A Fortune 500 Financial Services Firm identified a need to increase brand favorability among key audiences: C-suite executives, opinion leaders, policymakers, employees, and investors. They sought to improve the overall reputation of their brand and associate it with core themes including retirement solutions and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. To achieve their goals, the firm partnered with Optimal's Public Affairs experts to launch a year-long data-driven advertising campaign aimed at reaching, engaging, and moving key audiences.
Strategy
Leveraging Optimal’s proprietary and exclusive media, data, and measurement solutions, we identified both the channels and platforms on which we could reach and persuade key audiences while measuring brand lift. We developed a dynamic media plan, optimizing daily across targeted news and social platforms including LinkedIn, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Axios, The New York Times, and over 50 additional publishers and platforms, with readership that would be interested in exploring ESG topics. All told, we delivered over 160MM targeted advertising exposures across social, display, native, and video formats, including in-stream and CTV.
Precise Audience Development: Optimal leveraged a mixture of first- and second-party datasets to reach the client’s target audience including employees, investors, shareholders, and policymakers. By relying on our award-winning, proprietary technology platform, Deploy, we were able to onboard and activate the client’s first-party data in a secure, privacy-compliant way. Additionally, we harnessed our geofencing technology and data partnerships to reach attendees at key financial events around the world.
Impact
To ensure the efficacy of the campaign, Optimal conducted a brand lift study to analyze the impact of the advertising program. Results showed that those exposed to our client’s advertising saw a substantial increase in favorability and increased associations with both ESG and other key messages.
- Awareness: Individuals exposed to ads said they were “more familiar” with the firm driving a 7% lift in awareness among a target universe of already well-informed individuals
- Favorability: Individuals exposed to advertising were 11% more likely to conduct business with the firm
- Action: The advertising program contributed to a 73% year-over-year increase in traffic to the client’s website – 90% of advertising-driven website visitors had not previously visited the site before
Conclusion
Optimal’s data-driven advertising campaign increased brand favorability among key audiences and helped associate the client with key themes including retirement and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments and solutions.
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