THE CHALLENGE For many years, VRAK, a Bell Media property, was the #1 television channel for children under the age of 14 in Quebec. But over time, this demographic started to lose interest in watching television. VRAK decided to rebrand, focusing instead on audiences over the age of 13. The TV channel created a new brand image and began offering more programs aimed at millennials. However, they had a major obstacle to overcome: VRAK’s new audience was notoriously suspicious of advertisers. Millennials trust ad content less than other generations do, and 30% of them use ad blockers. Their media habits also reflect this distrust: they spend most of their time on adless instant messaging apps and prefer free digital content. So, how do you appeal to millennials while still generating ad income? OBJECTIVES To achieve this goal, VRAK called upon our expertise. We immediately developed a series of objectives: 1. To develop content that entertains millennials while appealing to their interests and emotions 2. To reach the audience organically by targeting the media on which they spend the most time 3. To increase VRAK’s credibility by creating avenues for millennials to promote its content themselves. SOLUTIONS VRAK needed to convince its audience that the channel had grown up (just like them) and was no longer intended for children. We proposed the following tactics to achieve this feat: 1. Deploy a unique media strategy based on content marketing 2. Use millennial-friendly language to integrate seamlessly with their daily lives 3. Develop new ad formats that appear wholly different from typical online advertisements 4. Partner with five of the biggest millennial influencers in the community to produce videos featuring VRAK stars 5. Promote the videos on platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook 6. Sponsor articles on sites frequented by millennials 7. Create VRAK-themed stickers for native integration on Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and WhatsApp keyboards 8. Develop content featuring VRAK’s new presenters Results The numbers speak for themselves! After two weeks, we had already exceeded our own expectations. - The number of views for our influencer videos surpassed 225,000. - Our stickers were used more than 100,000 times. - The articles were viewed more than 20,000 times, with an average reading time of more than three minutes. - The VRAK site received more than 30,000 visits, with an average duration of more than two minutes per visit. - The view through rate was 20% on Facebook. - The view through rate was 34% on YouTube.

• published: 15 Apr 2020
• views: 42