike driven by a single promotional moment. Subscription growth tracked the media strategy closely throughout the year, with clear acquisition peaks aligning with major sporting events and premium TV programming moments. The always-on approach generated sustained, compounding growth — not a short-term campaign effect.
Brand Performance: Trust Proven at Scale
Ipsos B&A brand tracker data (MediaHuis Brand Tracker, 2025) confirms the media strategy drove meaningful improvements in both awareness and consideration, the two metrics most directly linked to subscription conversion.
- Spontaneous awareness grew from 46% (Q4 2024) to 52% (Q3 2025) — a +6 percentage point increase, with the Irish Independent clearly leading the category ahead of The Irish Times at 46%
- Purchase consideration grew from 22% (Q4 2024) to 24% (Q3 2025), with the Irish Independent holding its position as the most considered title in the Irish news category
- The Irish Independent recorded the lowest rejection rate of any news title in Ireland; only ~11% of adults would never consider purchasing it. This is not simply a measure of reach; it is a measure of trust. In a category where audiences are selective and sceptical, the Irish Independent is the brand people are least likely to actively reject
These brand metrics matter because subscription decisions are rarely impulsive. The path from awareness to active subscription runs through consideration, trust and perceived relevance. The improvement across all three dimensions – awareness up, consideration up, rejection down; confirms the strategy was building the right kind of brand equity, not just generating impressions.
Media Performance: Reach, Attention and Efficiency
The always-on TV campaign delivered:
- Over 2,700 TVRs across the year
- 109 million impacts
- 82.5% total campaign reach — 3.3 million adults
- Average frequency of 33 — sufficient to build genuine brand familiarity, not just fleeting awareness
The integration of national and regional media reinforced the Written All Over Ireland platform in practice, not just in messaging. High-attention environments – live sport, premium entertainment, trusted radio – ensured the brand appeared where audiences were most engaged and most receptive. Live event activations extended the brand’s presence beyond screens and into the real moments of Irish life that the Irish Independent exists to cover.
In Summary
“In the first year working with the Irish Independent, Havas did not simply hit a subscription number. They transformed a media strategy, built a brand platform with genuine cultural presence, and delivered measurable improvements in awareness, consideration and trust; all in one of the most challenging and competitive media categories in Ireland. The result is a news brand that is not just more visible, but more wanted: the most considered, least rejected title in the Irish market. Written all over Ireland, and proven all over the data
“Written All Over Ireland gave us a powerful platform to tell the stories that matter to our audience. Television was central to bringing that platform to life at scale — delivering 60% campaign recall, strengthening brand momentum, and contributing to the growth that saw us surpass 100,000 paying digital subscribers.”
Lee Martin
Head Of Marketing, Mediahuis
Credits
Brand:
Diageo-Guinness
Media Agency:
PHD Media
Supporting agencies/teams:
Virgin Media Television
Award:
TAMI Awards Grand Prix Winner and Winner of the award for Best TV Strategy at the 2026 TAMI Awards