“The Nest Hunt”- McDonald’s Austria launches first programmatic addressable TV campaign via d-force in Austria

The Easter holidays may be behind us, but engaging TV campaigns remain to keep our spirits high. This week’s egtabite features McDonald’s Austria’s first programmatic addressable TV campaign, successfully played out via d-force.

The Power of joining forces

Due to the market’s growing demand for digital total video campaigns, the two biggest private TV companies in Germany, ProSiebenSat.1 and Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland launched d-force in June 2019, a joint venture which outlines the potential future of programmatic TV advertising.

The joint venture makes the addressable TV and online video inventories of the two media houses available via the multichannel demand-side platform (DSP) of Active Agent, which is one of the leading booking platforms used for programmatic media purchases in German-speaking countries offering direct access to all relevant supply-side platforms and AdExchanges. Thus d-force aims to help agencies and advertisers to address target groups easily, directly and efficiently in an attractive digital video environment providing high reach and brand safety. It also offers comprehensive first-level support to ensure optimal implementation of media and cross- channel programmatic video campaigns.

The Nest Hunt

Only a few weeks after d-force started in Austria, McDonald's launched a TV campaign and became the first mover in the market. McDonalds became the first mover in the market with a campaign that covered the entire reach of targeted contacts made available through addressable TV (ATV) in Austria.

The goal of the campaign was to set the right tone in times of crisis but also to engage customers to download McDonald’s app and play a game while spreading good holiday spirit. Just in time for the Easter holidays, McDonald’s invited the audience to virtually hunt for Easter Bunny nests via their app and win a voucher for fast-food offers.

The Nest Hunt campaign has been running on all addressable TV inventories of the two TV sales houses ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 and IP Austria centrally bookable via d-force. The innovative frequency capping of d-force(crossing channels and inventory of both sales houses) is also used here for the first time. The automatic contact class management, which can be controlled centrally via the Active Agent DSP used by d-force, avoids uncontrolled multiple addressing of Smart TV users. The steering tool provides targeted incremental reach optimisation and maximum reach across brand-safe TV inventories, thereby ensuring maximum budget efficiency.

“We’re focusing on digital dialogue precisely in the current crisis, in which our guests can’t come to us. It’s important to proceed sensitively here and find a good balance between sympathy, consideration and emotional marketing. d-force enables us to reach our target groups directly and efficiently in attractive video environments with high reach. We’re glad we can use this new offer as a pioneer in Austria,”explains Benedikt Böcker, Marketing Director of McDonald's Austria.

Finally, Jens Pöppelmann, Managing Director of d-force, points out: “We’re delighted the Austrian market has been so quick to accept the future-oriented d-force offer. The channel- and marketer-overarching contact class management from a central booking platform is a real milestone for the advertising market. It shows the innovative power of the partners involved in d-force and underscores our claim to strengthen the efficiency of programmatic video advertising in the long term. With the supply of this control logic and mechanics for the Austrian ATV scene, d-force is setting standards for addressable TV and boosting the long-term appeal of this medium for advertisers. As a pioneer, McDonald’s Austria is the first company to exploit the potential and the advantages of this innovation.”