Leveraging targeted advertising to increase ratings and build engagement for Matchbox Pictures and the second season of their TV show The Heights.

The business challenge

Reaching new audiences

Matchbox Pictures were looking to effectively market the second season of their program The Heights, during a time when the entire media landscape was changing. With the rise of on-demand services, television consumers are no longer restricted to viewing programs at set times.

With the consensus that season one of The Heights could have been promoted more successfully, the primary goal for season two was to increase ratings, in particular attracting newer, younger audiences to the show. In addition to this we also sought to build interest in the program from international networks and make a strong case for a third season to be commissioned.

The idea

Our aim to reach national audiences in a younger demographic meant leveraging new technology to draw in these elusive viewers. We developed a strategy to hint at the bigger dramatic moments of The Heights via social media in order to engage these audiences.

With ABC iView available for people to catch up on shows when they wanted, we teased upcoming storylines in a bid to encourage viewers to watch live TV, rather than waiting to watch later and potentially encountering spoilers. As drama is such a strong aspect of the show, we wanted to allow users to engage with each other through social media and leverage this interaction in our campaigns.

Through our preliminary planning, alongside our intial targets, the ambitious target of reaching 300k viewers in a night was set as a stretch goal.

With these goals set, we initiated a content-led digital marketing campaign which ran from March 6, 2020 to October 18, 2020. A comprehensive content schedule was developed with the campaign marketed across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, adapting a mix of creative including video, photography, custom graphics and even memes.

In addition to content creation and advertising, Assemblo also oversaw community management and created follow-up collateral designed to drive traffic to stream the series online, while building a database for future promotions for the series.

The impact

The campaign exceeded its goals and modest budget to deliver an excellent result for Matchbox Pictures, including:

• +86% ratings increase from people aged 25-54
• An average of 250k national ratings a night
• 312k national ratings in a single night (excluding ABC iView) – achieving our ambitious stretch goal
• +23% overall ratings increase
• Over 3 million complete digital video playthroughs
• +286% increase in Facebook followers
• +130% increase in Instagram followers

The Heights received massive levels of passionate engagement from fans and drew new audiences eager to join the conversation online each week.

Assemblo’s marketing campaign for season two of The Heights perfectly exemplifies how content-led digital marketing functions as an extremely cost-effective channel to reach and capture new audiences in a highly competitive industry.