Engaging a hard-to-reach audience in a streaming environment
Gaining a tactical advantage with Samsung Ads
As Activision Blizzard prepared for the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (MWII), it needed a way to reach the often elusive gaming audience and educate them about the latest features and storyline in this iconic first-person shooter (FPS) series. It knew it would need to go beyond linear TV, which includes only half of all TV households, and embrace Connected TV or CTV advertising.
Activision Blizzard chose Samsung Ads to find and present likely MWII gamers with personalized messaging and deliver on KPIs including conversion, lift and reach.
Seeking gamers where they stream
Gamers are nearly impossible to reach using linear TV advertising because they spend most of their viewing time on streaming services1. They’re four times more likely to stream than nongamers, spending 52% of their TV time streaming, 28% gaming and 20% with linear TV. In total, gamers spend an average of just over two hours per day gaming on their Samsung TVs. That created an opportunity for Samsung Ads to message these viewers on behalf of Activision Blizzard, wherever they were — over the internet, in a gaming environment or on linear TV.
The Samsung Ads team used proprietary Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) data to identify potential customers engaging with games across different genres and consoles. They focused their messaging on three key gaming audience segments1: new, lapsed and churned. Samsung’s ACR data set, the largest in the U.S., leverages viewing data derived from more than 72 million Smart TVs.
The marketing campaign deployed CTV advertising across different ad formats and three unique destinations: Samsung’s First Screen, Gaming Hub and Game Console Launcher. When gamers turned on their devices they received a native First Screen ad. Gaming Hub Hero Ads were delivered to viewers streaming thousands of games directly from their Samsung Smart TV. Consumers using the Game Console Launcher, which automatically detects which console (Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo) is plugged into a Samsung TV, were also served targeted ads.
“Samsung Ads created tailored messaging for each targeted gaming segment using its unmatched access and knowledge of our gaming audience. We were able to reach gamers from the moment they turned on their TV whether they were gaming, streaming a movie or watching linear TV,” said Matt Silverstone, Gaming Sales Manager, Samsung Ads.
Explosive conversion rates with multiple touchpoint advertising
The successful marketing campaign drove high visibility, delivering 83 million impressions and reaching 10 million gaming households. Conversion rates for exposed gamers were significantly higher than single touchpoint CTV or linear advertising.
The campaign delivered strong overall conversion rates:
● 15.7% conversion rate for exposed gamers
● 20% more gamer conversions as a result of multiple touchpoint CTV advertising
● 57% more incremental conversions compared with linear advertising
Reach and lift rates were dramatic:
● 47% reach extension to gamers in streaming environments unreachable through traditional methods
● 70% in-target lift in positive survey respondents
