TV Network Launches New SVOD Service with Targeted Media

The subscribers came streaming in once an audience strategy was established. That drove a more efficient media plan and meant creative needs could be scaled to meet the launch of a new service.

Challenge

A prominent television network developed a new SVOD service, to entertain, engage, and empower its community. This network is fully committed to being a home for culture and content and chose Merkle to lead the performance-driven, digital component of promoting its new service.

Due to staffing challenges, the client was struggling with having the right resources to support its creative needs as well as not having a dedicated team to manage the launch. The SVOD space is more crowded and competitive than ever before, with new services coming out monthly, so this network needed to break through the clutter and stand out as a media innovator to be successful.

Approach

Merkle conducted a series of strategic onboarding meetings to align with the client on the strategy and provide recommendations for launch.

We developed a paid media strategy:

Recommendation focused on driving efficient subscriptions to the new SVOD service. Campaign launched in September of 2019
Audience Strategy & Development using M1

Merkle also developed a two-step creative strategy where we provided:

Brand consulting to help the client craft its go-to-market messaging
Creative templates to help the client deliver its messaging through different media formats

Results

21%

Increase in subscribers

14%

Ahead in subscription goal

$5 Million

Increase in budget to run additional media, including OTT

Keys to success

Media Services: Full-funnel digital media strategy, approach and implementation.
Analytics: Forecasting and measurement.
Strategy: Ensured SVOD service is strategic, forward-thinking and innovative.
Creative: Key recommendations around digital performance creative.
M1: Audience strategy analysis reported subscriber growth.