Advertising Case Study

TVNZ UBackground

U is a New Zealand television channel targeted to 15-

to 24-year olds. TVNZ, the country’s leading television

and digital media company, launched the channel in

March 2011.

Objective

Before U launched on March 13, 2011, TVNZ wanted

to introduce young people to the channel, make

them aware of the launch date, and encourage

them to watch the new channel. At the heart of U

is a live, three-hour music video program with a

personality host called U live, which airs daily from

4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The vision for this show is to be

more innovative, interactive and appealing to the

target audience than any other show on television

by delivering New Zealand’s (and maybe the world’s)

first “Social Television” experience where social

networking and broadcast television collide. Within

a stand-alone broadcast environment, commentary,

guests, chat, giveaways, competitions and music

come together with a specially developed Facebook

application that brings the audience to the screen.

“We looked at a lot of research that showed us

that a large percentage of New Zealand’s youth is

on Facebook and that people are using Facebook

while watching television,” says Eric Kearley, Head

of Digital Media and Digital Channels, TVNZ. “So

we decided to combine our innovative show format

Facebook Executive SummaryClient:

Objective: Raise awareness of the new TV channel and attract viewers, and build an online community that will engage with the network’s core program

Solution: Tightly targeted Premium Like Ads and a custom Facebook application that integrated the Facebook experience with television to inform, excite and draw the most likely viewers

Key Lessons:

Facebook can make a strong focal point for a marketing campaign and drive engagement

Targeted Facebook Ads help build a fan base on Facebook and hone in on the most likely customers/viewers

Eric Kearley, Head of Digital Media and Digital Channels, TVNZ

“U is not so much a TV channel as an interactive multi-platform brand – U is an attitude. The brand takes active

involvement and inclusiveness as given and Facebook has been key to delivering this to our audience.”

Advertising Case Study

ages of 15 and 24 in New Zealand.

Results

expectations with the channel reaching 34 percent of

New Zealanders in the first released data (four weeks)

liked the TVNZ U Facebook Page. Four weeks after the

campaign began, this figure had climbed to over

10,000. By mid-May 2011, the Page had more than

15,000 fans and the number continued to grow. The

TVNZ U Page has more fans than those of its two

main competitors’ Pages, and those programmes

have been on air for several years. With Friends of

Connections Targeting, TVNZ could reach nearly 2

million friends of those fans.

with Facebook to allow us to interact with our

target audience on their turf by creating social

TV for youth.”

The specific objectives of the Facebook advertising

campaign were to build a large fan base for U,

raise awareness of the U live Facebook application

and encourage people to interact with the channel

in a new and exciting way.

Approach

TVNZ’s Facebook campaign centered around the TVNZ

application. The TVNZ U Facebook Page was created

to provide fans with information about the new

channel while the U live application enables viewers

to participate in the show and posts their comments

live on the show through the Facebook platform.

Here’s how it works: A viewer can interact with the

application hosted on a tab on the TVNZ U Page to

Making the show much more interactive, the viewer’s

name, age, city and Facebook Profile picture display on

the TV screen during the live broadcast.

TVNZ promoted the channel and application through

a Facebook Ads campaign in the three weeks leading

up to the channel’s launch and for the three following

weeks. The campaign used a combination of Premium

Poll and Like Ads with video creative, including two

Reach Blocks, which is a media buy on Facebook Home

Pages and other premium locations that guarantees a

marketer will reach 100 percent of its target audience

over a 24-hour period. Marketplace Like Ads were

encourage people to like the TVNZ U Facebook Page

and start using the U live application.

Back-to-back Reach Blocks reached all New Zealanders

on Facebook for 48 hours during the weekend of the

TVNZ U launch to inform as many people as possible

about the launch of the new channel and to generate

broad brand awareness. Poll and Video Ads were then

targeted to the core audience—people between the

Advertising Case Study

visitors each week and has been used 25,000 times

since launch.

of those impressions being social impressions,

meaning they featured the names of peoples’ friends

who had already liked the Page

There were over 19,460 engagements with the

Facebook Ads. Some of the Premium Ads had

engagement rates as high as 0.38 percent and 0.44

percent.

The people who have liked the TVNZ U Page and

are using the application are right in the desired

demographic, Eric says. “That is really important for

this channel, because TVNZ has some big mainstream

channels, and the point of U is not to cannibalize those

channels but to bring in new viewers,” explains Eric. “So

creating advertising that is directly targeted to the right

audience is really important, and we are seeing proof that

we are reaching the right people.”

What’s more, the campaign and the application have

generated significant positive press coverage for the

channel, including articles in leading newspapers

and radio interviews. “Using an innovative Facebook

tool really helped us drive significant publicity for the

channel, which helps us build brand awareness with our

advertisers,” Eric says.

The Future

TVNZ U is paying close attention to its audience’s feedback,

looking at ways to develop the application’s functionality

and encouraging people to jump in and take part. It will

continue to focus on increasing the number of new fans

and finding fresh ways to engage them. The network is

also dedicating more resources to these efforts. Eric sums

it up: “For this channel, and for this target audience, social

media is our No. 1 media priority.”