Telegraph to push digital content on tube

The Daily Telegraph is to take advantage of the recently installed WiFi on the London Underground by placing digital display ads in stations to promote its rolling Olympics coverage.

telegraph

The newspaper is working with CBS Outdoor to update the posters twice a day with the latest news and opinion from the Games as it looks to encourage commuters to access the Telegraph’s content via their smartphones, tablets and Kindles.

It hopes to target people that would not usually read the Telegraph’s content by giving them a direct call to action to sample its journalism at a time when they may be waiting longer on the platform than usual.

Virgin Media is to offer free WiFi on London Underground’s ticket halls and platforms throughout the Olympics. After the event it will only be available to Virgin Media customers or via a pay-as-you-go model.

Graham Horner, Telegraph Media Group marketing director, says: “We could not miss this opportunity [during The Olympics] to get people to sample our content and what’s brought this to life is WiFi. The Underground is now a more interesting environment for direct response and digital media.”

The Underground activity will form the main strand of The Telegraph’s “Writing Olympic History. Again” activity, which began rolling out this month in-store at WHSmith. Further activity across paid search, social media, display and email is set to launch this month.

The Olympics also strengthens The Telegraph’s proposition for its existing readers and subscribers, Horner says. He adds that the event has “step changed” its product offering in terms of the print supplements it offers and its digital products.

The Telegraph is to produce an evening edition of its iPad app as well as an information centre on the app to help digital subscribers understand the rules of Olympic sports as they watch events on TV.

The newspaper will also physically appear at BT’s River of Music event to showcase its digital “hub”, which will allow both subscribers and non-Telegraph readers to access its content and games via large iPad-like touch screens.

Horner says: “[Our digital hub] is about projecting a different image of us and giving people a hands-on experience of what we do. When we’ve done this before [at other events] people say ‘this is really cool’.

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