boosted
open enrollment
CLIENT Fortune 500 Health Insurance Company
SERVICES
Direct Response TV & Radio Advertising
•
Media Buying
•
Analytics & Reporting
More Reach. More Response. More Results.
Faced with ambitious growth goals, Viden worked with a client’s agency of record to build a new DRTV strategy that supported brand awareness goals and drove lead generation.
THE RESULTS?
This data-driven approach to DRTV delivered all the following compared to their traditional spot buy awareness campaign:
38%
more impressions
69%
lower CPM (cost per thousand impressions)
65%
lower CPC (Cost Per Call) with 22% more calls
47%
lower CPL (Cost Per Lead) with 10% more leads
What made the difference? A smart AND supplemental media strategy, near real-time campaign optimization, and the strategic inclusion of Spanish-language creative and media strategy. Within just four weeks, a fully operational DRTV campaign was launched and scaled across 40 markets.
THE CLIENT
This Fortune 500 health insurance company serves more than 5.6 million members across the United States.
THE CHALLENGE
Lacking Measurable Performance
Budget Constraints
Lacking Lead Generation
Two Goals, a Tight Budget, and a Split Strategy
The client had their sights set on expanding into new growth markets with two lofty goals: boost awareness of their brand and drive open enrollment leads. Rather than throwing money at the challenge, the client wanted a smarter, more strategic solution.
They needed to stretch their budget further to get the best of both worlds. On the one hand, they needed to maintain their brand-based awareness campaign that was being run by their current agency of record, which accounted for about 70% of their total TV budget. On the other hand, they needed their media investment to drive measurable performance. Viden dedicated the remaining 30% of the client’s TV budget to a targeted DRTV campaign that focused on leads and performance. This meant Viden had to do more with significantly less.
THE VIDEN SOLUTION
New Ad Performance Tracking
Optimized Budget Usage
New Emphasis on Lead Generation
A More Efficient Way to Show Up on TV
Viden worked closely with the respective teams to create a strategy that squeezed every ounce of performance out of every single dollar in the budget. This was accomplished by:
Changing the Mindset
Embracing DRTV meant a shift in thinking—away from the comfort of “guaranteed clearance” at premium CPMs. Rather, Viden introduced a more dynamic approach to lower CPMs, and optimize the campaign daily and weekly to drive efficiency without sacrificing visibility.
Actively Managing Campaigns
Viden brought a hands-on approach to actively manage and continuously optimize campaigns by creative, media segment, and dayparts. If specific media segments were exceeding a goal, they were scaled. If others weren’t working, they were cut.
Using Toll-Free Numbers on Every Creative
To ensure surgical precision in tracking performance, Viden implemented an infrastructure that assigned unique toll-free numbers to every creative and media intersection. This allowed for clear response, lead and sales attribution at the station level, eliminating guesswork and revealing which placements were actually driving calls and enrollments.
Viden also managed the dubbing and distribution of 42 uniquely versioned TV spots, each one a data point ready to deliver insight. Every version, every airing, every viewer response was tracked and evaluated.
Implementing Dayparting
To further stretch the budget, the strategy also leveraged a mixed dayparting strategy that blended daypart-specific buys with run-of-schedule (ROS) placements. This allowed the team to bring down CPMs, while still delivering quality airings for dimes on the dollar.
Along with the aggressive rates negotiated, precise performance tracking and active campaign management were the reasons behind the success of the DRTV campaign. An example included:
Daypart optimization:
- The client initially set a target of having 73% of the media schedule planned during the Early Fringe and Prime dayparts, compared to only 27% in Early Morning, Daytime, and Weekends.
- Early in the campaign, the performance data coming in painted an obvious picture that Early Morning, Daytime, and Weekends were the best performing dayparts, so Viden worked with the agency of record to shift the daypart strategy.
- By the end of the campaign, 43% of the budget had been spent in the Early Morning, Daytime, and Weekend dayparts, which drove 69% lower CPC and 79% lower CPL than Early Fringe and Prime.
Including Spanish-Language Creative & Media
During the initial planning phase, Spanish-language TV wasn’t on the client’s radar. Eventually, it made its way into the plan, but with <20% of the budget allocated to Spanish-language media.
Early in the campaign, Viden identified that the Spanish-language media segments were outperforming English-media segments and made moves to shift spend.
By the end of the campaign, ~25% of the budget was being spent on Spanish-language media, which delivered a 55% lower CPC and 46% lower CPL than English-language media.
This inclusion of Spanish language creative and media boosted reach, delivered incredible efficiency, and tapped into a highly responsive audience at hyper-efficient CPMs.
Implementing the Strategy in Just Four Weeks
Despite the complexity of the campaign, Viden operationalized the entire DRTV strategy—from signed scope of work to live media—in just four weeks. The result? A high-impact launch across 40 markets on both broadcast and cable TV, right on time and ready to perform.
THE RESULTS
The combined DRTV campaign totaled a $3.1M investment over a 10-week period and delivered the following metrics when compared to the traditional spot buy:
- 38% more impressions
- A 69% lower CPM
- A 65% lower CPC (with 22% more calls)
- A 47% lower CPL (with 10% more leads)
Why Run Your Campaign with Viden?
Whether you’re a large brand or a challenger brand seeking huge growth, Viden provides an experienced DRTV team dedicated to helping you reach your performance goals. You can count on C-suite expertise and strategy, the agility and care of a privately-owned agency and a tireless Midwest work ethic. We’ve led the strategy and execution of more than 400 national, regional, and local marketing campaigns over the past 21 years. We focus on exceeding your growth goals and treating your media budget as if we’re spending our own money.