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The Financial Times and The Brooklyn Brothers showcase the power of reflection

The FT’s new campaign encourages public reflection on life both before and after the pandemic.

Georgie Moreton

Deputy Editor, BITE Creativebrief

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Financial Times

As we emerge from a global pandemic, the campaign "Letters to this new world" encourages public reflection on life before and after Covid-19, and hopes to give a voice to the lessons learned.

Agency:
The Brooklyn Brothers, London

The only certainty in life is change. Collectively, the world has faced a challenge in the form of the pandemic that will change life forever. Yet, as we are caught up in life’s many persistent challenges it’s rare we get the chance to stop and reflect. The Finacial Times’ new campaign, ‘Letters to this New World’ encourages audiences to do exactly that; to pause and take a moment to think about the lessons we have learned.

The campaign, launched with the help of The Brooklyn Brothers, sees the FT use ‘Letters to this New World’ to signify the latest evolution of its New Agenda brand platform. An area that promotes the FT as the leading destination for analysis and leadership on the most important global trends and themes.

The work encourages public reflection on life both before and after the pandemic, giving voice to the lessons learnt over this difficult time. These voices will come from FT journalists and business leaders but also broader culture, welcoming perspectives and voices from film, music and entertainment.

The content-led campaign features a series of hard-hitting open letters addressing themes like climate change, the world of work, digital finance and global inequality. Contributions from FT journalists include the likes of Gillian Tett, Pilita Clarke, Sarah O’Connor and Paul Murphy. In fact, all FT employees were invited to contribute as well as members of the public, who can submit their own letters, with the strongest contributions featuring in an upcoming campaign.

Finola McDonnell, CCMO at the FT, explained: “The pandemic has given everyone pause to reflect on what matters in life and how we could organise ourselves differently in future. We wanted to capture some of those reflections and put them out there for business leaders and those in positions of power to think about and act upon. We are at an inflection point, and the FT is positioned to encourage and lead debate about what comes next".

The campaign launches alongside a video entitled, ‘The Speech’ which sews together clips of inspirational world leaders to create an empowering slot. Clipping soundbites from the likes of Michele Obama, Justine Trudeau and Malala Yousafzai, the audience is shown these inspirational figures delivering speeches on the state of the world, considering how to make things better. The video leaves audiences with the message ‘build the confidence to lead’, positioning the FT as an authoritative source for the future of world news.

George Bryant, CCO of The Brooklyn Brothers, added: “The global pandemic has wrought change and demanded evolution – economically and socially – on a scale that no one could imagine. Letters to this New World is a global platform for FT and its community of leaders to share ambitions and collectively write a new agenda.”

The campaign will be live around the world, spearheaded by stylistic quotes drawn from the content. ‘Letters to this new world’ will run throughout Autumn across all regions in tandem with an integrated acquisition campaign.

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