Success Story
Leveraging the Grand National to Skyrocket Brand Visibility and Customer Acquisition
Key Results
3.5x
Initial Return on Investment
5M
Million Impressions across the campaign
50%
Reduction in Cost Per Acquisition Year-on-Year
Summary
In the bustling world of sports betting, Regency Betting Group aimed to increase brand awareness for its 'Telephone Betting' and challenger 'Meta Betting' brands, focusing on the significance of the Grand National for British consumers. To achieve this, the group deployed an innovative DOOH campaign around Aintree Racecourse and Liverpool, supplemented with targeted national and local digital campaigns.
The use of bespoke programmatic advertising, targeting heavy viewers of horse racing and potential gamblers, increased the visibility of the group’s Free Bet Bonus offers. The campaign's strategic insight and the unique method of customer engagement led to a surge in sign-ups, outperforming objectives and setting new brand visibility records.
Opportunity
Regency Betting Group, an independent UK licenced Gambling Operator specialising in sports betting services, wanted to boost its brand visibility and drive customer sign-ups during the Grand National. The project began by conducting market analysis in partnership with JACK RYAN to understand the horse racing market and the Grand National's cultural significance in the UK. This analysis, combined with the YouGov independent research and the data from Kantar and Neilson audiences, provided an insightful understanding of the market and potential customers.
The main business objectives were to elevate brand visibility for both 'Telephone Betting' and 'Meta Betting', primarily via an eye-catching DOOH campaign. The targeted local and national digital campaigns around Aintree Racecourse and Liverpool were designed to drive customer sign-ups by offering enticing Free Bet Bonus offers—one of the most competitive during the Grand National.
Execution
Paid Social and Programmatic Insertion
The project execution involved paid search, paid social, Out of Home Advertising, and programmatic marketing targeting Horse Racing/Sports and News Publishers.
We collaborated with Meta's Real Money Gambling team to run a UK-wide campaign across Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network (In-article publishers), specifically targeting users aged over 21 who had shown intent in Sports Betting or were customers of industry competitors.
UK OOH provider ClearChannel assisted us in maximizing the campaign impact across the Liverpool Metropolitan Area, and targeting locations frequently visited by bet placers. We also strategically located our boards within close proximity to competitor locations. The campaign utilized 56 Digital Adshel D6 Live Boards, 14 D46s (Billboard Live), and screens across select bars and pubs.
In collaboration with our programmatic partners at StackAdapt, we utilised their proprietary contextual search audiences and built audiences for Sports Betting Competitor and Grand National specific keywords ensuring users who searched relevant targeted keywords were served our Grand National Campaign across various different Sports and news sites including Racing Post and Daily Mail.
In addition, our partners at Kantar and Neilson supplied Third-party audiences ensuring we were able to target niche audiences who were heavy viewers of horse racing and who were identified as Horse Racing Gamblers. All this research in audiences was conducted to ensure relevance and improve click-through rates across
High Impact Digital Out of Home across Liverpool and Grand National region
Effectiveness
The effectiveness of the campaign was evaluated based on the number of customers acquired, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), and exposure of DOOH. The campaign exceeded expectations, delivering record customer sign-ups and ensuring our brand was the consumers' first choice.
The campaign generated a 3.5 ROI initially, with the potential for further returns once customer lifetime value is measured in 12-month increments. It successfully achieved record sign-ups with a 55% reduction on CPA Year-on-Year.
In total, the campaign drove over 5 million impressions across search, social, DOOH, and programmatic channels.
Source:
1. Client Information and campaign data.
2. Reach and Impression Data independently verified.