Thinkbox
Key Points
Boost wanted to increase brand awareness and drive engagement with consumers
- They partnered with MTV for a summer festival, as well as capitalising on the popularity of Love Island
- As a result, wholesaler sales increased by 6% and retail sales by 7%
The Challenge
Despite being an independent company with under 40 staff and a modest marketing budget, Boost entered 2018 as the third-largest energy drink brand in the independents sector. In recent years, they have driven distribution through independent retailers and steadily grown share but with a very modest budget. However, in 2018, there was a growing appetite to behave in a bigger, bolder way, whilst maintaining their role as champions of the independent sector.
The key objectives were to create a media strategy that:
- delivered an increase in both prompted and unprompted brand awareness
- drove engagement with consumers and customers.
- cemented loyalty
- built brand advocacy on a national level
- influenced sales
- grew market penetration
- delivered incremental growth
The energy drink sector spikes in sales over the summer, so they needed a solution that would capitalise on this demand. The campaign was centred around their on-pack promotion and was focussed on their new brand proposition ‘Never Miss A Beat’.
The TV Solution
With market spend analysis indicating strong competitor presence over the summer period, the activity needed to be high impact. Boost tasked their media agency, Alchemy Media, to come up with a solution that met their objectives. To begin with, Alchemy Media identified the target audience as 18 to 34 ads with a male skew. Research showed that the core audience love to party, are adventurous and highly active across social media. They are money conscious but aren’t willing to sacrifice taste or product quality just for price. They are also fickle when it comes to brand loyalty with many consuming more than one energy drink brand on a regular basis.
TGI audience research observed that energy drink consumers are heavy users of media and over-indexed against all media types. Analysing Boost consumers specifically, heavy media consumption was even more pronounced. The best channels for reaching the target audience were identified as being TV – for scale and impact – plus print and online.
MTV was the channel that came out top with regards reaching their specific target audience and Alchemy Media identified a summer opportunity to partner with MTV around their summer event ‘MTV Presents: Ocean City Sounds’ - a two-day festival with chart-topping talent and a crowd of 32,000 people. Boost’s new creative idea featured a strapline, ‘Never Miss A Beat’ and their ad featured young people enjoying various activities whilst receiving an energy hit from a can of Boost, so this property tied in perfectly.
The Plan
Alchemy Media wanted to craft a solution that delivered a full 360-degree partnership. In the run-up to 'MTV Presents: Ocean City Sounds', there was a five-week on-air competition using 30" promotional ads offering viewers the chance to win VIP tickets to the event. TV's role was to deliver a high target audience reach and drive awareness, which was achieved by a six-week campaign across MTV's music channels plus broader Viacom inventory such as Comedy Central and VH1.
The campaign also capitalised on Love Island's massive draw for this target audience with 20" brand spots on ITV2. This show averaged 2m viewers which is a 46.25% share of 16-34-year-olds. By combining ITV2 and Viacom channels, Boost could be positioned amongst key programming including Family Guy, Geordie Shore and Just Tattoo of Us. With Boost operating within HFSS restrictions, it meant a careful balancing of buying airtime in the best content but remaining mindful of avoiding any programming targeting under 16-year olds.
Broadcaster VOD was used to support the campaign around MTV content and specifically the summer’s most talked about show Love Island and there were online display ads on MTV.co.uk.
Alchemy Media worked closely with Boost’s other agency partners to develop an integrated experiential campaign encompassing social, sampling and influencer activity. This included a competition to reinforce the campaign line #NeverMissABeat. The partnership was showcased throughout the event with the 20” brand ad playing out on the large screen either side of the stage and an activation area including a giant Boost Can slide leading into a swimming pool. There was also tactical, local outdoor activity, a partnership with Heat magazine consisting of advertorials and social posts and a campaign on Joe.co.uk featuring four articles on dating, festivals, careers and fashion.
Results
- Across June and July, wholesaler sales increased by 6% and retail sales by 7% when compared to 2017
- Research conducted amongst adults who drink a cold soft drink at least once a week showed that TV had a 45% recall
- Overall advertising recall increased by 25%
- There were also increases in unprompted and prompted awareness
- The activation activity around the festival reached over 1 million consumers on social media
Boost Drinks is an independently owned Energy drinks company swimming in a sea of multinational, big spending competitors. We are growing at an incredible pace and building on this momentum is imperative. In 2018 we stepped up our game and invested more than £360k into our media budget with an aim to raise brand awareness and ultimately drive sales nationwide. This additional investment had to work extremely hard for us. We had clear objectives to meet, with ROI being at the centre of them. We understand that more traditional media formats including TV and print can gain huge exposure for a brand however we have opted against this in the past due to the heavy investment required. In 2018 we decided to take a brave step by using a mixture of media formats, led by TV to propel our brand in the eyes of consumers. This carefully crafted media plan over a significant period for soft drink sales, allowed us to reach new target audiences and engage with a wide range of consumers across the UK. This resulted in us seeing some fantastic results across the board, from brand awareness, share of voice and an increase in sales.
Fran Matthews Brand Manager, Boost
Databank
Sector: Soft drinks
Brand: Boost
Campaign objectives: Increase prompted and unprompted awareness
Target Audience: 16-34 adults
Budget: Between £350,000 and £400,000
Campaign Dates: 11th June – 29th July 2018
TV Usage: 30” and 20” spots
Creative Agency: Intermarketing Agency
Media Agency: Alchemy Media