As we are in the “greatest [financial] crisis in more than 70 years” [i] return on investment is becomingly increasingly important for brands that choose to advertise. Directors and shareholders want to see a justification for their spend; they need their ads to stand out in the market thus taking the importance of creative to a new height. Here is how, we at Diffiniti, are approaching the argument.
We, in the Sky team, believe that no longer will standard media get your brand the share of voice they desire. Distinctive, original ideas need to be implemented to entice the consumer and give our clients a boost in what is undeniably a competitive market. Brainstorms between ourselves and creative agencies have led to some original creative ideas and placements, which really have captured audiences interest and produced some of our highest ever click through and interactions rates. From ingaming to Spotify audio, Facebook’s most successful fan page to an integrated HD education sponsorship Sky have adopted multiple new approaches to make sure they are the leaders in their market.
Sky’s first ingaming sponsorship was for the Sky Player Ashes campaign with Stick Cricket.
Sky Player Ashes campaign with Stick Cricket.
An advantage of ingaming advertising is that these games have an incredibly high number of users, all of whom are people who are already comfortable interacting online. StickCricket provided us with an ideal audience fit for the campaign brief and by having our ads within the game it meant that users were consuming Sky adverts for playing times sometimes up to an hour. The effects of this really came through in the clicks and sales this placement generated.
Sky Sports have recently demonstrated that by combining compelling video content with a Become a Fan reach block on one of the largest social media sites currently available, Facebook, a mass buzz and huge impact can be created. Within 5 days of the launch 272,503 new fans were added to the Sky Sports page with an Average Unique User Engagement Rate of 1.45%.
In a first for Spotify, which confirmed its UK users will surpass the two million mark this week despite only going free-to-all in February, the company will stream messages updating users on the current state of play, with clips from Sky Sports cricket commentatior David Lloyd, followed by the message: “However good it sounds, it’s even better when you see it live online on Sky Player”.
Spotify’s policy on ads ensure that all listeners have to play the whole advert before they can continue listening to their songs. This means that the users have to listen to our adverts which were supported by standard media and as they were told to “click to find out more” we saw our audio ads generate over 10,000 clicks at a CTR of 0.65%.
By pushing the boundaries and trying to be more innovative and creative with our media we have seen Skys awareness raised massively online and Sky have beaten “analysts’ expectations by adding 80,000 new satellite TV subscribers in Q1 2009”. Surely reason enough to prove to other brands they need to be spending in this market whilst continuing to allow creativity to infiltrate online media plans.
