A new campaign brings paper folding art to print and digital platforms for the World Cup. Reach, Tesco Whoosh, and EssenceMediaCom aim to engage fans with interactive content. The initiative combines editorial and branded experiences across major UK news titles.
Media professionals tracking innovative audience engagement strategies will note Reach's latest collaboration with Tesco Whoosh and EssenceMediaCom. To coincide with the World Cup opening day, the companies have rolled out a campaign that blends print and digital experiences, using paper folding art to transform traditional wallcharts into interactive mini football pitches and goals.
According to Reach, the campaign features a cover wrap and a four-page insert across all its national and regional daily titles, including Mirror, Express, Daily Star, Manchester Evening News, Birmingham Mail, and Liverpool Echo. The print component includes the Whoosh pitch and wall chart, designed to encourage reader participation and friendly competition among football fans.
On the digital side, the campaign includes a splash screen on June 11 across all 49 Reach apps, such as Mirror and Manchester Evening News, with ongoing digital activity planned for the rest of the tournament. The initiative is part of a broader partnership with Tesco and EssenceMediaCom, aiming to merge editorial content with branded experiences in both print and digital formats.
Maria Purcell, interim CRO at Reach, said the campaign builds on the success of a previous Lunar New Year collaboration with Tesco that also used folding paper art. She emphasized that this World Cup effort is designed to bring together the strengths of print and digital, offering fans a playful way to engage with the tournament and each other.
This approach to interactive branded content follows a trend seen in other sectors, such as apparel, where companies are leveraging data-driven platforms to refine creative strategies. For example, Tuckernuck recently adopted an AI-powered solution to gain deeper insights into campaign performance, as detailed in this report on their CTV ad strategy.
