ESPN
One App, One Tap
The Challenge
According to our data, 50% of the U.S. digital sports category did not engage with ESPN Digital in a given month. And as the media ecosystem becomes more and more app-based, ESPN needed to capitalize on its long-standing reputation as the leader in sports. The opportunity was in front of us, however, getting users to download new apps is a substantial challenge.
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The Insight
We’re in the age of apps. However, if you aren’t a user’s favorite app, you’re practically invisible. However, ESPN was too big to ignore. We knew there were a lot of people who engaged with ESPN on a daily basis, but not from every channel. So we set out to convince ESPN’s “digital rejectors” that the app can meaningfully improve their fan experience.
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The Approach
Building on the momentum from the first phase of our campaign, we set out to further infuse energy into the product and drive business growth. We partnered with The Domino Saints to develop a musically-driven campaign that would entice, engage, and inform users that the App is the gateway to everything ESPN has to offer.
Our spot ran on-channel during primetime and took an “always-on” approach to digital (display, social, search) – leveraging ESPN’s owned properties in addition to paid media, which sought to resonate with our audience’s user behavior and drive consideration, engagement, and retention.
The Result
We leveraged ESPN’s owned on-channel and digital properties, in addition to a heavy paid-media buy, to drive consideration, engagement, and retention. We maximized our investment through a performance-based optimization strategy, which led to ESPN’s best year in digital, EVER (+11% YOY). Additionally, we hit our goals for total downloads (+12% YoY) and CTV Downloads (+400% YoY), while also seeing fan sentiment jump to 69% (on a -100% to 100% scale).