The Financial Times expands media remit with Essence

The Financial Times has consolidated all its media planning and buying into a single agency.

Essence has worked with the FT since 2013, including its brand refresh in 2015 and other planning, buying, data strategy, econometrics and creative remits.

Previously the FT worked with Essence on brand and media strategy and the digital agency Brainlabs on performance. Campaign understands the FT handles a lot of its creative in-house, but last year worked with The Brooklyn Brothers on its new brand campaign, entitled "Letters to this new world".

The new brief, which Essence won in a closed pitch, aims to focus on a single customer view to “improve the end-to-end consumer experience and extend the customer lifetime value of Financial Times readers”.

The publisher began reviewing its agency partner requirements in 2021, looking for an “integrated planning and measurement approach founded in data, to continue to grow and retain its user base and revenue”.

“We’re building the Financial Times’ brands for longevity – measuring success in lifetime value and retention rather than short-term gains. That means we’re constantly evaluating our setup to ensure we keep our one million plus customers satisfied,” Fiona Spooner, managing director of consumer revenue at the Financial Times, said.

“Having partnered with Essence for more than nine years, we know they not only understand our current readership but also our future customers, and will continue to help grow our brand portfolio well into the future.”

Campaign understands the brief is focused largely on activity in the UK, US, APAC and parts of EMEA, and that the global merger with its WPP stablemate MediaCom will not create any conflict issues. Next year, MediaCom and Essence will merge their businesses under a single EssenceMediacom brand, except in the UK, where they will continue to operate as separate entities.

On the FT win, Essence EMEA chief executive Ryan Storrar said: “We’re proud of the strong relationship and work our businesses have built together over the years and are excited to accelerate customer value advancement  for the FT through innovative data-led practices in our expanded remit.”

Managing director Anna Berry added: “We’re thrilled to expand our relationship further with the Financial Times and continue to help them with their digital transformation, creating more influential campaigns and audience centric products that will expand the FT’s relationship with its consumers.”