Giant Spoon: Best Agencies 2023

For one day, GE was the sole advertiser across The New York Times' print issue spanning dozens of pages.

Tasked with promoting a milestone moment for one of America’s most recognizable companies, Giant Spoon turned to print, but with a unique spin that ensured consumers wouldn’t overlook the effort.

The backstory: In 2021, General Electric split its 131-year old business into three companies—GE Aerospace, GE HealthCare and the energy-focused GE Vernova. The challenge was to show consumers that despite the separateness of the entities, a shared sense of focus unites them.

Giant Spoon approached this by launching a cover-to-cover takeover of The New York Times—meaning GE was, for one day, the sole advertiser across the paper’s print issue spanning dozens of pages. In addition to installing ad placements explaining the new business structure and a tribute to GE’s employees, Giant Spoon featured three “focus” breaks themed around each new company: a foldable paper airplane for GE Aerospace, a 3D illusion of medical imagery for GE HealthCare and a spiral crossword for GE Vernova.

The campaign was titled “How Focus Takes Us Further,” and in total consisted of 22 full-page ads and five partial-page ads in the Dec. 6 issue, as well as placements on The New York Times’ homepage. It outperformed Kantar business-to-business benchmarks by 239% and received more than 100 million press impressions.

Speaking about Giant Spoon and its contribution to supporting GE’s important moment, GE’s chief marketer Linda Boff said, “They are uniquely positioned in the space of media-meets-tech-meets-innovation. They bring something very special to the practice of connecting with today’s consumer.”

In this article:

Asa Hiken is a technology reporter for Ad Age covering Web3, AI and other emerging spaces.