Bringing For The Why into the product
In 2025, the Financial Times launched For The Why, a global campaign developed with New Commercial Arts. It focused on the reason people come to the FT: understanding why the news matters.
My part was bringing that campaign into acquisition, onboarding, subscription and lifecycle journeys. I worked on how the messaging and visual style could fit the places where people were actually deciding to subscribe or getting started.
Making it work in smaller moments
The campaign built curiosity through Who, What, Where and Why. That gave advertising room to tell a story. In a subscription prompt or onboarding screen, there was much less space, and people needed to understand what to do next.
The challenge was keeping the campaign recognisable while making each message useful in its setting. Teams also needed enough flexibility to adapt the work for different markets, channels and audiences.
What I worked on
I worked with marketing, product, CRM, subscription, brand and engineering teams, alongside external creative partners.
I adapted campaign messaging for emails and lifecycle journeys, applied the visual system to acquisition and onboarding, and worked through how the imagery behaved across screen sizes. I also refined the order of information so the main message and next step were easy to find.
Adapting the approach
I developed guidance for messaging, imagery and layouts that teams could reuse across the different journeys.
On acquisition pages, the focus was explaining the value of subscribing and making the call to action clear. During onboarding, it was helping someone understand what their subscription offered and where to begin. For CRM, the messaging needed to change with the reader's stage in the journey.
I worked through responsive hero images, typography, accessibility and layout options to keep those experiences connected to the wider campaign.
What came out of it
The campaign launched globally over seven weeks. My work helped carry its messaging and visual identity through landing pages, subscription journeys, onboarding and lifecycle communications.
Consumer acquisitions rose by almost 20% year on year during the wider period. That's business context, rather than a measured result of my design work alone.
What I took from it
This project gave me more experience working through the details between a campaign and the product it leads to. A message could feel right in one place and need a different emphasis in another. Working closely with the teams responsible for each part helped us make those calls.
