Coinciding with the lifting of lockdown and the promise of school holidays, The Sunday Times will relaunch The Funday Times in partnership with Google.

It will make a comeback in a four-week campaign to show how Google can help families make the most of the summer, with the help of some fun Google innovation.

This campaign follows the launch of The Funday Times Home Classroom in April last year, which was designed to support parents and provided families with primary school-aged children from years 1 – 6 with inspirational and fun activities, exercises and ideas based on the national curriculum.

The new interactive eight-page supplement titled The Funday Times Discover, launches on Sunday 6th June and will run every Sunday throughout the month.

Alongside puzzles, quizzes and fun facts, The Funday Times Discover will showcase Google’s innovative technologies enabling families to interact with every page using features like Google’s AR (Augmented Reality) animals and objects which can appear in your living room, Google Lens to discover more about plants, animals and buildings, and other Google features.

The supplement will be supported by in-store promotion across 1,200 top-selling supermarkets and convenience stores, as well as print promotion and radio promotion across Virgin Radio and Times Radio. The Fifth, News UK’s influencer marketing agency, is recruiting influencer families to promote the partnership.

David Dumville, Head of Solutions at News UK said: “We are excited to see the return of the Funday Times and look forward to seeing the various parts of our business come together to drive this encompassing campaign forward. Google’s innovative features transform the supplement into an exhilarating futuristic learning and play tool which is fun for all the family. And with restrictions easing we hope this campaign will inspire families to get out and about.”

Nishma Robb, Director, Brand & Reputation Marketing at Google comments: “We’re incredibly proud of this partnership and the fantastic opportunity to help parents who are readers of The Times and Sunday Times make the most of the summer with Google features. At Google, we want to encourage everyone to discover more and love seeing our Search features, including Google AR, Lens and Search come to life in such creative ways.

This partnership is an important part of Google’s forthcoming integrated brand campaign, ‘It starts with Summer’, which launches on June 1 across multiple digital and offline channels.

The partnership was brokered by Google’s media agency, OMD and its digital agency, Essence.