Audiences go wild for Disney’s National Geographic channel

With its new campaign to promote the National Geographic channel, Disney wanted to tackle the challenges of advertising in an omnichannel world: including buying online media in the most cost-effective way and creating a positive experience for audiences.

Thanks to our frequency management and Adbrain™ household graph, the campaign exceeded expectations, redefining Disney’s approach to future campaigns.

“The percentage of savings across this test is remarkable, solving key challenges for our industry. As a result of this campaign, we have been able to reach audiences across different levers, without duplicating our reach”

Solène Beaufils

Digital Marketing Supervisor, The Walt Disney Company France

Promoting the channel to a nature-loving audience more cost-effectively

From Tut’s Toxic Tomb to Secrets of the Octopus to Predator v Prey, The National Geographic Wild Channel is perfect for fans of travel, wildlife, and the natural world. Parent company The Walt Disney Company France wanted to find the most cost-effective approach to promote the channel to this nature-loving, hyper-connected audience – so they teamed up with us.

The main objective was to shift away from programmatic guaranteed and towards decisioned media, all while managing identity complexities, audience duplication, and frequency in an omnichannel media plan.

Using advanced digital advertising technology and tools to optimise the campaign

Using our advanced frequency settings and Adbrain™ household graph, the entertainment brand designed their strategy to hit three key objectives:.

1. Give the audience a smoother advertising experience. Managing ad frequency at the campaign level made it easy for The Walt Disney Company France to create a seamless omnichannel experience across all publishers and devices (Connected TV (CTV), desktop, mobile, and tablet). This approach helped the company mitigate ad fatigue and avoid overwhelming its audience.
2. Optimise media investments. We automatically reallocated media costs from saved overexposure, using the money to instead achieve incremental reach.
3. Monitor performance. This meant quantifying savings from improved frequency management and comparing these against the costs associated with transitioning to decisioned media buying. The team also wanted to measure the increase in brand perception through our brand lift study partner.

So, let’s talk figures.

The 21% media cost savings far exceeded the technical costs needed to switch to decisioned media buying. These savings were reinvested in media to reach 13% incremental households, which significantly lowered the cost per unique reach of the campaign.

By managing frequency, the team was able to create high brand esteem among its target audience, resulting in a 27-point uplift in brand image and a 14-point uplift in brand preference.

The Walt Disney Company France hope to build on this success across future omnichannel campaigns with us.

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