Banging with conversions is nice, of course. We also like to drive performance through the ceiling. But sometimes — more and more often, in fact — it is necessary to aim a little further than the direct buying impulse. That's what we did in this case for HelloTV, formerly PlatteTV. The successful company wanted to put itself back on the map with a new name. She came to us for the digital media campaign, which also allowed the performance channels to receive attention. So it's a full funnel approach — with surprising lessons and results.
Also read this case with a view to the future. We expect full funnel campaigns to become more and more the norm, and for good reason.
You can hardly imagine it anymore, but in 2004 — the founding year of the webshop Plattetv.nl — a flat TV was the latest of the latest. Plattetv.nl was one of the first web shops to fully focus on it. With great and long-term success, partly thanks to the striking, highly relevant company name.
Fast forward 20 years and you have to work hard to find a non-flat TV in the Netherlands. What once provided an advantage is sweetly in the way. Of course, that realization has been around for a long time at Platte TV's offices, where plans are being made behind the scenes for a smart rebrand. The ambition: a top three position in the television market. The new name: HelloTV
Yellowgrape and PlatteTV have known each other for a while now. A few years ago, we created the UX design together when migrating to Magento 2.0. This summer, the phone rings again. Erik-Jan Koense, brand new marketing & e-com director, talks about the plans. In two months, a major media campaign to launch the new brand identity will start. The heart of the campaign consists of a series of super funny television commercials with Jochem Otten, from the Snipers. The new name has been hanging behind the curtains at the twelve physical stores since the summer. Everything was in the starting blocks. What was still missing was a strategic partner for the digital campaign, with a focus on online and the synergy between offline and online.
Two months... Should work.
“A full funnel campaign is also essential for existing brands to continue investing in brand and reputation in the current landscape.”
At Yellowgrape, we like to work from Google's See, Think, Do, Care model — which maps out the different levels of the average customer journey. Many e-commerce players in classic marketing are at the Do level; where you try to trigger potential customers to buy. The goal of HelloTV is of a completely different order: brand awareness. The new name HelloTV should settle in as many heads as possible in no time, preferably in male heads aged 25 and over.
The message: HelloTV is the authority in the field of televisions - here you come for the best service and knowledge. This message is much higher up the funnel, at the level of See (showing you exist) and Think (linking to needs). It is obvious, as we explain in this way, to also work on Do (encouraging people to buy). If you bundle it all together smartly, you can speak of Full Funnel Marketing! If you do it well (read: making sure the message is correct and the different layers work seamlessly together), you profit on all fronts.
Note: a full funnel campaign is not just a good strategy for new players or old players with a new look. In the current landscape, it is also essential for existing brands to continuously invest in brand and reputation. We just want to say: this case is widely applicable.
Two months until the TV campaign goes live... HelloTV is targeting prime time airtime around live sports and typical male shows. We had to buy smartly to make enough noise on a much smaller budget than the competition.
The spots are comical and bring the message into the limelight. It's up to us to effectively maintain the momentum online. To do so, we race on three channels: YouTube, Display and Social. For all three channels, we make a plan for both the See, Think and Do layers.
SEE layer
The media campaign on the SEE layer actually has the same goal as the television campaign: to generate brand awareness and the desired reputation.
At the SEE layer, both the power of repetition and the extent to which people watch the ad video are important. We therefore use shortened clips of the television spots to stimulate familiarity across all channels. Here, we closely monitor who is hooking up to what. The strength of a good full funnel campaign is retargeting: we serve those who are visibly successful at a certain layer with customization on the next layer.
Think layer
Where the SEE layer focuses on motivation, the Think layer already focuses more on activation. Think banners with messages like “Trade in your old TV for the best deal now” or “A free sound bar with all Samsung TVs.” The SEE layer and Think layer are in sync. In particular, we retarget people who watch or click through the videos from the SEE campaign. The Think campaign also offers space for brands such as Sonos or Samsung to push productions and promotions. This way, the knife cuts on multiple sides.
DO layer
The DO campaign follows a little later than the See and Think campaign and focuses on traffic and conversion. But note: because it is now part of a Full Funnel campaign, a much more focused playing field is created. Here, we mainly work with dynamic banners. These are automatically generated based on previously monitored behavior. Users get to see products - and promotions - that match what they've previously actively viewed. This is the retargeting that makes full funnel campaigns so strong.
A good name makes a profit very quickly
In a full funnel approach, a substantial part of your investment goes to actions (See and Think) that are not immediately aimed at more sales. The idea is that in an increasingly crowded market, investing in brand awareness and identity is simply necessary for your position. This makes it a long-term investment.
At HelloTV, we saw something different. As soon as the See and Think campaigns started running, traffic and sales also increased. An investment in your brand therefore not only pays off in the long term, but also in the short term. In addition, your performance marketing in a full funnel campaign is highly effective because of retargeting.
A seat at the table for TikTok
At the beginning of the campaign, the question was on the table to what extent we should add social to the digital mix. Social had a higher price for reach compared to Youtube and Display. We tested this and it turned out to be successful. Our primary platforms were Instagram and Facebook. During the SEE campaign, we saw very good interaction with healthy viewing ratios and also a good price per view on our 15-second videos. It was at that point that we also started thinking about TikTok. There is now an increasingly large adult population, in our case a group of 750,000 men aged 25+.
It's also a lot cheaper there than on Instagram and Facebook. Enough reason for a trip and it turned out not to be disappointing, quite the contrary: a lot of reach in exchange for low costs.
The primary goal of the HelloTV campaign was brand awareness. In an introduction campaign, no one knows your brand anymore, so it always starts at 0. Together with a market research company, the campaign measured how high the brand awareness was at that time. After just a few weeks, the brand awareness goal was more than achieved.
But just as important is the conclusion that two very different goals on paper — working on brand identity and boosting sales — influence each other positively in practice. However, it is important that you logically connect both goals in a well-coherent campaign. A consistent message is also a prerequisite. The story must be true across the board.
That's another advantage of working with the entire funnel. As a company, it forces you to look beyond your nose (turnover). It's about who you want to be, what your place in the market is, what kind of relationship you want to establish with customers. It offers space for stories, for old-fashioned creativity. It's about the future. In many cases, it forces you to think about your ecological impact, because more and more customers are taking that into account when they judge you as a brand.
