Case study: AdParlor Asia and Airtel capitalise on the moments that matter

Sports fans will know the importance of acquiring real-time results for games to keep tabs on the progress. A way for brands to capitalise on this would be to ensure they have the tools to capture the latest data so as to push out relevant campaigns almost immediately after the end of the sports game. While moment marketing purely through social marketing is a known concept, it has yet to take off in India.Hence, AdParlor Asia created a tool to help companies gather real-time sports data and push out relevant ads to their audiences, especially cricket fans. This led to AdParlor Asia winning sliver for the Best Media Solution in Content Amplification, for its "Moment Marketing - Cricket API" campaign at the Spark Awards 2017 in Singapore recently.This post was done in conjunction with AdParlor.ProblemWhen it comes to moment marketing in the sporting world, every second counts and the industry is no stranger to real-time reporting. With the proliferation of social media, it is even more important for marketers to capture crucial moments such as wins or losses, or they will lose out on capitalising on that emotion. Hence, having a tool to capture real-time data on social media for moment marketing is necessary.SolutionTargeting cricket fans around India specifically, AdParlor in India developed a Cricket API to track scores during the Indian Premier League in April to May 2017, and the ICC Champions trophy in June 2017. The API ensured that the appropriate ad was pushed at the right time. This was the first time brands in India participated in moment marketing purely through social media. It also collaborated with Maxus and Ogilvy for the execution.ObjectiveAdParlor's main objective was to help brands and agencies run high-performance, social media advertising campaigns in real-time during cricket matches through its Cricket API. It offered the API to companies that were looking to engage their audience through sport.ExecutionAdParlor partnered with a global real-time sports data provider in building Cricket API. This was to ensure that the platform is reliable, as the API depends on the data provider before pushing out the relevant ads as instructed by the system.AdParlor also worked with other agencies in developing the ad designs, having them pre-approved and set up before the match. Working closely with clients and their respective agencies, AdParlor helped brands understand how to best use moments marketing on the Facebook and Instagram platforms. It provided advice on selecting the appropriate ad images that best go with specific triggers and events to most effectively get the brand’s message across.Through the variety of ads designed specifically for certain moments during a match, the Cricket API technology enabled brands to communicate with their audiences quickly, in the most engaging way.Each moment in a match – whether it is pre-game, innings break, fours and sixes, rain delay or match winner announcement – is paired with the appropriate pre-approved ads. AdParlor’s API would push the relevant ads automatically on Facebook and Instagram at every trigger. Along with accurate targeting to reach the right demographic, the ads carried with them an element of surprise due to their timeliness, and sparked discussions close to the heart of cricket fans.As the API detects scores in real-time, there is no delay in the ads that appear. The chance of a wrong ad being shown is minimal as everything is prepared and tested internally beforehand.The ability to set up the system pre-match benefited clients and advertisers as they did not have to worry about pushing their campaigns and ads manually, and could focus on other important matters like follow-ups from the reactions. It also reduced the stress for advertisers, while delivering better results.ResultsUsing Airtel as a case study, the brand saw an increased fan base and higher traffic on its website. It saw a 50% growth in website traffic during the campaign, compared to its pre-campaign traffic. The ads saw an unprecedented post engagement rate of 30%, above the market average of 10% to 12%. This was the highest among the South Asian markets across verticals.The campaign also achieved an ad recall lift of 14%, in an industry that typically observes an estimated ad recall lift of 6 to 9%.Airtel’s ads served 3.3 million impressions to 2.1 million people, arriving at a very low CPE of US$0.006 per ad. There was also a massive spike in the number of Airtel Buzz page followers where 120k Facebook organic followers were earned. To demonstrate the accuracy of the ads, Airtel recorded an average post reaction to post engagement ratio of 19%.Through an automated system, only relevant ads were pushed during specific periods of the game across all campaigns using the API. Preparing the ads before the game also ensured that there were no errors during the game, and only the right ads were shown at the appropriate time. The zero delay in pushing out ads enabled people to engage and experience brands in real-time.[gallery link="file" ids="197680,197681,197682,197683,197684"]