Grapeshot Keywords on AppNexus - Green & Black's Easter 2012 Competition
A Brand-Smart Contextual RTB Campaign
Summary
Green & Black's used the Grapeshot Keywords App on AppNexus's inventory to intelligently target their ads based on individual webpages' keyword-contexts. They achieved measurably improved results at a low CPM.
Background
Green & Black's is a leading brand in the UK confectionery industry. It manufactures and sells premium organic chocolate using fine, ethically sourced ingredients, balancing 'taste and principles' in a highly defined brand identity.
The Brief
With Easter only a few weeks away, Green & Black's decided to hold a competition to reward their legions of chocolate fans. They wanted to create a Facebook compeititon that would allow people to nominate others as 'Good Eggs'. This would allow them to reward people who reflected the values Green & Black's wished to be associated with. The prize would be a trip to the Green & Black's chocolate factory for a personal guided tour.
But how to promote the competition? They had to find the right audience and the right environment for their campaign, in a very short time.
Campaign Insights
AppNexus is the largest source of open online inventory in the UK: 660,000 website domains are host to over 40bn UK ad impressions a month. Besides premium inventory, there is also a 'long tail' of websites and special interest blogs that are rich in more specific and brand-smart content.
Observant of their ethical corporate values, Green & Black's did not want to use retargeting or any other method that might compromise user privacy. This was where Grapeshot was able to help, as its keyword-contextual targeting technology does not need to track users.
Method
Using the Grapeshot Keywords App on AppNexus, Green & Black's was able to define unique, contextually relevant environments for their campaign. First, they created customised 'chocolate' and 'Easter' channels. Then, to further extend their reach, they also used a standard 'food' channel to capture inventory on the long tail of food blogs on AppNexus. Finally, they created another custom channel called 'Fair Trade', defining it with keywords that described their quality and ethical standards, in order to advertise in contexts that reflected the brand's values.
Results
Over a two-week period the campaign generated over 4000 Facebook 'Likes' and 600 competition entries. Grapeshot delivered
- 2,703,108 impressions
- 3,053 clicks
- 0.11% CTR
- £0.80 CPM
The quality and relevance of webpages returned by Grapeshot's keyword-contextual targeting data was very high. Of the following website domains returned by Grapeshot, none was returned by Grapeshot's competitors:
gourmandia.com
organicgardening.com
taste.com
gourmetrecipe.com
allrecipes.com
bettycrocker.com
freecookinggames.net
cookingchanneltv.com
yumsugar.com
eatingwell.com
wordpress.com
dietbites.com
blogspot.co.uk
joyofbaking.com
Conclusion
By targeting the Green & Black's campaign creative to intelligent, keyword-based contexts via AppNexus, combined with both standard and custom brand-safety channels, Grapeshot was able to deliver scaled performance and targeted responses at a very economical price with total brand safety.