The highlight is a panoramic half wrap of The Times which opens out into a poster, a formatting first for The Times, say the publishers.
The movie is based on the true story of a whaleship that was rammed and sunk by a whale in 1820, the story upon which the American classic Moby Dick was based. The Times was the first newspaper in the UK to report the sinking, in 1821 due to how slowly news travelled at the time, and the poster features an image of a specially-created period front page of The Times, collated from authentic 1800s editorial from the newspaper’s archives. The page was produced using 19th-century printing methods with the design of the page being authentic in terms of size, column width, typefaces and The Times’ masthead.
Conceived by Method, the commercial content team at News UK, the wrap is the equivalent of eight pages and includes an inside front cover double page spread, inside back cover, pull out panoramic poster – the largest format available in The Times – and outside back cover. The wrap was collated using various original articles and also features an exclusive interview with Oscar-winning director Ron Howard and information about the film.
Tiffanie Darke, Content Director, Method at News UK, said: “We are thrilled to be working with Warner Bros to help tell this amazing true story and this campaign is where print comes into its own. No other medium has such a rich heritage and has allowed Warner Bros to appeal to News UK’s combined spectrum of engaged audiences, from the mid-market through to high-end business readership.”
Alex Lewis, Vice President and Director of Marketing, Film at Warner Bros. Pictures UK said “In the Heart of the Sea is based on a real tale of survival, so who better to partner with than the UK’s paper of record, who reported on it in the 1800s? The original archived material from The Times about the sinking of the Essex gives us fascinating insight into the true story that inspired the film.”
The campaign also includes an exclusive preview screening for Times+ readers, a premier ticket giveaway for Sun+ readers and a prize giveaway including a whale watching trip based in Nantucket, the whaling town which features in the film.
The film will be released across cinemas nationwide on Boxing Day 2015.
