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In an television industry that gets more crowded by the year, National Geographic Channels has found one way to generate buyer interest during upfront season: turn the whole process into a game.
For the past five years, Nat Geo has been building out an increasingly robust engagement campaign to familiarize clients with National Geographic Channel and Nat GEO Wild’s upfront programming.
This year’s “Expedition of a Lifetime Sweepstakes,” hosted on the Nat Geo Sales B2B website, ran from March 17 through June 27. A daily trivia question and a series of against-the-clock games based on the programming slate offered players the chance to earn multiple entries into the sweepstakes.
The grand prize? A Nat Geo expedition for two, which went to Christopher McMahon, an assistant media planner at Zenith Media in Los Angeles.
Other prizes include Samsung smart TVs, iPad Airs, and Samsung compact digital cameras.
Players could also win instant prizes such as Starbucks and Amazon gift cards.
Buyers and clients who wanted to increase their chances of winning had to study the Nat Geo program offerings in order to have better luck with the trivia questions.
The faster you finished the game and the more correct answers you got, the more times you were entered to win. Nat Geo also gave away bonus entries for attending upfront presentations or calling an account executive.
“The challenge for everyone is how they can cut through clutter of all different kinds,” said Rich Goldfarb, National Geographic Channels’ senior VP of media sales. ” The idea was to familiarize our customer base with our upfront programming but do it in a way that was fun.”
Goldfarb said the company saw a 20 percent increase in the number of unique users who logged into the site this year, and the average time spent on the site was also up 13 percent.
The idea to gamify the upfront sales process came about because Goldfarb and his team realized a few years ago that many of their traditional marketing collateral, such as brochures and leave-behind kits were probably winding up in desk drawers or the circular file. He wanted to find a different way to tell their upfront story every year.
And since upfront decisions often wind up in the hands of younger buyers, Nat Geo wanted to create an experience that spoke to a rising generation of digitally native clients.
“We do everything in our power to be unique and differentiate ourselves,” Goldfarb said.
The company has been pleased with the results, with post-mortem metrics showing regional and industry diversity among the players who participated.
132 different agencies and advertisers logged into the game, and 61 percent of the participants logged in on multiple days.
Goldfarb said the company has seen growth in several key categories, including financial, telecom, casual dining, and entertainment.
“We think it’s tremendously important and successful,” Goldfarb said. “The momentum that it creates across the ad community is felt by our sales force across the country.”
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