#MarketingExcellenceAwards SG 2021 highlight: Viu's marketing blitz shows it has more than just K-dramas

Viu is pan-regional OTT video streaming service that is available in 16 markets. While there might be a variety of Chinese dramas available on the platform, Viu has been stereotyped as the streaming platform that only provides K-romance dramas. Although this might not be true, Viu saw this as an issue as this would mean a decrease in its audience numbers. 

To tackle this, Viu launched its "Streaming made sensational for all" campaign to drum up awareness to the public of the variety of shows that were available on the platform. With this campaign, Viu managed to impress the judges, clinching the gold awards for the Excellence in Consumer Insights and Market Research, Excellence in eCommerce Marketing, and Excellence in Launch / Re-launch Marketing categories at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Marketing Excellence Awards Singapore 2021.

Challenges 

Over the years, Viu experienced a stereotype around K-romance streaming services. This perception resulted in stagnating viewership and premium subscriptions. With this knowledge in mind, Viu realised it had to find growth, and fast. On top of that, the streaming platform also came to acknowledge that it had an outdated brand identity, one which was less than thrilling for its increasingly disengaged fans. 

According to Viu, another challenge that the streaming platform faced was how it was a small player as compared to universally-loved omnipresent giants such as Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube. With an aim to break the myth of only being a K-romance drama streamer, Viu sought to find a way to give its audiences compelling films to drive upper-funnel growth. This could then in turn accelerate its drive to lower funnel growth as well. 

Although a majority of the audiences might view Viu as a K-romance streamer, in reality, Viu's films have something for every Asian entertainment lover. The growth opportunity was thus to get people who were watching Asian content elsewhere, to give Viu a go. On top of that, Viu also targeted free subscribers to upgrade to paid subscriptions to drive lower-funnel conversion and retention. 

Strategy 

To achieve this growth, Viu decided to launch its campaign, Streaming made sensational for all. Additionally, Viu and its agency partner, DDB Group, aimed to reach its campaign objectives in the time span of two and half months. In fact, both parties agreed that a nimble advertising strategy that was grounded in consumer insights would be crucial to driving the results needed at each stage of the prospect's journey. 

The campaign objectives included a 10% increase in awareness of the streaming platform being more than a K-romance streamer, a 10% increase in new web traffic, and a 5% increase in upgrades to premium paid subscriptions. 

To ensure the campaign objectives were met in the quickest time possible, Viu combined qualitative and quantitative data to uncover several content gaps to see what was needed to be done in order to shift audiences' perception. The two main insights uncovered was that: 

1. Singaporeans loved K-romance dramas, but they needed more than that to keep them hooked. 
2. Singaporeans' thirst for sensationalism. 

In fact, Viu also uncovered that in 2020, four out of 10 Singaporean personalities were embroiled in real-life sensational dramas, and this trend carried on to 2021. With this mind, Viu came to the conclusion that Singaporeans found sensationalism highly entertaining as it provided excitement during the pandemic. 

Execution 

Coming up with a three-step advertising strategy, Viu and DDB Group aimed to reposition the brand to encompass more genres that Asians loved by using high impact, highly visible brand building media channels to change the mindset of its audience. The next step was to lure new viewers through a Viu Original that proved the streaming platform knew what genres Asians wanted, one that was beyond romance. This was done by using smaller, interactive and highly engaging formats to drive interest, as well as anticipation for its upcoming flagship dramas. 

Lastly, Viu sought to leverage eCommerce, performance, search and programmatic targeted buys to boost premium subscriptions by using limited-time offers. 

Through the lens of sensationalism, Viu deployed a nimble, through-the-funnel integrated advertising strategy that would offer a refreshed brand scale, achieve it in a speedy manner, and smartly drive results where it mattered most along the viewer's journey. Aiming to demonstrate different genres of sensationalism of real-life drama, Viu and DDB Global kicked off a series of on-ground activation based on three scenarios - romance, anime, and action. 

These contents were further amplified via online big impact buys through high reach and awareness drivers to change the mindset of its target audience. Next, Viu decided to throw the country in a paparazzi frenzy, where popular Chinese dramas, crime and thriller, and variety shows were found on public buses all around the island. 

Whereas on the rebranding front, Viu and DDB Global decided to revamp the look and feel to make Viu's yellow pop out, offering a dramatic look. Additionally, Viu ensured to have this strong brand consistency across all its customers' touchpoints. According to the streaming platform, the brand's name might be hard to pronounce for some of its audience. In this aspect, the streaming platform reinforced brand awareness by customising scripts for radio channels such as Kiss 92FM and UFM 100.3FM. This was to ensure the scripts reached an equal amount of English and Chinese individuals. 

Results 

Leveraging on consumer insights, the campaign not only exceeded expectations on upper-funnel awareness, but also delivered significant improvements on lower-funnel metrics. On the KPI front, there was more than an 8% increase of Viu as a platform that offers more than just K-romance drama. In fact, the campaign had more than 15 million on its total reach, and a total PR value of more than SG$1 million.