Marketing at The Speed of Sport: Foxtel’s Next Generation Media Platform

Objectives

With up to 42 different teams across three US codes playing on a single Sunday many Aussies find it easier to skip the live broadcast on Foxtel (and pay for it) and wait for the free highlight reel on YouTube. By correlating viewing data with social chatter Mindshare identified a highlight moment pulled fans back to the live game, and kept them locked in. The brief: to reduce the cost per acquisition for Foxtel’s sports package by 20%, targeting 18-30 year-old fans of US sports.

Campaign

This campaign saw the creation of an entirely new, automated cloud-based media platform. Mindshare worked with Google’s Art, Copy & Code creative innovation unit to design the new format, designed mobile-first with an emphasis on video to showcase the play as it happened.

Each play captured could be tagged with game, team and even player. Each highlight could be mapped against the sport content a user had recently consumed, with the ability to target fans with the most compelling moment for them. The ad unit could expand on interaction to reveal a longer clip featuring the action around the highlight.

A custom script was developed to connect the unit with the highlight capture mechanism and allowed it to constantly check for the latest, most relevant moment available. It could run across the entire game day, pulling highlights as they happened.

The capability to dynamically feature the team, score, or time remaining to be played, added to the urgency. This was also integrated with Foxtel’s first party data to create fan segments based on code, team or player specific content.

Results

The campaign drove a reduction of cost per acquisition by 63% compared to the campaign average for mobile formats.

This single format accounted for 39% of campaign conversions delivered through display activity despite accounting for only 20% of spend. Showcasing highlights as they happened shifted user behaviour following upgrade.

Users exposed to the ads used the remote record functionality 600% more than standard upgrades. The project was so successful Google acquired one to form the basis of its own Cloud Media platform.

Judges Comments

"This well-articulated entry has a clear insight, with technology taking an essential role to drive the strategy. This well-targeted approach takes the application of technology to the next level."