1. MARKET SITUATION

Back in 2015, Proximus was missing digital sales opportunities. When consumers searched for Samsung devices, Google returned Mediamarkt, CoolBlue or Telenet links. When searching for Netflix, they received Netflix or HLN links. This whilst Proximus uniquely offers Netflix directly on Proximus TV.

2. OBJECTIVES

The challenge was to boost e-sales whilst building the brand... or in consumer language: how to be always close, when and where it matters?

From research, we identified the main audiences of interest:

• Movies & Series lovers
• Football lovers
• Device interested
• Mobile, Internet & TV Subscription interested

Tangible KPIs came down to 2 critical objectives:

• Delivering sales growth
• Building brand engagement

The sales objective translated into '+5% clicks to web' and '+10% clicks to order' are critical KPIs. This means that the double digit end result is driven by consumer inflow combined with a better conversion rate via the quality of the inflow. This is a huge challenge in a mature and competitive Telecom market with strong competition like Telenet en Voo present, and on top a strong international player like Orange entering the marketing (knowing that a new player mostly leads to sales pressure).

Conversion rate

The brand building objective translated into 'Share of engagement' and a combination of '+10% unique reach' with '-10% cost per engagement'. This combination requires that media supported digital creative needs to be consumer engaging... ie that is effective digital creative. The share of engagement ambition was to grow from 30% end 2015 to more than 40% in 2017. This meant passing Telenet, which was - and still is -a solid marketing company with a remarkable track record.

3. STRATEGY

The challenge required a structural evolution of the communication strategy. To gain insights we launched a test case with the objective to double Netflix sales.
It revealed 3 insights:

1. Data driven detection of potential consumers may reveal unexpected audiences to INSPIRE. Up to then we targeted nestleavers but discovered that 50% of consumers looking for Netflix also looked for kids content.
2. Relevant content increases traffic to the Proximus PROPOSITION.
   SEO was optimized by creating 40 different landing pages on the Proximus website based on content linked to the 40 most viewed Netflix series.
3. Relevant dynamic promotions increase CONSUMPTION.
   Including the relevant content in a promotional offer illustrated this in the Netflix case.

The results of the test case were spectacular: Netflix subscriptions via Proximus increased 6x versus a 2x objective. On top of that, we observed a boost:

• The conversion ratio went up from 4% to 14%
• The acquisition power (new web visits) reached 72% versus 40% benchmark

We rolled out this new strategy called IPC (Inspiration, Proposition, Consumption) structurally in the organisation, created 3 new roles (content manager, journey planner, performance manager) and started building digital communication journeys.

By using data from sponsoring, CRM and own channels, we linked all OESP components (Owned-Earned-Shared-Paid), leveraging SEO/SEA, dynamic bannering, video, games and building remarketing audiences via Doubleclick.

This higher targeting accuracy allowed to divide the Cost per Acquisition by 6. Throughout the journey, building on data intelligence, creatives were adapted.

Illustrations

INSPIRATION: Grandparents, Families and Millennials received different versions of the video leveraging family magic at Christmas.

PROPOSITION: consumers received a Facebook carousel adapted to their passion: movies & series versus. football versus. kids.

CONSUMPTION: an adapted promotion was launched to consumers living in Limburg and the mobile device promotion was creatively adapted to the device brand used.

4. RESULTS

A thorough dashboarding was essential to track and optimise performance.
The results were phenomenal. 3 highlights:

• Clicks to order: +24% versus +10% objective
• Share of engagement: Proximus overtook Telenet in the North from 22% to 50% and distanciated Orange and Voo in the South from 50% to 65%
• Cost per engagement: decreased with -67%, delivering a positive ROI as advertising budgets decreased by 10% versus 2017!

The digital performance of Proximus was recognized with a Digital Dominance Award, a Gold Amma and an Effie Award.

Overall conclusion

As the Effie awards brands whose communication effectiveness, isolated from all other influencing factors, generate outstanding business and brand building results, then one could easily agree that this Proximus case is a true ambassador of the Effie spirit.

Within an ultra-competitive environment such as the telecom market, it is a truly exceptional performance for Proximus to be able to overachieve by far both sales and communication objectives, and not only once over a short period but over a whole year. Additionally, with a lower media spent in 2017 versus 2016 and 2015. A true ROI winner.

The foundations of this success are clear : thorough in-depth data analysis, the setup of a sound test case (Netflix), a companywide implementation of digital customer journeys following the the IPC model (Inspiration, Participation, Consumption) with new roles in the communication team, and a perfect execution with a smooth partnership between Proximus and the Change Agent (Digipolitans), the Digital Creative Agency (Pivott), the Media Agency (Space) and the Adwords Agency (Semetis).

There have been no significant other parameters which have impacted the results.

For marketeers, this case is clearly a new and inspiring guideline in digital communication to connect with consumers where and when it matters.