HOW GRUVI AND USHERU PARTNERED WITH GERMAN FILMS TO SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL RELEASES DURING COVID

In this case study we highlight how Behavioural Audience Data was successfully used by German Films to identify, reach and expand their key audiences in select territories during the COVID-19 pandemic, to keep building visibility online for German productions and to support those titles that were lucky enough to get a theatrical release;
Territory-specific data that Gruvi gathered for German Films during the campaign was subsequently exploited to successfully & cost effectively identify and reach similar audiences in other territories;
This expanded audience database can be directly retargeted in 2021, and the data can also be used to model & locate other ‘lookalike’ audiences for future releases in these & other markets.

INTRODUCTION

Gruvi was recruited by German Films to support & promote the theatrical and/or VOD release of select German titles during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, at a time when film releases were struggling. The campaign offered them a way to build awareness of their titles and also support individual key releases, at a time when film distributors were facing unimaginable challenges.
The nine territories we covered were Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands, US and Canada.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

Audiences were driven to the watch.german-films.de online platform created by our partner Usheru, where they could find information on how & where to watch a film locally. Offering these & other meaningful audience interactions enabled us to gather the data needed to model and locate other ‘lookalike’ audiences, and consequently increase the site’s user base.
The Facebook campaign was set to reach the broadest possible range of identified & relevant audiences, at the cheapest price.
We focused on the ‘buy’ & ‘watch’ behaviour of interested individuals throughout the campaign, in order to build the audience.

CAMPAIGN KEY RESULTS

Performance Numbers:

Reach: 748,694Clicks: 93,600Page sessions: 43,200Unique users: 29,900Post engagement: 4,413
The US, Canada and Poland offered the cheapest prices for the largest audience reach.
North European countries were amongst the most expensive territories, but it became apparent from early in the campaign that these territories were the most successful in actually converting audiences into paying customers.

August. 35% of the budget

• There was an initial focus on the Polish market, because of its size. However it soon became apparent that the Danish campaign was performing better, even with a smaller ad spend and and higher ad costs. The reasons: Danish audiences are more familiar with German FIlms content & VOD technology/platforms, and more comfortable with the German FIlms site being in english.

September. 35% of the budget

• The US campaign performed well for both theatrical and VOD releases, with a confirmed interest in German Independent film amongst our target audience, and high number of subsequent exits from the site to various VOD platforms. “Helmut Newton” drove the most users to the platform.
• The Swiss campaign generated the lowest amount of clicks. Audiences there displayed little interest in the promoted VOD titles, and it is possible our limited target audience had previously seen the films when released theatrically in that territory.

October, 15 % of the budget

• Our campaign data from Poland, Denmark, Switzerland and the US was used to find audiences exhibiting similar behaviour in The Netherlands and Finland.
• The budget was equivalent to one third of each of the allocations for Poland and Denmark. We delivered page visits 2X greater than in Denmark and 3X greater than in Poland.

November, 15% of the budget

• With theatrical releases postponed in various territories, the decision was made to focus solely on driving traffic to films available on VOD in Norway and Canada, with campaign data from all other territories used to find audiences exhibiting similar behaviour in those two markets.
• Norway was significantly more expensive in terms of reach, but saw a higher number of conversions than were generated in Switzerland, from just 7.5% of the total campaign budget.
• Canada delivered as many clicks as Poland or Denmark, from just 7.5% of the total campaign budget.

CONCLUSION

Targeting by buying behaviour is more effective than interest or demographic based methods.
The campaign generated 43,200 page visitors, at an average price of €0.3 per visitor.

We recommend maintaining activity in the territories that generated the highest number of users at the smallest cost: USA, Canada, Denmark & The Netherlands.
Using this data to target by buying behaviour was more effective than targeting by interest or demographic based methods: by the end of the campaign we were able to deliver results in such expensive territories as Canada and The Netherlands that were comparable to those achieved in other territories earlier in the campaign - with a significantly smaller budget.

The pool of Behavioural Audience Data gathered can play a crucial role in the marketing of future German films, both theatrical and/or VOD. Audiences with a proven interest in German films in any of the above territories can be retargeted and made aware of a particular upcoming release, and the data can also be used to model, locate and contact other ‘lookalike’ audiences.
A film’s marketing budget needs to have no wastage: we can reach genuinely interested audiences at a remarkably cost effective price.