There’s no question: 2020 was probably the most chaotic year of our lifetime. We worked differently, lived differently, and news followed the contradictions of different virologists. As lockdowns forced people to stay at home, media consumption, in general, was on the rise.

Apart from offering huge opportunities, it also risked being dangerous for Belgian newspaper De Morgen. In times of crisis, Belgian people rely heavily on the news channels of VRT, the Belgian public news channel and Web site that is considered the most neutral and the best source of information. It was crucial for De Morgen to increase its top-of-mind awareness.

At the same time, De Morgen had to continue the brand evolution it started in 2019. The movement started there was to make the qualitative press more accessible for a broader audience. Our challenge was clear: How do you win the fight for attention and readers in the most chaotic time?

Our objectives were to increase top-of-mind awareness by at least 20% and to increase the number of paying readers by 10%.

De Morgen is all about bringing clarity. In the chaotic times of the past months, De Morgen had a lot to clarify. In a six-month campaign, we  wanted to show the beauty of bringing clarity in chaos.

Enter the kaleidoscope.

We visualised the idea of bringing clarity in the chaos through different media. First in print ads, film, and online with kaleidoscopic visuals and motion graphics constructed from elements representing specific relevant news topics.

To close the year, we launched a responsive Web site that wrapped 2020 and brought clarity around the most chaotic topics of the year. It contained 12 interactive kaleidoscopic scenes. One for each month, built with elements representing the most important news items for that month. The user could interact and play around with the kaleidoscopes as well as discover news articles related to every element in the kaleidoscope. In total, more than 100 articles were integrated into the artwork on the Web site.

The Kaleidoscope campaign was an overwhelming success in attracting readers’ attention and increasing top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) by 40%, doubling our already challenging objective. Moreover, our total number of paying readers increased by 20% in just one year.

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