 This week, we would like to draw your attention to one of the case studies which were presented and discussed during egta's recent winter TV Academy by Georgian sales house Inter-Media. Through a powerful combination of television, digitisation and creativity, Inter-Media found the key for a successful second screen campaign, despite its small market and low digital penetration.
The background and market situation in Georgia
Over the course of the past 2 to 3 years, the television market in Georgia (estimated at $50m) has witnessed major digital developments which increasingly improved television’s online presence and content distribution through the Internet.
However, it appeared that the Georgian sales houses, agencies and local brands could not offer the same efficiency as other European markets as they lacked the required digital advertising knowledge and experience to further benefit from this opportunity. These major digital developments created the ideal environment for innovation for companies with the right strategic mind to seize upon the opportunity.
The concept
 With these circumstances in mind, and at the direct request of a local beer producer, sales house Inter-Media decided to launch a digital campaign and became the first Georgian sales house to monetise second screens interactions.
Based on high ratings and the popularity of a successful TV series on one of Inter-Media’s channels, the sales house appointed producers and screen writers to write a plot about a fictional band, Gamouvali Mdgomareoba, in which the beer could be naturally integrated.
As the main objective of the campaign was to create incremental reach, short music clips of the Georgian cover songs were uploaded on online video platforms, such as Youtube. In the videos, other television characters are seen to be drinking the beer while enjoying the band’s performance.
The results
The campaign turned out to be a huge success as the popularity of both the band and the songs rocketed: the video platforms showed that each music video was viewed on average 500k times and the most popular video had over 1.4m views. This is an especially impressive number, considering that Georgia has a total population of 4.5m.
 The popularity of the music band took Inter-Media completely by surprise: not only had they created a new fan base for the TV series, but the television characters of the band had gained a certain celebrity status as well. For instance, the frontman of the band, who was already known as the host of Georgia Got Talent, became even more famous due to his role in the music clips.
 Following up on this successful outcome, Inter-Media was able to create more revenue by giving the fictional music band a second life through producing additional songs and organising a live music concerts featuring the series’ actors of the Gamouvali band.
In addition, Inter-Media gained considerable brand loyalty with the same client requesting a similar campaign for other in-house products, such as ice tea and soda water. Through this special and innovative format of brand integration, Inter-Media managed to convert a new client into a returning one and achieved one of their greatest success stories of 2014.
Why does this matter to egta members?
This creative way of reaching both television and online audiences illustrates that, even in a developing television and digital media market such as Georgia, both sales houses and advertisers can benefit from the opportunities which are offered by digitisation, such as online video platforms. Given that audiences are willing to search for the videos themselves and accept indirect advertising, it is clear that the shift to digital has the ability to offer sales houses and advertisers opportunities to benefit further from second screen engagement. |
