
July 15, 2022
TV
Digital
A case study by TNT and Prosto: How to highlight a brand’s value proposition in a survival reality show
The Gazprom-Media Sales House and TNT have implemented a cross-media campaign together with the Main Target Group and AFG National Group (Prosto brand). This case study narrates how we managed to win the audience.
Tasks
- Draw potential buyers’ interest in and attention to the brand’s products
- Generate a positive attitude toward the brand in the audience
- Convey the brand’s main USPs to viewers:
- quick 5 to 20-minute cooking of cereal,
- diverse range of products,
- cooking convenience with portioned boiling sachets.
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About the show
The show “Stars in Africa” first appeared on screens in 2021 and immediately won the love of the audience. The life of celebrities in the wild, surrounded by the jungle, drew the attention of audiences all over Russia.
The Prosto brand was integrated into the second season of “Stars in Africa”, which launched at the end of February 2022. The episodes of the adventure reality show were released during a period of changes in media consumption. Despite the fast growth in the share of news on TV channels, the demand for entertainment programs has demonstrated stability. The fascinating format has retained an audience of many millions and successfully addresses the commercial challenges facing the teams.
The 14th and most recent episode of the show aired in May of this year. Throughout the program, celebrities proved to themselves and the audience that they could exhibit incredible willpower. The participants struggled on the verge of their very survival in order to win funds for a charity which supports people who actually are fighting for lives.
Idea
The idea of survival and the struggle for food is central to the “Stars in Africa” show. The characters on the show face extreme tests in every episode. The participants complete tasks to win food to help them survive in the harsh jungle. Food is of the highest priority in the project, and this is a great opportunity for integration with food. The format of the show allows viewers’ attention to be focused on the brand’s USPs from different angles, usefully embedding the advertising content into the general outline of the participants’ lives.
Solution
To demonstrate all of the product’s strengths, the structure of the show incorporates special tests suggested by the brand which offer the chance to win Prosto cereals. Additionally, everyday scenes filmed in the camp show the stars being very happy to get gifts from the sponsor and prepare them for lunch or dinner.
The reality show was broadcast on TV and on digital platforms. This significantly increased the outreach, because the intersection of TNT’s audience and the audience of its digital channels is minimal. The episodes were posted on the tnt-online.ru website, the TNT YouTube channel (premiere episode only), and Rutube (all 14 episodes). Both TV and the digital platforms featured the same advertising integrations.
In the advertising block after the test scene suggested by Prosto brand, show hosts Olga Buzova and Mikhail Galustyan presented Prosto brand products. They also talked about the products’ unique properties and advantages which were important to convey to the audience.
Integration and graphic options were used to keep the audience’s attention throughout the show and to enhance brand awareness from episode to episode. Graphics with Prosto were embedded at moments which were relevant to the sponsor.
Results
TV
TNT was the leader of Sunday prime time in 2021, in part due to the popularity of “Stars in Africa.” The second season of the show also showed good results this year. According to Mediascope, “Stars in Africa” was first in TNT’s top 10 entertainment projects from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with a share of 8.2 (all Russia 100+, from March 1, 2022 to June 14, 2022).{1]{1]
The program remained popular and allowed the creation of a positive brand image among an audience of millions. TV viewers observed Prosto’s convenient cooking method as the stars prepared it in real life under extreme conditions in Africa.
Digital
The project is particular in the digital space in the preference for Gazprom-Media’s own digital platforms over the YouTube video platform. The outreach of episodes on tnt-online.ru and Rutube has shown that the platforms represent an adequate alternative to third-party video hosting and can deliver excellent results. The total number of digital views of the 14 episodes of “Stars in Africa” exceeded 25 million.
We develop individual solutions for each brand to enhance the effect of the campaign. The second season of the “Stars in Africa” launched during a period of turbulence in the market, which was an additional challenge for the team. Together with the Prosto brand, the Main Target agency, and TNT production, we managed to draw the audience’s interest and achieve excellent results. We created high-quality integrations and expanded the scale of the campaign thanks to the digital platforms of the channel and RUTUBE.
Our main task was to show a wide range of Prosto products and how easy they are to cook: simply drop a bag into boiling water and enjoy crumbly cereal in just a couple of minutes! The “Stars in Africa” project suited this goal very well, maybe perfectly. We could offer product integration capabilities which have never been provided in any project before. The show returned great indicators! Many thanks to the Gazprom-Media Sales House for a perfectly implemented project.
It is believed that cereal belongs to a fairly conservative category and that it should be promoted with more traditional campaigns: direct advertising, cooking talk shows, recipes, etc. We decided to follow an alternative route and interacted with our audience on its favorite channel within a beloved program. The result was quite native and maximally effective for us.
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