News UK launches The Times Social Studio with Estée Lauder as 1st client

Cristina Blanaru Business, Creativity, Digital & Media

The Bridge, News UK’s commercial division, today announces the launch of The Times Social Studio, following the success of The Sun Social Studio launched last year. The branded social video product will offer agile newsroom video capabilities for clients who want to reach The Times and The Sunday Times’ off-platform digital audiences on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube with a combined audience of 2.5 million.

In its first campaign, and born from a demand for style-related content during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Bridge has created Shop With Style for Estée Lauder to support its Futurist Hydra Rescue Moisturizing Makeup SPF45. Shop With Style is a virtual e-shopping format, combining two key social video trends of the moment: online spending and unboxing. The seven-minute-long video, which launches today, features on The Sunday Times Style YouTube channel, and sees Emma Tillman, UK pro makeup artist for Estée Lauder, sharing her industry tips and tricks via Zoom with Sarah Jossel, beauty director at The Sunday Times’ Style magazine. Emma talks through the brand’s skincare and makeup offering, including the new Futurist Hydra Rescue Moisturizing Makeup SPF45, creating a bespoke look for Sarah as she tries the latest products. A ninety second edit will also be pushed on Style’s Facebook and Instagram pages driving traffic to the long-form content hosted on STYLE’s YouTube page.

Nicola Casey, Marketing Director at Estée Lauder UK said:

“Shop with Style is the perfect platform for us to showcase our latest products to The Sunday Times Style’s large off-platform audience. The team behind The Times Social Studio has been a brilliant partner in ensuring high-quality video production despite social distancing and we’re excited to reach existing and new Estée  Lauder customers via Style’s social channels.”

Jo Carrigan, Head of Commercial Content for News UK, commented:

“Launching Times Social Studio has been a natural extension following the success of The Sun Social Studio. Covering food, fashion, travel and home across The Times and The Sunday Times’ off-platform channels, the offering reaches a large audience of 18-34-year-olds via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. We expect many brands will want to maximise the opportunities our large off-platform audience present. Shop With Style will be the first of many social video campaigns we expect to be able to offer to advertisers.”

News UK is one of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. The newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS.  Wireless, audio business, comprises national stations talkSPORT, Times Radio, talkRADIO and Virgin Radio – home to the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky – as well as market-leading local stations across Ireland. News UK is owned by News Corp, a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content.

Founded by Estée Lauder, one of the world’s first female entrepreneurs, the brand today continues her legacy of creating the most innovative, sophisticated, high-performance skin care and makeup products and iconic fragrances — all infused with a deep understanding of needs and desires. Today Estée Lauder engages with women and men in over 150 countries and territories around the world and at a variety of touch points, in stores and online. And each of these relationships consistently reflects Estée’s powerful and authentic woman-to-woman point of view.