Seven has revealed the results from its first fully-converged advertising campaign across the total TV ecosystem for the personal care brand Dove.
The campaign saw a 20% increase in unique reach compared to a control campaign using an identical volume of spend on linear broadcast channels only.
In partnership with Unilever Australia & New Zealand and PHD, the end-to-end campaign was the first in Australia to be delivered in full across linear TV and digital screens at the same time, with audiences moving across the screens of Seven and 7plus while the campaign was live.
The converged approach included a 31% allocation of audience to BVOD on 7plus, which led to a significant increase in reach for the campaign for Dove, a Unilever brand.
BVOD was most effective in reaching the younger segment of the campaign’s target audience, with 7plus driving a 43% uplift in reach among people 18 to 39.
Launched on Sunday, 16 October, Dove’s campaign ran for four weeks and saw BVOD deliver a 28% incremental unique reach on top of the linear viewing reach.
Only 4% of the total audience was duplicated across Seven and 7plus, demonstrating that diversifying audiences across both linear and BVOD screens increases the available audience and reach.
The new industry total audience measurement VOZ was used at every stage to help move the campaign across different devices and content, to reach the brand’s target audience in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Sarah Sorrenson, Unilever ANZ’s media & digital hub director, said: “With more than 66% penetration of connected TVs in Australia, and more Australians than ever before consuming BVOD, we knew it was imperative to test new methods of planning, optimising, and buying video, to ensure our brands remain unmissable in broadcast media.
“The trailblazing converged trial with the Seven Network and PHD was a success, enabling us to drive both incremental reach and significant improvements in efficiencies. We’re excited to roll-out converged 2.0 across more brands in 2023,” she said.
Emma Wood, PHD’s group investment director, said: “At PHD, we wanted to challenge the way that we typically approached buying television and video across Unilever brands. We embarked on a journey with Unilever ANZ and Seven Network to look at ways that we could deliver greater effectiveness and reach for our campaigns.
“It’s impressive to see that not only did we achieve that goal, but we were able to deliver minimal audience duplication and de-risk audience volatility at the same time. Leveraging the growing BVOD environment helped sure up audiences for our Dove campaign. We’re thrilled with the results and excited to continue to innovate, enhance and evolve the way we trade in 2023 and beyond, in line with the dynamic nature of audience consumption across digital platforms. We can’t wait to start working on Converged 2.0.”
Kurt Burnette, Seven West Media chief revenue officer, said: “True converged trading has been a key part of Seven’s commercial strategy as we work with innovative and like-minded partners to forge the future of converged video trading in this country. The insights from this campaign are global leading and proves that converged trading will deliver tangible business benefits for brands.”
Seven’s Head of Converged Audience Trading, Alex Tansley, said: “We are thrilled with the results of this campaign, which clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of converged media campaigns in reaching a wider audience and driving engagement in hard-to-reach younger audiences who are increasingly consuming video content online.
“Our innovative work with PHD and Unilever ANZ sets a precedent for the future converged trading model across total TV, with 100% audience guarantee and significant improvements to reach metrics. By using VOZ data to optimise audience delivery dynamically across Seven and 7plus, we can offer our commercial partners and advertisers a more effective, faster and easier way to build brands with reach, impact and relevance across metropolitan TV, regional TV and digital markets.
“With BVOD set to continue its explosive growth on 7plus in 2023 – with 7Bravo and hit content from NBCUniversal landing on the platform from this month – we look forward to working with more brands to leverage the power of BVOD and the mass reach of Seven’s linear channels to engage new audiences,” he said.
Seven has also released a free three-part educational content series called convergED, to equip marketers and agencies with the skills to confidently navigate the new total TV landscape.