Vanden Borre is a leading consumer electronics and home appliances retailer that made sustainability a top priority in 2022 by introducing its new Contrat de Confiance. At the heart of this initiative lies Vanden Borre Life. Vanden Borre Life is designed to extend the lifespan of TV and other major electronic appliances and provide an unparalleled repair guarantee of up to 15 years, even if they weren't purchased from Vanden Borre. However, introducing such an innovative service to the market poses its own set of challenges. Generating demand for a new and unfamiliar service requires a thoughtful and strategic approach to marketing and communication.
In this case study, we'll showcase the digital media strategy developed to successfully raise awareness and drive demand for Vanden Borre Life, using a blue-ocean approach that identified a unique target audience, utilized innovative targeting techniques, and selected the right media channels to reach them.
A blue ocean strategy to create uncontested market space
Vanden Borre Life is a brand-new service that exemplifies a blue ocean offering - a unique service that has no direct competition in the market, with tremendous potential for growth and profitability. Creating new market space means looking for gaps, unmet needs, under-served segments, and emerging trends. Semetis supported Vanden Borre in studying competition and looking for gaps in the market. The strategy was to define the target audience, the creative approach, and media selection.
Defining the Target Audience
Blue ocean meant we couldn't rely solely on Vanden Borre's existing customer base, as not all of these customers are sensitive to the sustainability aspect of the service. Therefore, extensive research and analysis were carried out to understand the audience. The core audience consisted of people between 30 and 55 years old with a medium to high income, who were family-oriented and looking for easy ways to make more ecologically sound decisions. They valued peace of mind and were averse to the stress and time needed to potentially fix their failing product. Through this analysis, we were able to create a detailed profile of our target customer.
Innovative Targeting Techniques
Next, we had to translate these potential customers into targetable audiences on media channels. For that, we delved deep into the audience's behavior and consumption patterns. We discovered that our target audience was already utilizing a variety of services to simplify their daily lives, including Frichti, Yuka, Too Good To Go, Vinted, 2dehands/2ème main, and Tribu News. Using these insights, we strategically selected interest audiences and targeted users of these apps in our demographic segments to efficiently reach the right people for a lower price due to the lower competition in this niche audience.
Selecting a media mix that can explain the unique value proposition
We carefully selected our media channels based on our audience's channel propensity and consumption behavior. Our priority was to ensure that the media and formats we used clearly conveyed the sustainability aspect of the Vanden Borre Life service and were visible to users seeking peace of mind and sustainable solutions. We employed a multi-channel media plan that included digital TV and radio, display ads on HLN, social media channels such as YouTube, Pinterest & Facebook, and used a mix of ad formats, including video, radio, display, carousel, and search ads.
Digital TV was a key channel for us as it allowed us to reach our core audience (aged 30-55) in a space where they are spending time and create a sense of trust and credibility for our new service. We selected popular channels such as VTM Go, GoPlay & Auvio that are more likely to be watched by our target audience. To maintain brand awareness, we also ran targeted ads on digital radio stations. We shifted budgets to channels like podcasts, which our audience are heavy listeners of, to create a sense of connection with Vanden Borre Life.
Monitor the shades of blue
Continuously testing and refining our media approach based on feedback and data is essential when launching a Blue Ocean strategy. We monitored our progress daily, tracking media metrics such as engagement, reach, and subscriptions, to measure the effectiveness. Since we were still in a stage of explaining our new value proposition, video and audio formats proved to be the most effective ads. At the end of the funnel, we aimed to convert people into Vanden Borre Life members. Initially, we optimized our campaigns towards subscriptions but realized we were too optimistic about how quickly we could convince people. Consequently, we changed our settings to the micro-conversion "subscription intent" (clicking on the "more information" button), which positively impacted our performance.
The first campaign of 2022 delivered an extraordinary 700% increase in organic sessions on the Vanden Borre website's service page, along with a staggering 23% increase in new subscriptions. Building on this remarkable triumph, our second campaign sustained the momentum, delivering a breathtaking 522% increase in organic sessions on the service page of the website, and a further 9% increase in new subscriptions. The impact of our media strategy, combined with the unmatched benefits of Vanden Borre Life, sparked an awe-inspiring response from our target audience, surpassing even our most ambitious goals.
Eliott Pousset
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