As a Research Manager in the UK advertising industry, figuring out ways to measure and evaluate campaigns is crucial to demonstrating their effectiveness and, therefore, value. Depending on objectives, a campaign’s effectiveness could be determined by CTR, brand effects, behavioural actions, ‘likes’, its reach..the list goes on.

Now, it might be the warmest spring in London since records began, but many brands are already beginning to plan for Christmas 2011, so with that in mind, lets have a look at a retail campaign from last Christmas.

I wanted to highlight a case study from Very.co.uk, a UK clothing company that was founded in 2009 and part of the Shop Direct family.

Very had two objectives:

- increase brand awareness

- position the brand amongst women aged 25-44 years.

To meet these objectives, Microsoft Advertising provided a creative solution that combined mass-reach display, targeted display and an editorial content partnership. To tackle Very’s objectives we ran a survey-based test/control brand survey. As additional research objectives, Microsoft Advertising wanted to measure the campaign in terms of reach & frequency, see the demographic profile of the audience the campaign reached, and track any behavioural actions generated by the campaign.

The Campaign

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On the branded display side: Behavioural Targeting, Textlinks, demographic profile targeting, MSN Homepage Takeovers and CPA network activity were all marshalled to drive awareness of the brand and push traffic to Very.co.uk.

To develop the engagement and interaction Very has with its audiences - Very talks to its customers via Social media, the VBlog and VStyle, an interactive online magazine - we built a content hub on MSN, called the Very Fashion Clinic.

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Using both MSN Homepage, and MSN Life & Style, content was used to draw upon the potent triggers of relevancy and familiarity to build engagement with the campaign.

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The editorial strategy included Weekly ‘Editor’s picks’ from the Very range, polls and expert answers to a user’s fashion ‘dilemma’, galleries of products pulled from the Very site, and a ‘test yourself’ quiz that ran throughout the campaign.

Much of the campaign, with the exception of the MSN Homepage Takeover and the Fashion Clinic, was targeted (behavioural and demographic). The Very Fashion Clinic attracted the highest % composition of the target audience – proving the content was appropriate and relevant to Very’s audience, who responded by engaging with it.

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Topline results

- The campaign reached 4.9 million people: 12.4% of the UK online population, and 21.9% reach of all online women aged 25-44 in UK.

- 9% of those exposed to the online campaign went onto visit Very’s website. Amongst women 25-44, this increased to 11.7%.

- Furthermore, exposed visitors saw more pages and spent more time on Very’s site compared to non-exposed visitors.

- Brand effects were also good amongst the target audience, especially from the Very Fashion Clinic:

  1. Aided brand awareness increased +7% (to 84%),
  2. Online Ad-awareness increased +6% (to 52%),
  3. Brand favourability up +29% (to 63%) and recommendation up +14% (to 49%),
  4. 54% claimed they would tell other people about the Fashion Clinic

Summary

From a marketing perspective, this successful campaign is another best-practice example of integrating content with mass-reach and targeted display.

From a research perspective, the study provided a holistic evaluation of R&F, behavioural and brand measures, providing Microsoft Advertising, the media agency Carat and Very with evidence-based direction for continuing the partnership.

Download the Very Digital Case Study PPT.

If you have any questions about this campaign or any other aspect of our research and consumer insight, leave a comment below and I’d be happy to help.

Need inspiration? Peruse our UK digital advertising case studies

Tim Lumb, Research Manager, Microsoft Advertising UK