In January 2009, Discovery Networks was gearing up for the April premiere of “Deadliest Catch: Season 5,” and had one goal in mind: make the season premiere the most anticipated television event of the year.
Discovery sought to reach a thrill-seeking audience who enjoyed entertainment that got their adrenaline pumping through high-risk scenarios. Their target audience was 60 percent male and 40 percent female, ranging in age from 25 to 54. Discovery wanted to reach this audience over the course of a four-day campaign that would showcase the “Deadliest Catch” premiere through highly engaging, breakthrough media executions.
In response to Discovery’s goals, Microsoft Advertising developed a highly interactive, groundbreaking solution that delivered the precise audience that Discovery sought. Consumers were presented with promotional rich media executions shown across all Microsoft Advertising screens—including the MSN home page, the MSN Mobile home page and Xbox LIVE®.
Click-through rates on every standard ad unit that was a part of the campaign outperformed. The integrated campaign drove more than 4 million interactions, including 4.2 million MSN TV custom content page views; over 390,000 downloads of the Season 5 trailer from Xbox LIVE; and more than 25,000 tune-in opt-in interactions (DVR, SMS, e-mail, calendar). More than 22 articles were written or reposted about the campaign in the press, including stories distributed by Bloomberg and Reuters that appeared on WSJ.com, LATimes.com and Forbes.com.
Multi-screen campaigns are an ideal way to engage a target audience with diverse online interests and behaviors. The four-day “Deadliest Catch” campaign reached across all Microsoft Advertising screens and helped drive more than 6.2 million people (P2+cume, 2009) to watch the series premiere, making it the most-watched episode in the series’ history.
To learn more about creating your own
multi-screen campaign, contact your sales representative today.
