On April 21, 2001, the Saturday edition of The Toronto Star caught the eyes of readers with special three-dimensional advertising and editorial coverage.

“3-D Day,” as it has come to be called, was a big success for the newspaper and proved that it had what it takes to literally “stand out” in the competitive Toronto newspaper market.

The front page of The Toronto Star’s 3-D edition featured a mix of two- and three-dimensional photos Photo courtesy of The Toronto Star

Photographers and technicians produced over 30 pages with 3-D pictures and other graphics. Several advertisers also joined in the 3-D frenzy, including Bell Mobility Cellular Inc.; Finactive, a division of The Imperial Life Assurance Co. of Canada; and car manufacturers Toyota and Saturn. Among the ads that stood out the most was that for an upcoming performance of Walt Disney’s The Lion King at The Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto.

“All advertisers were given the [3-D] option. We worked very, very closely with the advertising agencies and clients themselves to develop the creative work that would best display their ads. It was a very interactive process,” said Glenn Simmonds, director of production at The Star. Simmonds also said The Star provided advertisers with proofs of how their ad would look on newsprint.

With Toronto being a competitive newspaper market, The Toronto Star wanted to do something that was completely different.

“[The market] is hugely competitive,” said Simmonds. “There are three other daily papers — two of them national — and on top of that, there are three commuter papers every day.”

At a meeting of advertising department managers, The Star’s national advertising manager, Linda Lombard, suggested creating a 3-D issue. She got the idea from a 3-D ad she had seen in a magazine.

“When I saw the ad it intrigued me. So I went to my boss and said, ‘Why can’t we do this in the newspaper?’” she said.

The paper had done something similar several years before in 1997, when it ran 3-D pictures of the Mars surface that it had obtained from NASA. This idea, however, was quite a bit different. Ultimately, The Star decided to try an entire issue — something that had never been done before.

“To my way of thinking, it wasn’t just an advertising event, it was an opportunity for our readers to be interactive and to attract younger readers,” Lombard said.

The Saturday Star’s 3-D appeal was heightened by giving readers the chance to vote on their favorite advertisement in the issue. Toyota was the winner, and contest voters were eligible to win one of 10 Sony home theater systems.

The April 21 issue of The Saturday Star also provided readers with the history of 3-D, complete with an explanation of just how the special 3-D glasses work. Advertisers who chose to go the 3-D route were required to provide their own film, and 3-D editorial content was created using Photoshop.

The software separates in to three channels — red, green and blue. 3-D images are created when the red channel to the left or right. The more it is shifted to the right the closer will appear to the viewer. Shifting the red to the left will give the image depth.

Several editorial pieces included photos in three dimensions. One of the most memorable photos was that of the New York City skyline that ran alongside an article about 51-year-old photographer Simon Bell’s collection of 3-D photos.

3-D photos also helped bring to life a story about the violence that erupted outside the Summit of the Americas in Quebec on April 20. Photos of riot police tear gassing protesters jumped off the pages at readers.

The 3-D glasses were hand inserted into the papers, and local convenience stores throughout the province of Ontario also had plenty of pairs on hand for those who lost theirs or wanted additional pairs.

Hit-and-miss results

Was it a success? This is the burning question for other newspapers considering following in The Star’s footsteps. Lombard said yes — and no.

“I think there was a little bit of a fear factor among a lot of [advertisers],” Lombard said.

However, recall of the advertising was much higher than normal in the April 21 issue.

“Whether you liked it or not, people remembered the ads,” she stated.

As far as criticism from ad agencies and newspapers, there was a mixed reaction. Lombard said several newspapers that want to get information on doing a similar issue have contacted The Star.

“We received great press and nasty press. One agency basically said, short of ‘shame on you’ and ‘why would you do something like this?’ and ‘it won’t improve advertisements,’” Lombard said. “Well I question that because I think all creative advertising is an angle to try to get your ad to be seen more than somebody else’s.”

Circulation for the 3-D issue was higher than usual. A total of 820,000 copies of the issue were printed. That’s 120,000 more than an ordinary Saturday because the paper anticipated heightened single-copy sales. Single-copy sales did increase, by 15 percent to 20 percent, according to Lombard.

3-D plans for the future

The Toronto Star, the top newspaper in its market, is talking about doing another scaled down 3-D issue sometime in the future. One idea is to confine three-dimensional content to one section in order to retain appeal to those readers that are uncomfortable with a different paper.

“Our older readership, for example, doesn’t necessarily like change, but the younger readers loved it. This was also the first time many people said that their family read the newspaper together,” Lombard said. “When you’re No. 1 you have to keep working to prove your spot, and that was definitely taken into consideration.”