Don’t buy into the fear-mongering: Millennials still care about watching TV, and they want to watch TV on their TV sets. What millennials don’t care about is watching TV live, or whether TV content comes in through a cable cord or a WiFi connection. For marketers, the best way to address these small but important shifts in behavior is with a cross-channel approach.
A shining example is Yahoo and Honda’s successful partnership for “Community.” Yahoo knew it had a digital winner when it landed the rights to the next season of the cult TV show. “Community” had sparked a huge Internet outcry when it was cancelled by NBC. It aired its sixth season on Yahoo Screen, Yahoo’s online video network, earlier this year.
Regular, TV-style 30-second spots probably would have performed fine for “Community” on Yahoo Screen. The show has a devoted audience of young viewers who have built a strong online community around the show. But Yahoo chose to develop a more ambitious and exciting cross-platform package for its flagship advertiser, Honda.
In addition to pre-roll video ads, the campaign included display ads and audience advertising through Yahoo’s ad network. The most notable coup, though, came in the form of an elaborate brand integration for the seventh episode, which is more or less centered around a Honda CR-V.
Because the show is digital-first, cross-platform capabilities were automatically baked in. Honda’s “Community” ads were seen on desktop computers, tablets, smartphones and on connected TVs. Such extensive placement was necessary to reach the show’s millennial fan base—marketers targeting millennials are now accounting for at least 10 different channels in their campaigns, according to a U.S. Marketers Research study conducted by Adobe. And thanks to the product placement in episode seven, Honda was still present anywhere the ads weren’t.
Social media integration carried the campaign from there. The branded episode pushed a Twitter hashtag, #Level7Susceptible, which was conveniently aligned with the Honda content. That hashtag drove 29 million Twitter impressions in just a week—higher than every other episode excluding the finale. The company even held a stunt event at South by Southwest, inviting “Community” fans to a dance party at a Honda dealership in Austin.
Diehard fans even pushed the hashtag #ThankYouHonda to express gratitude over the show’s return. “Community” delivered a stellar digital audience rating, comparable to “New Girl” or “Two and a Half Men,” according to ListenFirst Media. But more importantly for Honda, it drove enviable results.
Viewers who saw the branded episode had 95 percent brand recall for the Honda CR-V and 88 percent brand recall for the Honda Fit. Further, the branded episode increased unaided brand recall by 164 percent and increased purchase intent among millennial viewers by 61 percent. Those millennial viewers were even more emotionally engaged with the branded parts of the episode than they were with the entire episode overall, according to a biometric study that analyzed emotional and cognitive resonance.
The “Community” campaign’s success is a testament to the quality of the ad integration. If it came off as too pushy, or unnatural for the characters, the show’s vocal fans would have incited a social media backlash. But it stayed true to the show, and fans positively embraced it as a result. This should come as no surprise, as authenticity is essential for brands looking to capture the millennial audience.
More importantly, the Honda integration is a bright spot for the future of premium online video content, which has been dominated by ad-free streaming services like Netflix. If the Honda campaign had turned off users, future shows with huge branding potential would be more likely to bypass the risk of ad-supported channels and go straight to Netflix or Amazon. Fortunately for Honda, “Community” chose Yahoo. Fortunately for cross-channel marketers, the partnership was a win.
