Context 3.0: How Zefr’s Contextual Data Effectively Shifted a Brand’s TV Budget to YouTube, Without Sacrificing Brand Suitability

The Background:

While the decline of television audiences has been well documented, 2020’s sporting event cancellations and production delays have accelerated many TV advertisers to rethink their upfront commitments to television.

Earlier this year, a major TV advertiser turned to Zefr to strategize a plan that would allow them to shift their sponsorship dollars to drive reach in premium video environments, without sacrificing brand suitability along the way.

The Strategy:

The brand leveraged Zefr’s contextual data to activate a new strategy: aligning with content that mirrors their TV-style preferences on YouTube, while layering on brand suitability filters excluding polarizing News & Politics content and irrelevant content geared towards Kids.

Zefr was able to help translate the brands GRP goals into a custom contextual targeting set for suitable content, maximizing reach and relevance with low frequency. We identified key consumer passion points that drive positive association and foot traffic to physical locations for the brand across the following contextual themes:

Zefr’s custom contextual targeting strategy not only aligned the brand with Brand Suitable Sports Content and other adjacent interests, but it also allowed the brand to maintain relevance among key demographics aside from audiences interested in sporting events.

The Results:

By layering on Zefr’s contextual data for brand suitability, the brand now had a blueprint for successfully shifting spend out of linear television and into YouTube. The brand was able to effectively scale their campaign with TV-like metrics for their core audiences — including Low Frequency, In-Demo Reach and GRP goals — without sacrificing quality.

In addition, with improvements in frequency with the expanded reach on YouTube, the campaign led to additional opportunities to implement Zefr’s contextual targeting sets as a TV replacement opportunity for upcoming campaigns.

For brands looking to offset the declining reach of television in brand suitable environments, visit our website to download the case study.