2012 Bronze Best use of data in a digital campaign

Client Virgin Media

How did the campaign make a difference? Virgin Media’s new bespoke attribution model allowed extensive digital pathway analysis; analysing how each advertising event contributed allowed a step-change in how spend was allocated. This achieved a 22% saving in digital marketing without impacting orders, and a 46% saving in display advertising whilst increasing orders by 15%.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Virgin Media is one of the largest digital DR spenders, so its DR campaigns run at high volumes and are very effective. However, targets get more challenging each year so it was necessary to ensure that every single ad exposure was as effective as possible, as well as to minimise wastage and duplication. This involved phasing spend across channels, within channel, and across messaging to maximise relevancy, interest and action. The traditional measurement and buying currency of last click provided a restricted view of each exposure's contribution and efficiency, so it was necessary to investigate the full path to conversion. Due to scale, off-the-shelf ad server reports were too limited in granularity of detail. It was decided to create a bespoke attribution model to extract over three billion records from multiple ad servers, giving a comprehensive view of the digital path to conversion and identifying how each digital advertising event contributes.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? A two-stage approach enabled testing of key insights from the first wave of analysis and then to re-run the project to validate changes and draw out even more detail. Addressing big insights first allowed instant improvements, then second-wave exploration of insights previously hidden. This approach allowed reappraisal and hence more investment further up the funnel, as too much wastage was identified at the bottom, which is counter to a traditional DR approach. The data insights have allowed confident identification of each channel’s role and the real value delivered along the consumer journey.

Results The two-wave strategy enabled the number of consumer events to decrease by 50%, saving 22% on digital marketing spend without impacting volumes. In display, budget was reduced by 46% and orders increased by 15%. Whereas 20 events were previously required to win 60% of orders, this lowered to 10 events. The number of retargeting partners was reduced from seven to one, ensuring this partner was the one most valuable to Virgin. Greater insight into how consumers engage with the affiliate channel increased tenancy spend by 67% while driving a 19% overall uplift to sales attributed directly to the channel.

Team Alison Smith, George Maynard, Georgios Polyzois, Kikko Sbrescia