SMA Progress on LIVING and LIVING2
- Precise alignment of sponsorship with highly relevant content and
tightly-targeted audience - Spontaneous brand recall increased by +173%
- Higher sponsorship recall than some terrestrial associations
- Spend per buyer amongst LIVING viewers increased
- Over half of those seeing the sponsorship agreed that SMA “meets
your baby’s growing needs” - Campaign renewed twice since
Background
SMA Nutrition is a well-established brand, with over 90 years’ experience of feeding babies.
SMA Progress is a follow-on milk for older babies and toddlers.
SMA operates in a highly competitive market, with many brands of formula milk available to new and expectant parents. Influencing their choice is vital at this stage as parents tend to stick with one brand as their child grows up.
Solution
ids proposed aligning the SMA Progress brand with relevant programming for new and expectant parents through sponsorship of ‘The Baby Zone’ on LIVING and LIVING2. The strand consisted of around 30 hours per week of real-life baby-related programming.
Insight
LIVING and LIVING2 attract a young female audience, many of whom have had or are expecting a child. According to TGI’s life events data, 1 in 9 of LIVING’s female viewers had experienced the birth of a child in the previous 12 months or were expecting one in the next year. This propensity is +31% higher than the GB average. The programming environment offered by ‘The Baby Zone’ consistently attracts viewers who are keen consumers of baby-related content and products.
Research
To measure the success of the activity, a threewave campaign awareness study was conducted by an independent research agency. A sample of expectant mothers and those with children aged up to 18-months-old were interviewed face-to-face on the street using XDAs.
The research aimed to measure and evaluate the positioning of SMA against its competitors and attitudes towards the sponsorship campaign.
Brand recall
Spontaneous recall of SMA Progress increased by +173% between the pre and post waves, with 26% of respondents specifically mentioning the brand at the post stage.
For those who were aware of the sponsorship, recall was even higher, at 32%, and 8% of them recalled SMA Progress before any other brand.
At the post wave SMA Progress was the second most recalled brand for those seeing the sponsorship, after SMA Gold.
Campaign coverage and awareness
The sponsorship reached 20% of Housewives with Children in multichannel homes – 1.15m of them – during its initial 7 month run.
When asked to name the sponsor of ‘The Baby Zone’ on LIVING, 21% of respondents spontaneously named SMA at the post stage. This was more than for some terrestrial associations such as Deal Or No Deal and The Bill.
The success of the campaign led to two further renewals.
Messages conveyed
The sponsorship delivered key messages for SMA, and those that had seen it before the research had a much better understanding of what the sponsorship was communicating.
Brand usage
Usage of SMA Progress leapt from 6% at the pre stage to 20% at the post stage, and an impressive 24% for those who had seen the sponsorship.
Average spend per buyer (Housewives with Children under 2) during the sponsorship grew +20% more amongst LIVING viewers compared to non-viewers, according to TNS MediaSpan.
”This partnership provided SMA with ownership of one of the largest baby strands on TV. Their potential consumer base is one which moves constantly over time so longevity of communication is absolutely key. This sponsorship therefore ensured a good long term presence within trusted content which we knew would be destination TV for new mums.
In addition, the creative had great synergy with their wider communication and activation through online and competitions allowed a real depth of message to the core audience.”
Amanda Winch, Group Account Director
Mediaedge:cia
Sponsorship perceptions
The sponsorship was well received, with a likeability score of 67% at the post stage.
Likelihood to purchase
The sponsorship had a very clear influence on consideration to purchase. Those who had previously seen the sponsorship were 45% more likely to say the clips made them more likely to purchase SMA than those who had not.
For those seeing the sponsorship, 25% agreed that “SMA is the only brand I would actively recommend”, making it the highest scoring brand for recommendations amongst this group.
