Advertising Case Study

TVNZ U
Background
U is a New Zealand television channel targeted to 15-
to 24-year olds. TVNZ, the countrys leading television
and digital media company, launched the channel in
March 2011.
Objective
Before U launched on March 13, 2011, TVNZ wanted
to introduce young people to the channel, make
them aware of the launch date, and encourage
them to watch the new channel. At the heart of U
is a live, three-hour music video program with a
personality host called U live, which airs daily from
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The vision for this show is to be
more innovative, interactive and appealing to the
target audience than any other show on television
by delivering New Zealands (and maybe the worlds)
rst Social Television experience where social
networking and broadcast television collide. Within
a stand-alone broadcast environment, commentary,
guests, chat, giveaways, competitions and music
come together with a specially developed Facebook
application that brings the audience to the screen.
We looked at a lot of research that showed us
that a large percentage of New Zealands youth is
on Facebook and that people are using Facebook
while watching television, says Eric Kearley, Head
of Digital Media and Digital Channels, TVNZ. So
we decided to combine our innovative show format
Facebook Executive Summary
Client:
Objective:
Raise awareness of the new TV channel
and attract viewers, and build an online
community that will engage with the
networks core program
Solution:
Tightly targeted Premium Like Ads and
a custom Facebook application that
integrated the Facebook experience
with television to inform, excite and
draw the most likely viewers
Key Lessons:
Specay desned appcatons or
Facebook can make a strong focal
point for a marketing campaign
and drive engagement
Targeted Facebook Ads help build
a fan base on Facebook and hone in
on the most likely customers/viewers
Eric Kearley, Head of Digital Media and Digital Channels, TVNZ
U is not so much a TV channel as an interactive multi-
platform brand U is an attitude. The brand takes active
involvement and inclusiveness as given and Facebook has
been key to delivering this to our audience.
Advertising Case Study
ages of 15 and 24 in New Zealand.
Results
U's channe audence ures surpassed a
expectations with the channel reaching 34 percent of
New Zealanders in the first released data (four weeks)
eore the campan aunched, ess than i,ooo peope
liked the TVNZ U Facebook Page. Four weeks after the
campaign began, this figure had climbed to over
10,000. By mid-May 2011, the Page had more than
15,000 fans and the number continued to grow. The
TVNZ U Page has more fans than those of its two
main competitors Pages, and those programmes
have been on air for several years. With Friends of
Connections Targeting, TVNZ could reach nearly 2
million friends of those fans.
The U ve app averaes _,ooo uses and i,zoo unque
with Facebook to allow us to interact with our
target audience on their turf by creating social
TV for youth.
The specic objectives of the Facebook advertising
campaign were to build a large fan base for U,
raise awareness of the U live Facebook application
and encourage people to interact with the channel
in a new and exciting way.
Approach
TVNZs Facebook campaign centered around the TVNZ
U Iacebook Pae and the unque U ve Iacebook
application. The TVNZ U Facebook Page was created
to provide fans with information about the new
channel while the U live application enables viewers
to participate in the show and posts their comments
live on the show through the Facebook platform.
Heres how it works: A viewer can interact with the
application hosted on a tab on the TVNZ U Page to
answer a queston the host asks or to vote n a po.
Making the show much more interactive, the viewers
name, age, city and Facebook Prole picture display on
the TV screen during the live broadcast.
TVNZ promoted the channel and application through
a Facebook Ads campaign in the three weeks leading
up to the channels launch and for the three following
weeks. The campaign used a combination of Premium
Poll and Like Ads with video creative, including two
Reach Blocks, which is a media buy on Facebook Home
Pages and other premium locations that guarantees a
marketer will reach 100 percent of its target audience
over a 24-hour period. Marketplace Like Ads were
aso used. A o the ads used vey, qurky content to
encourage people to like the TVNZ U Facebook Page
and start using the U live application.
Back-to-back Reach Blocks reached all New Zealanders
on Facebook for 48 hours during the weekend of the
TVNZ U launch to inform as many people as possible
about the launch of the new channel and to generate
broad brand awareness. Poll and Video Ads were then
targeted to the core audiencepeople between the
Advertising Case Study
visitors each week and has been used 25,000 times
since launch.
The ads were seen io. mon tmes wth . mon
of those impressions being social impressions,
meaning they featured the names of peoples friends
who had already liked the Page
There were over 19,460 engagements with the
Facebook Ads. Some of the Premium Ads had
engagement rates as high as 0.38 percent and 0.44
percent.
Peope payed the vdeos eatured n the ads ,6z/ tmes
The people who have liked the TVNZ U Page and
are using the application are right in the desired
demographic, Eric says. That is really important for
this channel, because TVNZ has some big mainstream
channels, and the point of U is not to cannibalize those
channels but to bring in new viewers, explains Eric. So
creating advertising that is directly targeted to the right
audience is really important, and we are seeing proof that
we are reaching the right people.
Whats more, the campaign and the application have
generated significant positive press coverage for the
channel, including articles in leading newspapers
and radio interviews. Using an innovative Facebook
tool really helped us drive significant publicity for the
channel, which helps us build brand awareness with our
advertisers, Eric says.
The Future
TVNZ U is paying close attention to its audiences feedback,
looking at ways to develop the applications functionality
and encouraging people to jump in and take part. It will
continue to focus on increasing the number of new fans
and finding fresh ways to engage them. The network is
also dedicating more resources to these efforts. Eric sums
it up: For this channel, and for this target audience, social
media is our No. 1 media priority.