"We've seen AV deliveries time and time again," Zach Jordan told the audience at the recent Campaign TV Summit. "That's why it's so important that we take a mixed approach and get our campaigns in front of everyone who needs to see them."
A case study showing how TV and streaming can thrive together
Jordan is director of media strategy and planning at Heineken UK and spoke at Campaign's recent TV advertising summit alongside Polly Browne, Google's head of video and retail display sales.
To be fair, the duo had a secret weapon. The campaign they used as a case study was Heineken's sponsorship of the UEFA EURO 2020 soccer tournament. The tournament had been delayed due to the pandemic, which only increased the anticipation of the nation's soccer fans. And after a very exciting series of games, England reached the final at Wembley, where they faced Italy.
Note:- Check my blog about how heineken used TV and youtube to win at the Euros.
Heineken's sponsorship of the tournament was also a resounding success. To delight fans, the brand developed an affable yet tongue-in-cheek campaign called "Enjoy the Rivalry." The campaign videos, which culminated in a hero ad titled "Together at Last," showed fans of rival teams being too nice to each other, only to become the scene of a benevolent joke.
Throughout the campaign, the videos were viewed nearly 16 million times and Heineken finished the tournament as the No. 1 beer brand in sponsorship recognition. Not an easy task in such a crowded market.
Jordan said a large part of the campaign's success was due to his team's combined focus on linear television and video on demand (VoD), including YouTube. In order to get the best possible bang for their buck, the brand mixed premium TV spaces with a variety of high-impact, high-reach VoD locations.
Heineken worked with its partners to develop new and innovative ways to define and measure success. By aligning content with context, it delivered media to fans at the exact time and environment to maximize engagement.
A key benefit of VoD, Jordan explained, is its ability to target media based on both contextual and demographic factors.
"An 18-year-old fan wants to see the media very differently than a 44-year-old," Jordan explained. VoD enabled the brand to reach all demographics and connect Heineken with its target audience.
This meant you could deliver campaign content at scale while also providing creative ways for specific demographics to be more likely to drive them to the desired action. This was especially important given the unpredictability of the context: the twists and turns of something as dynamic and unpredictable as a soccer tournament.
“On top of that, try to innovate and push the limits. There are lots of cool things you can do around measurement to try and learn at scale. Get as far away from a single approach to creativity as possible. And lastly, make sure you really understand the consumer. Where do you consume your media? What are you interested in? What are they talking about? Make sure you design your AV plan to accommodate those things.”
