General information
Country: Germany
Company: RTL Germany / Ad Alliance
Client: REWE Group
Sector: FMCG
Time Period: 4 weeks in April and May 2023
Media: Linear TV, Addressable TV (ATV)
Campaign objectives: Fostering the brand’s image through an impactful campaign and controlled exposure frequency.
Context
Advertising often faces the challenge of losing its impact after a certain number of campaign contacts. This phenomenon, known as the wearout effect, results in a measurable decrease in advertising effectiveness. Ad Alliance aims to combat this by controlling the contact dose for TV campaigns per household on individual Smart TVs.
Creative Minds
Research indicates that advertising messages become firmly established in consumers’ minds after a specific number of contacts. These individual thresholds inform the implementation of spot overlay videos. In this case, the standard REWE image ad was subtly replaced by the REWE app ad without the household noticing.
Once the REWE image ad Scheine für Vereine exceeded one contact per week, the alternative REWE app ad was displayed through spot overlay videos during regular advertising breaks. This approach marked the world’s first automatic TV frequency capping, created by Ad Alliance. Using this tool, they maintained consistent image effects for the double campaign while promoting the app.
TV frequency capping is an innovative approach that effectively combines linear TV and ATV. REWE’s case has garnered significant attention in the market, highlighting the high demand for advertising products that enable individualized communication on the big screen. New campaigns are already in the works, reflecting the industry’s enthusiasm for this technology.
This approach earned the Deutscher Mediapreis 2024 for the Total Video Media Idea of the Year and received nominations for the Festival of Global Media Award in the categories of Best Use Video and Better Media Practice Award.
Ad Alliance was responsible for the campaign and its implementation while smartclip supplied the accurate timed insertion technology. The implementation was conducted closely with the responsible media agencies PION3ERS and OMD Germany.
Campaign video
Results
Advertisers can now control or redefine their advertising messages on TV, tailoring the media volume as needed. It has been shown that a consistent impact for image ads can be maintained even when a different ad is displayed. The perception of the REWE app ad benefited significantly from the additional media, which led to a massive increase in both app awareness (+39%) and app downloads (+18%).