A case study by Gazprom-Media Sales House and Maguro: How to make an impression on TV viewers during the holidays

Gazprom-Media Sales House (part of Gazprom-Media Holding) together with Maguro, a brand of premium canned tuna, carried out an interactive advertising campaign on TV. How to generate demand for a category—find out more in this new case study.

The tuna category is becoming increasingly popular in the Russian canned fish market*. However, since the Russian consumer is not accustomed to consuming tuna and have few recipes for it, the growth of the segment is remains hindered. The idea behind the campaign was developed with the brand’s strategy in mind, which is based on consumer communication: we can prepare restaurant-quality dishes with tuna quickly and easily, even in our home kitchens.

Several placements were planned around the holidays as part of the campaign. The placements provided simple recipes for traditional dishes, allowing viewers to take the look and taste of the dish to a restaurant level with a special ingredient—tuna.

Tasks

Improve brand awareness on the market.

Draw new consumers to the tuna category.

Drive category growth by creating new consumption situations and recipes using tuna.

Implementation

The advertising campaign ran from December 2022 to March 2023 on TNT and TV-3 channels. With the GetShop.TV and HbbTV technologies, we tailored our targeting according to several criteria:

Moscow and Moscow Region, St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, Krasnodar Region.

Social and demographic characteristics: all aged between 25 and 45.

Creative advertisements featuring recipes aired on TV channels, ensuring the highest level of audience engagement when the overlay ad was shown on screen. Clicking the “Ok” button on the remote control opened a microsite with holiday recipes where viewers could leave their phone number for step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the dishes. The microsite also had a QR code that led to a page with detailed information about the product.

In the run-up to the New Year and Christmas festivities, viewers could open recipes for Tuna Mimosa, Dressed Tuna or Olivier.

During the Pancake Week, viewers were prompted to try pancakes bags with a delicious and unusual tuna filling, and on International Women’s Day, they were invited to surprise the women in their lives with a nutritious breakfast—Tuna Scramble. For Valentine’s Day, we prepared a Sardinia pizza recipe for a romantic dinner for two.

TV viewers who regularly took part in the interactive could build a collection of recipes for any occasion. But even if a participant missed one of the overlay ads, they could always leave their phone number and receive a text message with the full selection of dishes in a PDF file.

Results

More than 1.5 million people were made aware of tuna dishes over the course of the advertising campaign. The overlay’s CTR amounted to 1.6%**.

Based on the placement performance, a Brand-Lift survey*** was conducted to understand how interactive TV formats impact brand metrics:

The increase in ad recall was +10.4 p.p. compared to the control group.

Brand awareness rose by 10.9 p.p. compared to the control group.

During the campaign, it was important to draw attention to the product and improve the experience of Russians consumers in the category. To motivate the audience to try culinary experiments with tuna, we needed tools that would ensure both great reach and engagement. The most relevant solution was interactive TV that works in combination with call-to-action mechanisms. The campaign’s high output confirms the effectiveness of ITV in brand building and promotion.

Alexey Krupenin

Director of Key Accounts and Chain Agencies of Gazprom-Media Sales House

Holidays offer excellent opportunities for dynamic situational campaigns, providing a chance to be remembered by the audience within the context of positive emotions. On the other hand, it is quite challenging to stand out among competitors during a holiday season. We suggested that Maguro use interactive TV technology and engaging creative with recipes not only to introduce the brand, but also to stir up viewers’ genuine interest in the product. The format captured the attention of the audience. As a result, we achieved a high conversion in terms of transitions and a significant increase in brand awareness.

*According to AC Nielsen MTQ1 2023, Canned Fish Category {3]{3]

**According to GetShop.TV and Teletarget, interactive TV technology platforms, for December 2022—March 2023 {3]{3]

***According to GetShop.TV and Teletarget, interactive TV technology platforms, for March—April 2023{3]{3]