The CW

Over the course of 1.5 years, I ran search & social campaigns for several shows and initiatives for The CW:

• Initiatives:
  • Always-on CW App Installs
  • Holiday period
• Shows:
  • Nancy Drew
  • Swamp Thing
  • Tell Me a Story
  • Supernatural
  • Walker
  • All American
  • Superman and Lois
  • Kung Fu

Challenge

No one show is the same, so the marketing strategy differed for each. Generally, however, our objective for all of these shows was to drive tune-in on The CW app when they premiere.

Strategy

Before the premiere date, we focused our efforts on increasing awareness of the show. Even if the show already has an existing fan base (i.e. Supernatural, Nancy Drew), we needed to make sure our fans knew a new season was releasing. This pre-premiere period is important as it allows our audience the time to learn more about the show, research, and talk to their friends about it. When the show premieres, it’ll be that much more efficient to convert them to be our viewers.

Execution

During the pre-premiere period, we optimized our campaigns towards video views on major viewing platforms such as Facebook/Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, and TikTok. On premiere day, we activated our campaigns that were designed to drive to The CW website and app. This also includes Google search.

For the Nancy Drew show in 2020, as an example, we advertised on Facebook/Instagram Snapchat, Twitter, TikTok, and Google. We intentionally focused our budget and efforts on less partners in order to maximize the impact we had on a continuing series (the first season premiered in 2019). Most of our investment went towards driving video views during pre-premiere. From premiere day and onward, we retargeted consumers who previously watched our ads and directed them to The CW app where you can stream shows for free.

Results

In every platform, my recommended strategy worked as they outperformed 2019’s benchmarks by 1-4x.

Accomplishments

In the first three months I’ve been on the account, I implemented numerous new changes that increased the performance of our campaigns. All of the below were firsts that we leveraged for The CW:

• Ran unskippable commercial units on Snapchat to optimize awareness
• Implemented app install/conversion tracking on Snapchat to optimize conversions
• Implemented app conversion tracking on Facebook
• Ran TikTok (via self-serve auction) – we were one of the first advertisers to take advantage of this capability. TikTok advertising was previously partner-managed only
• Promoted TikTok influencers’ videos on TikTok
• Ran Video Website Card ad units on Twitter to optimize driving traffic
• Ran a high impact Like-To-Subscribe ad unit on Twitter
• Tested Max-width Pins as an ad unit on Pinterest
• Superman & Lois will be called out in Snap’s Q1 earnings call

For our Apple search campaigns that were “always-on” for the entire year, conversion rates and cost efficiencies increased, for the most part, quarter after quarter as well at already extremely inexpensive CPAs: