How Channel 4 uses Open AdStream & Maxifier to improve ad optimisation & on-time delivery

Background

Channel 4 Future Media and Digital Advertising sales, the online business of UK TV broadcaster Channel 4, has been a long-standing user of 24/7 Real Media’s Open AdStream ad management platform.

Open AdStream is used to serve online display advertising messages and rich media content across Channel 4 websites.

Like other publishers, Channel 4 was looking for new ways to improve inventory performance, raise staff efficiency and rapidly enhance online ad revenues. In September 2008, Channel 4 and 24/7 Real Media identified a new ad optimisation approach from Maxifier, which was a sound business and technical fit. The three companies worked quickly in order to implement Maxifier as a live service for Future Media and Digital Advertising Sales. During the first few weeks of live trial the combination of Open AdStream and Maxifier increased clickthrough rate (CTR) performance by over 100%, while also improving on-time delivery across all inventory.

Challenge

Using Open AdStream, Channel 4 wanted to develop more effective campaign management capabilities in-house and increase the performance of its portfolio with the objective of improving customer retention and attracting new customers via higher CTRs.

Channel 4 also wished to enhance the delivery of impressions within a restricted time period, while ensuring that the impressions allocated to a campaign could be delivered on time (i.e. with no timeframe extension) and evenly across the campaign period.

Channel 4 saw it as necessary to optimise each individual campaign, and to optimise every campaign simultaneously within its network, thus achieving ‘best’ individual campaign performance and ‘best’ overall network performance at the same time. Channel 4 and 24/7 Real Media selected Maxifier due to its tight integration with Open AdStream and ability to achieve these goals.

Solution

In September 2008, Channel 4 integrated Maxifier with their Open Ad Stream ad server. The initial integration of Maxifier took only two weeks, and from this point on Maxifier was able to manage and optimise its entire online portfolio..During the first month of operation alone, Maxifier produced an overall 32.9% uplift in CTR and a 22% improvement in on-time delivery efficiency across the entire network. In the first months, several campaigns have seen more than a 100% increase in their CTR. Renewal of campaigns and commitment to new business immediately followed from agencies.

Enhancing Ad Operations at Channel 4

The integration of Open AdStream and Maxifier enhanced Channel 4’s ad operations through:

Optimisation of the overall Ad Network CTRs, simultaneously, allowing the campaign manager to more easily view the exact performance of all campaigns in the Ad Network at a glance. Performance issues are therefore more visible and critical issues can be addressed earlier

Providing tools so that the ad operations team can investigate and forecast the results of planned changes to the Ad Network without actually making any changes to the live Ad Network. This modeling-based approach allows ‘what if’ scenarios to be run and an impact analysis to be produced:

• More campaigns being delivered on-time and with a pattern of impressions spread more evenly over the planned duration of the campaign
• Facilitating the campaign management and the optimisation, Maxifier saved traffickers 15% of hours per week

The Benefits for Sales at Channel 4

Maxifier optimised each campaign alone in all campaigns overall in order to enhance both CTR and on-time delivery, providing the ability for sales to prioritize ‘preferred campaigns.’ This ensured that the best results are achieved at a sales campaign level and at a network performance level. This optimisation has delivered important benefits for sales including:

• Confirmed re-bookings due to higher customer satisfaction with the campaign management and Ad Network performance
• Increased bookings due to higher CTR performance
• Proactive contacts from ad agencies recognising the improved performance

Results

24/7 Real Media and Maxifier have enabled Channel 4 to:

• Achieve immediate ROI for the costs of Maxifier, with no capital outlay
• Reduce under-delivered impressions and so bring about a reduction in commercial penalties

24/7 Real Media is an Associate Member of AOP.