Branded content series with sustainable eco-friendly message

General information

Sector: Automotive

Media: Linear TV, online, social media

Time period: Spring 2022

Case description

Volvo wanted to align its brand with sustainable, eco-friendly messaging and content to showcase the role that Volvo plays in supporting Canadian’s shift to a more sustainable way of life. Volvo wanted to position their vehicles as not just elegant with top performance but also as a partner in helping to reduce the environmental impact of consumers.

To demonstrate Volvo’s sustainability and luxury credentials, Volvo partnered with Rogers Sports and Media and created a branded content series with the famous show Cityline across TV and digital. Cityline’s auto and design experts, Steph and Nike, hit the road in their Volvo electric vehicles in a 4-part video series (over two seasons) across Canada to various beautiful, eco-friendly destinations that have sustainability at their core.

Each video integrated Volvo’s key messaging and vehicle features throughout the content – creating organic moments of engagement with the Volvo brand and vehicles. The entire experience showed people the future of sustainable living, the role Volvo is playing in that, and the changes we can all make moving forward.

Each series episode premiered within the Cityline broadcast with an in-show introduction from the super famous host Tracy Moore. For extended reach and viewership, the 4-part video series was also hosted on a Cityline Road Trip guide page with 100% SOV and full videos were posted on Cityline’s YouTube page.

A holistic content strategy was developed to distribute content across Cityline’s social platforms – including teaser videos developed specifically for Cityline’s IG stories, video cut-downs of the Getaways on Instagram and Facebook in-feed.

Campaign results

It was a successful branded content campaign that delivered over 2 million impressions on TV and over-indexed by 26%. The campaign had nearly 1.3 million views on YouTube and Facebook. All content beat established benchmarks:

• Over double the VTR benchmark (211% higher)

• Nearly 2.5 times the engagement on Facebook (240% higher)

• Over triple the engagement on Instagram (329% higher)

• And our CTR was over 7x higher than usual!

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Stars promote sustainable second-hand fashion

General information

Sector: Direct-to-consumer

Media: Linear TV, online, social media

Time period: October 2021 (4 weeks)

Case description

Every year, Europeans get rid of 4 million tons of textiles - 80% of them are thrown away in household waste and end up being buried or incinerated. At a time when buying second-hand has become a real consumer trend, responding to both economic and environmental issues, Vinted and TF1 launched an unprecedented eco-friendly approach in partnership with the charity La Cravate Solidaire: "Second Hand Month".

The idea is to rely on the 17 million Vinted users in France to resell the clothes worn by the main actors of TF1's flagship shows, and thus promote the use of second-hand clothes even more.

The project allowed Vinted to assert its leadership position in the second-hand market. Throughout the month of October, following episodes of Ici Tout Commence and Demain Nous Appartient, actresses Vanessa Demouy and Maud Baecker took turns to put up for sale the outfit they - or one of the actors from these TV shows - actually wore in the episode that has just been broadcast on the @itc_dna member page of the Vinted app. The initiative was promoted through an unprecedented communication campaign on TF1 Group's media channels. In total, more than 140 fashion items were offered during the campaign.

The money from the sale was donated to La Cravate Solidaire, a charity that helps people to integrate into society and fights against discrimination in recruitment.

22 ads were produced by the TF1 Factory, under "ITC" and "DNA" licenses managed by TF1 Licensing. This campaign, orchestrated by TF1 Live, aired on a daily basis and was reinforced by a powerful TV, digital, and social activation, with tailor-made insertions based on affinities with Vinted's customer base.

Campaign results

Every evening, all the items from the day's outfits were sold out in a matter of minutes or seconds. Other key figures support viewers' enthusiasm for this concept:

- TV = approx. 175 M contacts 4+ including approx. 26.6 M women 15-49

- Digital = over 7.9 million video impressions delivered with over 94% completion rate

- Social = 3.2M 3-second social video views with a total reach of +5.6M

- ±107,000 subscribers to the @itc_dna account on the Vinted app in 4 weeks

- 142 items sold in total, in a few minutes or seconds, after the episodes were broadcast

- Profile rating: 5 stars / 5 (150 ratings)

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Challenging misconceptions about blindness & sight loss

General information

Sector: Charity

Media: Linear TV, VOD

Time period: October 2022 (2 weeks)

Case description

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Channel 4, in collaboration with Wavemaker UK, The&Partnership, and Studio Lambert, built a bespoke Gogglebox partnership for their new campaign, “‘See the person, not the sight loss”, to get people talking and to challenge misconceptions around blindness.

One of the biggest barriers blind and partially-sighted people face is the perceptions of the general public, according to RNIB. Creatively conceived and executed by The&Partnership, RNIB’s “See the person, not the sight loss” campaign centers around a thought-provoking film, telling the story of Ava, a fictional teenage girl who comes to terms with losing her sight.

On Friday 14th October, four of Gogglebox's most-loved households reviewed and reacted to the RNIB ad, in a special 90" co-branded ad that played in the show's ad break. Britain's favourite armchair critics responded to Ava's highly emotive sight loss journey with their usual unfiltered emotion and empathy - from her initial diagnosis and despair through to her acceptance and optimistic future. They bring the subject of sight loss to a broad audience, making it a talking point for all of us.

The ad tackles several misconceptions around blind and partially-sighted people – highlighting that younger people are affected by sight loss too and demonstrating Ava’s passion for gaming, which continues after her diagnosis. The response from the Gogglebox cast reinforces this key message, with comments suggesting attitude and behavioural change as well as a clear take-out that they did ‘see the person, not the sight loss’ while viewing.

As well as the full-length film, the bespoke partnership with Channel 4 and Gogglebox includes 30” cutdowns aired across Channel 4 between 15th and 30th October. The shorter versions were also promoted across RNIB’s owned social media channels.

Campaign results

 “We’re incredibly proud of this partnership which uses a much-loved Channel 4 show to tackle an important issue in an impactful way. Much like on Gogglebox, we look forward to people’s reaction to this heartfelt advert.” - Kirsten Gillard, customer and commercial leader, Channel 4.

“Partnering with Gogglebox is the perfect way to show how people from all walks of life can resonate and engage with Ava’s story. The reactions from the cast were everything we’d hoped for and highlight the importance of not defining someone by their sight loss.” - Martin Wingfield, Director of Brand, at RNIB.

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Promoting sustainable behaviour through UN’s SDGs

General information

Sector: Multiple

Media: Linear TV, BVOD

Time period: May and November 2022 (1 week, twice a year)

Clients: Toyota, Nissan, Nisshin Flour Milling Inc., Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd., Asahi Soft Drinks, Kirin, Aqua Clara, P&G, Suntory, Edion, Raxaus Create Inc. Takara Standard, Kanjo Bugyo, Unifrutti

Case description

Since 2020, TBS is fully committed to playing their role in widely communicating the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to Japanese audiences. Their vision, was to use all the assets at their disposal, from the country’s major private TV station, to consistently reach all sections of society. The campaign is called: the “Week to Make the Earth Smile", and at its core aims to encourage viewers to actively do contribute to at least one of the SDGs. Under the motto “Let’s try something for the SDGs!”, twice a year, TBS consistently communicates around the need to act upon the SDGs, for an entire week each time, incorporating messaging throughout its entire TV schedule, including the news, infotainments pieces and variety shows.

The initiative is the perfect way to naturally integrate brands in TBS campaigns while promoting responsible and sustainable behaviours. Famous personalities got involved in the SDG campaigns during short ad spots broadcasted on TV. Over 20 brands participated as sponsors of the concept and have contributed to seamlessly integrating the SDG messages into TBS’s programming. Toyota, Nissan, DIP and SalesForce are, for example, just some of the loyal brands to have participated in this project over the last two years.

For brands, it meant various integration opportunities such as, sponsorship, product placement in infotainment shows, branded content, but also regular ads as well as social media campaign extensions. For the viewers, the focus has always been first and foremost on the SDG goals (using the United Nation’s visuals) and on the quality of information shared about how they can act as responsible citizens on a given sustainability goal.

Creating a wide range of slots and segments dedicated to the same theme (SDGs) across various programmes is quite unique and makes TBS as first-mover among commercial broadcasters on this issue.

Campaign results

The campaign was successful. People who watched the campaign became more aware of the issue and were ready to take action. The campaign received a lot of positive feedback from audiences too. Based on the post-campaign survey, 80% of respondents had a positive image towards the brands that were sponsoring the campaign. The campaign helped TBS to understand audiences’ attitudes towards the SDGs - more people were aware of them and were more willing to take action than expected. There were still many more people (especially the elderly) who were completely unaware of “SDGs” when the campaign launched two years ago – a reminder of the need for such a campaign. The campaign will be repeated to continue educating viewers on these important topics.

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Campaign video

A carbon-neutral journey through Italian gastronomy

General information

Sector: Banking Services, Automotive, Food & Beverage (Clients: Intesa Sanpaolo, Gruppo Koelliker, Latteria Soresina, Consorzio di Tutela IGP Patata del Fucino, Consorzio Pecorino Romano)

Media: Linear TV, BVOD

Time period: January to March 2022 (6 weeks)

Case description

Linea Verde Explora is Rai Pubblicità's innovative branded content series that is dedicated to the promotion of the Italian territory. The two hosts of the show - Federico Quaranta (face and voice of sustainability programmes in Rai) and Angela Rafanelli (well-known Italian radio-television presenter and author) are travelling throughout Italy and are showcasing tourist places with a focus on a gastronomic culture. At the same time, they are tackling issues related to environmental protection, eco-sustainability and ecological innovation.

The main sponsor of the programme was the banking Group Intesa Sanpaolo. During the show, various initiatives were highlighted on how the company is supporting the regional agricultural business by safeguarding local crafts and products. Each episode contained also different narrative on the territorial sponsors of the show – Latteria Soresina, Consorzio di Tutela IGP Patata del Fucino and Consorzio del Pecorino Romano. Another sponsor of the programme was the car importer Koelliker Group that focuses on a new generation of electric, connected and intelligent vehicles. To highlight this technology, the hosts of the show were travelling using 100% electric Aiways U5 model and a plug-in hybrid 4x4 Mitsubishi Eclipse PHEV from Mitsubishi Motors.

Each of the brands were selected to be on the show for their values, product quality, respect for the territory and noble supply chain. They were each showcased with beautiful, high quality images filmed in the style of a travel reportage but featuring both the electric car traveling from one domain to the other, as well as the local food producers and experts. Italians are very proud of their local gastronomy – therefore creating a highly likable format that is both instructive and makes the viewer proud. The Branded Content was produced and designed by the production company Siri Video in collaboration with Rai Pubblicità.

Campaign results

With an average audience of about 1.5 million viewers and a 13.5% market share, the second edition of Linea Verde Explora was reconfirmed and will be aired next October 2022. Intesa Sanpaolo reconfirmed its partnership with the show.

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Ad-break takeover helps viewers face the cost-of-living crisis

General information

Sector: Multiple (Clients: Boots, Co-op, Giffgaff, Go Compare, Lidl, Nationwide Building Society, Vodafone)

Media: Linear TV, VOD

Time period: 7th October 2022

 

Case description

Channel 4 partnered with Boots, Co-op, Giffgaff, Go Compare, Lidl, Nationwide Building Society and Vodafone to create an ad-break takeover that provides viewers with money-saving tips and helpful resources in light of the ongoing cost of living crisis. The break ran during Steph’s Packed Lunch and Gogglebox on the evening of 7th October 2022.

Before the unique breaks aired, viewers were presented with a short message from Channel 4, explaining that this special ad break was brought to them by “by companies who want to highlight some of the ways they can help their customers during this difficult time of rising prices”. The message was followed by a segment from each participating brand and an outro directing viewers to a specially-created website offering more information and support.

The initiative was a collaborative effort - a partnership between 4Sales and Carat (Co-op and Vodafone), Havas (Giffgaff) and Hearts & Science (Go Compare), along with Wavemaker (Nationwide Building Society), OMD (Lidl) and Mediacom (Boots). The idea for the ad break was developed by the 4Sales Creative Hub.

Campaign results

“We are really proud of this campaign, which brings together some of our advertisers who have initiatives to help during these tough times. In doing so, we hope to achieve more prominence for the support they are offering audiences.” - Martin McAllister, Creative Leader at Channel 4

“As we face into a cost of living crisis we are determined to help our members, customers and communities, so we are proud to be able to take part in this ad break special… We’re committed to building stronger and more resilient communities alongside providing great value for our customers with lower prices and great deals, and supporting our members with exclusive discounts and offers. We thank all our members who are helping us to raise funds that lift up their community.” - Mel Matson, Customer Communications director at Co-op

 

‘More Than Meats The Eye’ promoting healthy eating

General information

Sector: FMCG

Media: VOD

Time period: September 2022

Case description

'More Than Meats The Eye' is a short-form native video cookery series created by RTÉ for Mindshare & Knorr. There were five episodes of between 8-10 minutes each in duration. Each episode featured everyday dishes that could be created and/or reinvigorated using plant-based ingredients.

RTÉ knew that they had the audience reach, platforms and creative capability to create digital content that would demystify and inspire audiences. The most important consideration was to ensure that they presented vegan cooking as accessible, uncomplicated and tasty. In response to the brief, a bespoke video native cookery series was created for Knorr entitled ‘More Than Meats The Eye’. More Than Meats The Eye is a short-form cookery series sponsored by Knorr and created by RTÉ for its Digital platforms.

There were five 8-10 minute episodes, in which RTE showed their audience how with the help of Knorr, everyday dishes could be created and/or reinvigorated using plant-based ingredients without losing any of the taste or nutrition. Each episode was presented by vegan cook Holly White, who also prepared each recipe in a simple step-by-step way. To help accentuate the message around taste, and to dispel commonly-held myths around plant-based cooking RTE featured two well-known sports personalities throughout the series. They were GAA Wexford Hurler Lee Chin and Former Ireland & Ulster rugby union player Andrew Trimble. Each episode contained an implicit overarching message around sustainability, delivered in a subtle way through Holly’s interaction with the guests, and through the recipe choices and ingredients.

The video series was embedded into a series of native articles hosted as a bespoke Knorr digital hub on RTÉ.ie’s Lifestyle section. Each native content piece also contained all ingredients and cooking instructions along with a ‘click-to-buy’ for all related ingredients to Tesco.ie. RTÉ created all videos and related creative assets across the partnership activation.

Campaign results

The partnership was amplified across RTÉ and included the following elements:

• Delivered over 68,000 Views for the native series

• Click-to-buy in Tesco via Native Series *Delivered over 130,000 video views via RTÉ Social & Player

• Included talent licensing (Holly White, Andrew Trimble & Lee Chin) for work directly with Knorr for social

• Delivered over 13 million ad impressions directing to content

• Delivered 121 TVRS (All Adults) branded TV Promos directing to content

• Delivered a week-long segment on RTÉ’s Jennifer Zamparelli Show on 2fm (152,000 Ave daily listenership)

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Crowdfunding campaign turns a crisis into a unique opportunity

General information

Sector: Alcoholic drinks

Media: Linear TV, DOOH, online, social media

Time period: 2021 - 2022

Case description

In July 2021, the Ahr Valley flooded - 134 people died and the entire region, whose economy depends on winemaking and wine-related tourism, was left in ruin.

Seven.One Media’s creative unit, The Creative House, came up with a unique idea to contribute to the recovery from this disaster. The idea: raising funds to financially support the affected winery businesses, whilst also raising awareness of the relatively unknown wine-producing region as a tourist destination for great quality wines.

Bottles of wine - caked in mud from the flooding and therefore unsellable - were transformed into not only an object of desire, but a piece of history, an emblematic visual of the devastating flood in the Ahr Valley. These bottles were sold on the crowdfunding platform, Startnext. The Brand “Flutwein” - which literally translates as flood wine and, as slang, is commonly used in German for bad wine - was created to unify 50 independent winemakers under one unique label and campaign.

The campaign was created as a business idea and was operated as a start-up model. As the campaign started, the whole infrastructure of shipping the bottles and transferring the donations had to be built from scratch by the ProSieben Group. Partnering with new and unknown individuals and companies and putting 100% trust in them was a challenge for them but also a key for success in every step of the value chain.

Seven.One not only used conventional media channels (TV, DOOH, digital/social) but also the power of their large community and the crowdfunding platform. PR and partnerships were key assets of the campaign. The Creative House Department was fully involved in every step of the development and delivery of the campaign.

A lot of work was done in the spare time of the individual employees – this project truly created enthusiasm at every level of the company. The campaign demonstrated just how a creative idea and open collaboration with a common goal can result in a significant impact. One in 1000 Germans bought a bottle of Flutwein or received it as a present and many of them ordered bottles from the 2021 vintage providing further financial help to the crucial wine industry of the Ahr Valley.

The Creative House developed and delivered the campaign as the newly-founded creative agency department within the Seven.One AdFactory GmbH. Seven.One AdFactory GmbH / Creative House (Lead Agency), WallDecaux Germany & White Rabbit Budapest (Supporting Creative Agency) were all involved.

Campaign results

More than 1 billion PR-contacts, lead to nearly 50,000 people donating by purchasing at least one out of 200,000 bottles. This way we collected over 4.5 million euros in donations for the rebuilding of the flooded Ahr Valley and doubled the brand awareness of the wine region amongst people who got in touch with the campaign. Brand awareness increased from 0 to nearly 50%. The client decided to hire Creative House as lead agency for the further development of the wine region’s marketing.

With more than 100 awards on national and international festivals (including Grand Prix`s at ADC-Germany, Effie Germany, New York Festivals AME Awards and golds at Cannes Lions, Eurobest and London International Awards) #flutwein becomes one of the most succesfull single-entries of Germany. The newly founded Seven.One AdFactory / Creative House finished its first business year as the 3rd most awarded creative agency in Germanies Triple A Ranking for Creative Agencies. In terms of effectiveness the Creative House got listet as #1 in national effectiveness (Effie Germany) and #3 in international effectiveness ranking of the New York Festivals AME.

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Promoting positive body image through multiplatform campaign

General information

Sector: Health & Beauty

Media: Linear TV, online

Time period: Spring - Summer 2022

Case description

New research from the Dove Self-Esteem Project revealed how toxic advice is harming girls’ self-esteem and becoming normalized. Driven by the need to both educate parents and drive actionable change, RSM (Rogers Sport and Media) and Dove partnered on a multi-platform program that brought the #DetoxYourFeed key messages into programs across RSM channels.

This purpose-driven campaign focused on both educating a mass audience about the toxic beauty habits on social media, while empowering parents and teens to act – to have thoughtful, engaging conversations about social media and how to find positive, uplifting voices.

The power of TV made this campaign successful using well-known television shows – Breakfast Television and Cityline. Campaign messages were spread through in-show integration on Breakfast Television with Tracy Moore – speaking to her participation at an experiential event designed to help parents and teens alike conceptualize the pervasive nature of this toxic beauty advice.

The campaign culminated in a full custom-themed show on Cityline (broadcast and social) – with a focus on unpacking the impact of social media when it comes to how we view our own beauty. Content on the show included segments designed to specifically empower parents to speak with their teens and to engage them around what they are exposed to on social media.

Throughout the whole campaign, the messages were integrated into both TV shows with short segments focused on specific issues all laddering up to the #DetoxYourFeed content. Famous people would engage in authentic conversations focused on promoting positive accounts, tips, and advice on how to set up your own feed for positivity and how to model this behavior for youth in your life.

For a campaign that is focused on generating conversation, Rogers Sport and Media used the power of its brands and on-air talent voices to get people thinking, engaging and talking about this issue. Throughout a relatively tight campaign window, they were able to keep the conversation going through multiple integrations and executions.

Campaign results

The campaign was very well received by the viewers and created a buzz. By partnering with famous TV shows and their hosts Dove were able to ensure consistent reach and conversation across national platforms throughout the whole campaign period. This strategy helped contribute the overall lift in engagement with the Dove Confidence Kit – empowering parents to have these important conversations with their teens about social media and personal body image.

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Multiplatform campaign to fight bullying

General information

Sector: Beauty & Hygiene

Media: Linear TV, online

Time period: 1 Feb – 7 Mar 2022

Case description

Bullying is a problem that affects all of us and we can all be part of the solution. Under this premise, Head & Shoulders (H&S) and Atresmedia launched the “Stop Bullying” campaign. An innovative initiative that focuses not on the bully itself but rather on the observer – a person who is watching everything from the sidelines and is considered to be the key to preventing bullying.

With the slogan "Don't just watch, stop bullying, act with your head", H&S collaborated with LookSchool (an organisation whose mission is to inform people about the topic and prevent bullying) and developed a training programme for schools. The aim of the training was to encourage students, teachers and parents to stop being spectators and take an active role in situations of bullying.

Three well-known spokespersons: Ricky Rubio (a Spanish basketball player), Marta Pombo (an influencer and brand ambassador), and Ibai Llanos (a famous streamer and communicator) became ambassadors of this campaign and were spreading the knowledge through their social networks.

The messages of the H&S “Stop Bullying” campaign were communicated on AtresmediaTV and online channels in various forms: pre-rolls, mid-rolls and post-rolls on Atre’s streaming platforms, social media messages under all its forms, new coverage through Atres’ various assets and qualitative content integration in programmes related to the topics.

This anti-bullying initiative came to live through a unique collaboration between advertiser, agency and media publisher - H&S, Carat and Atres respectively.

Campaign results

H&S together with Atresmedia managed to reach wide audiences and raise awareness around the problem. 90.6 million contacts have been achieved on TV, 3.9 million on digital and 4.4 million on social media, across the one-month time span of the campaign. The training program was a big success with 92 schools from all over Spain participating in it just in one month.

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