Generating 32K Site Visits Through YouTube Awareness Ads

Key Takeaways

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Paid Channel Focus Allocation — YouTube Ads: Emergen-C is the only brand that is focusing a significant amount of their ad spend on YouTube. 16% of Emergen-C’s total advertising budget is being allocated towards brand awareness Youtube ads compared to 2% for all other brands in the analysis set. Furthermore, Emergen-C is the only brand focusing the majority of its YouTube ads on brand awareness, opposed to purely product education or promotions. Emergen-C’s main brand awareness campaign was called #EmergeOurBest and focused on the effects of COVID-19 on relationships with a hopeful message of coming out the other side stronger. 

Paid Social Tactic — Strategic Influencer Partnerships: To further elevate brand awareness of their #EmergeOurBest campaign amongst their target demographic (athletes & fitness-enthusiasts), Emergen-C partnered with relevant influencers Philip Danault (NHL athlete) and Chloe Wilde (TV host & fitness influencer). Both Philip and Chloe posted about the campaign on their Instagram profiles where they talked about aspects of “normal life” that they missed. Philip encouraged his audience to tag two friends, follow Emergen-C Canada’s Instagram profile, and repost his post in their story. While Chloe encouraged her followers to share their love letter to normal life and visit the Emergen-C Canada page to watch the campaign video.

Site Tactic — Campaign Specific Landing Page: Emergen-C created a campaign-specific landing page (www.emergeourbest.com) and hashtag (#EmergeOurBest). The customized landing page generated 32K site visits. Campaign-specific landing pages are a great way to measure the success of your campaign and gives your brand further opportunity to engage with your audience.‍

Content & Messaging — Storytelling & Emotion: Emergen-C’s brand awareness video ads focus on storytelling and conveying emotion to get the audience to resonate with the ad. The #EmergeOurBest campaign showed footage of families having fun at home and making the best out of social distancing regulations and inspired hope with their slogan “If this is life on pause, imagine what will happen when we hit play”.

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Emergen-C is the only brand that is focusing a significant amount of their ad spend on YouTube. 16% of Emergen-C’s total advertising budget is being allocated towards brand awareness Youtube ads compared to 2% for all other brands in the analysis set.

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Emergen-C is the only brand in the competitive set that is focusing their advertising efforts on brand awareness ads, rather than product education or promotions.

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Emergen-C launched their YouTube brand awareness campaign in May of 2020 when news of the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak.

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The brand awareness campaign was called #EmergeOurBest and focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting relationships and how to support each other in order to come out of the pandemic at our best.

Tactics used:

• Customization: Campaign specific hashtag (#EmergeOurBest) and website (emergeourbest.com).
• Emotions: Titled “A love letter to normal life,” the brand conveyed emotions in their advertising to resonate with consumers.‍
• Timely & relevant: Addresses a major concern for consumers and issues around the world. This is strategic because taking vitamins can give an immune boost to help prevent illness.

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As part of the #EmergeOurBest campaign, Emergen-C worked with fitness and athlete influencers to elevate brand awareness. Emergen-C onboarded NHL player Philip Danault as their first Canadian brand ambassador.

Tactics used:

• Ran a giveaway that was tied to the main message of the campaign — “tag two people you look forward to seeing” 
• Used campaign hashtag #EmergeOurBest
• Required giveaway participants to tag @emergenc_Canada (regional account)

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In total, the campaign generated 32K site visits to the landing page emergeourbest.com.

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From September 2020 to January 2021, Emergen-C launched three more YouTube campaigns for a total spend of $513K.

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The three YouTube campaigns were:

Breaking Point Campaign

The Breaking Point campaign featured a wide variety of consumers, from yogis and runners, to chefs and hikers.

Tactics used:

• General brand awareness campaign: While the target audience is mainly focused on athletes, Emergen-C included other target audiences who may not be athletic but require energy, such as chefs.
• Mix of lifestyle and product shots: Showcased the product at the middle and end of the ad, in between lifestyle footage.
• Product education: A quick summary of the product benefits is listed at the end of the video to take advantage of the recency effect (B Vitamins, Electrolytes, and Vitamin C).
• Duration: Short-form videos (under 15 seconds) perform the best on YouTube.

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Product Benefits Campaign

For the product benefit focused campaign, Emergen-C A/B tested two creative versions:

Tactics used:

• Duration: Short-form video — 6 seconds long (pre-roll)
• Brand awareness: Brand name was displayed within the first 3 seconds of the video
• ASMR-elements: Incorporated “fizzing” sounds
• Product education: Listed out product benefits at the end of the video (B Vitamins, Electrolytes, Antioxidants, Vitamin C)
• A/B testing: Tested two creative versions for their Vitamin C and Immune Support product with different colours and formatting.

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#EmergeOurBest

The second version of Emergen-C’s #EmergeOurBest campaign focused on how the pandemic has made everyone stronger and offered hope for a better future.

Tactics used:

• Storytelling: Footage of families having fun at home and making the best out of social distancing regulations.
• Relatable: Video addresses the pandemic and how life was seemingly put on pause.
• Positivity: “These tough times couldn’t break us, they made us stronger.”‍
• Hope: “If this is life on pause, imagine what will happen when we hit play”

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