As video grows in importance across social media platforms, there's great opportunity for entertainment brands to attract new audiences by offering snippets of shows or movies about to hit the screen. But rather than trying to second guess who might engage with the promotional video, why not target those who you know already have an affinity for the subject? TV Land did just that working with social advertising tech company Adaptly to capitalize on the pop culture phenomena of both "50 Shades of Grey" and the Academy Awards to promote "Younger", a new show they felt would appeal to similar audiences of Generation X and millennial females.
Leading up to "Younger's" premiere on March 31, TV Land and Adaptly delivered Promoted Video on Twitter showcasing scenes from "Younger" to women talking on Twitter about either 50 Shades of Grey or the Oscars.
"We knew women would be talking about these moments on Twitter, and we wanted to find a relevant way to join the conversation," says Kristin Mirek, VP, Multi-Platform Development & Marketing at TV Land. "Because this campaign was all about driving buzz and awareness, Twitter was the perfect platform. The conversation around the Oscars and '50 Shades of Grey' provided us with the opportunity to reach and engage the right audience in a very relevant way."
The results were gratifying, with response rates well above average industry figures. The Oscars Promoted videos received a 5.5% view rate, while the "50 Shades of Grey" linked videos received a 3.2% view rate. There was a 70% completion rate for videos promoted for the Oscars and a 34.6% completion rate for videos promoted around "50 Shades of Grey." The premiere on March 31 was ranked #4 on the Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings for series and specials and garnered over 1 million impressions on Twitter.
For the campaign, Adaptly used a mix of keyword, interest and TV targeting to ensure that it reached the right users. To capture attention with Promoted Video: they used quick, snappy trailers highlighting the premiere date, cast and scenes from the show to help generate engagement and excitement. Aligning with other events that involve your target audience can help entertainment promotions jump into existing conversations with lots of social chatter.
Here are some lessons learned from the experience that may help entertainment marketers:
Align with events based on your target audience
"We wanted to align with pop culture moments that would help us jump into existing conversations with lots of social chatter," says Ms Mirek. "It was a natural way for us to expose 'Younger' to key audiences."
"50 Shades of Grey" was a good fit because of its love story and popularity among women. @TVLand leveraged content from "Younger" that was similar to scenes from the movie and created a supercut of sexy scenes that played off the trailer for "50 Shades of Grey."
@TVLand saw value in the scale of the Oscars conversation, including how people talked about it before, during and after the broadcast. "We knew the Oscars would be huge on Twitter, and we wanted to be a part of that," says Ms. Mirek. To ensure relevance, @TVLand crafted Tweets with Oscars-centric text so it would be clear to users that it was joining the overall conversation. This helped @TVLand add to the discussion in a relevant, fun way that was welcomed by users instead of seen as invasive.
Capture attention with Promoted Video
Video is a powerful medium for storytelling, and Promoted Video on Twitter makes it an efficient one as well. Promoted Video comes with cost per view pricing, which means brands only pay when someone chooses to watch by clicking "play." @TVLand used Promoted Video to engage users and explain what "Younger" was about and why they should watch it. Quick, snappy trailers highlighting the premiere date, cast and scenes from the show helped generate engagement and excitement.
Use Twitter's targeting tools to reach the right users.
A combination of targeting tactics ensured that @TVLand reached a large but relevant audience during this campaign. For all Tweets, @TVLand used gender targeting to make sure it connected with women on Twitter.
During the Oscars, the brand used TV targeting to engage people talking about the broadcast, and @username targeting to reach users similar to the followers of relevant celebrity, movie and news accounts such as Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH), Focus Features (@FocusFeatures) and The Hollywood Reporter (@THR).
For "50 Shades of Grey," @TVLand targeted Promoted Videos to related keywords such as "FSOG," "christian grey" and "#50shades" and leveraged Twitter's Movie targeting to reach users talking about the premiere. It also targeted @usernames for fan or parody accounts to make sure it connected with users who were excited about the movie, and thus also likely to be interested in "Younger."