Find your corner with The Spinoff and Daylight’s new campaign

Digital publisher The Spinoff has partnered with creative and technology studio Daylight for a campaign that aims to drive memberships and safeguard the platform’s future.

For news media in Aotearoa New Zealand, the last 12 months have been devastating. Plummeting ad spends and significant funding cuts have resulted in industry-wide redundancies and legacy organisations closing their doors for good. Despite having one of the most engaged audiences in the country, The Spinoff has also been grappling with an uncertain future.

Double the membership

To protect the platform, The Spinoff set an ambitious goal of doubling its membership in 2025  – asking its regular audience of half a million who consume its content for free to become paying members.

Head of audience at The Spinoff, Anna Rawhiti-Connell, says, “Whether it’s our rigorous political and current affairs coverage, sharp pop culture analysis, or humourous but deadly serious rankings, we’re proud to be at the heart of life here in Aotearoa. But right now, only 3.2% of our regular audience support us financially. Now, more than ever, amid global turbulence and battles over control of media, we need those who value our independent journalism to show that by supporting our mahi.”

In support of this mission, they’ve teamed up with Daylight to launch an innovative new campaign – ‘Find Your Corner of The Spinoff’.

Topical scales

Inspired by the iconic political compass, the campaign transforms consumer research into topical scales that celebrate the diverse interests of The Spinoff’s audience through its unique offering.

Plotted along these scales is a group of existing Spinoff members who have granted permission to share their data, showcasing the content they love and pay for. The portraits featured have been beautifully captured by Film Construction’s Jake Dennis, whilst the layouts have been dictated by the data itself.

Charlie Godinet, ECD at Daylight, says, “The Spinoff are family, and we’re dedicated to helping them in any way we can. I’d really like to thank all the incredible members we met in the creation of this campaign. These are people saving independent media in this country. And we all need to join them to ensure quality journalism survives”.

So far, over 30 different content compasses have popped up across the country, with axes covering everything from leaders’ debates to MAFS brides, through to bike lanes and speed puzzling.

The campaign has been supported by Phantom Billstickers and JCDecaux on the nationwide out of home rollout. Working in unison will be a social series, print and podcast inserts. The campaign will continuously be refreshed throughout the year and won’t rest until the membership goal has been achieved.