£2.5m campaign backs Sunday Star launch

Express Newspapers is launching a &£2.5m advertising campaign to support the launch of its Sunday Star newspaper.

The newspaper launches this weekend, supported by three weeks of national television and outdoor advertising. The ads, which were created in house, carry the strapline: “Something big is coming”. Media has been bought by MediaCom.

The ten-, 20and 30-second TV spots will also carry promotional messages. The newspaper has a promotional schedule lined up for the first six weeks to support sampling of the product.

The Sunday Star is expected to be priced at 35p and have 72 pages, with a print run of 1 million.

The Daily Star’s success has prompted Express Newspapers to launch the Sunday Star. The daily edition’s average net circulation rose 2.42 per cent in August compared to July, to 753,927 (Audit Bureau of Circulations).

Circulation rose 14.46 per cent for the March to August 2002 period against the same period in 2001.

The Sunday Star will compete with the recently relaunched The People from Trinity Mirror and News of the World from News International. The People, formerly The Sunday People, was redesigned and given a stand-alone 48-page sports supplement last month. It costs 65p.

Media buyers expect to see News of the World react to the Sunday Star’s debut with increased marketing and promotional activity.