Those 11 inspiring videos are all original feel-good New York Times productions, and as Digiday’s Lucia Moses noted this morning, the ad is intended to drive subscription signups forThe Times, with a prominent call to action at the top of the piece imploring readers to “Get with The Times.
”While this may seem bizarre and a little too meta for this early in the morning, it’s actually a shrewd move by The Times to grow their audience. Clearly, they’ve identified Mashable readers as potential Times readers and subscribers, and as a result, they’ve come to them with a month-long campaign of branded posts._
The Times also punched up the titles of the individual videos for a Mashable audience. “Tattoo Artist Gives Breast Cancer Survivors Nipples and Hope” was originally titled “The Nipple Artist,” and “Can Your Grandma Pump Iron Like This?” was called “Shirley and the Bodybuilder.”...
“11 Inspiring Videos That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity” sounds like your standard Tuesday-morning Upworthy offering, but it’s actually a “BrandSpeak” post on Mashable paid for by The New York Times.
If you're having trouble following the bouncing ball and the marketing strategy here, I'm not surprised. It's actually fairly agile marketing by the New York Times, if a little bit out of the box. I look forward to learning if it works.