More and more, contextuality, relevance and personalization are becoming indispensable within digital marketing or rather those who don’t take them into account are lagging behind. It has become a top priority. However, the reality is that many marketers still struggle to implement this strategy in their campaigns. If they do, it is often triggered manually, which is almost unthinkable in times of automation, AI and other top technologies.

Proximus and Pivott did not shy away from the challenge, because in collaboration with Google we gave an answer to this need of today’s consumers. A general (boring) message aimed at the masses? We think not! But a hyper-relevant message for a specific target group? Definitely! And so it came to life: the Proximus Triggered Campaign! No manual triggers but a campaign focused on relevance and yes, driven by automation and technology!

The focus was on a widely represented target group: Belgian soccer fans! Perhaps you remember the emotions when the Red Devils kicked asses at the last World Cup? We remember and so do these soccer fans! Together we (Proximus, Pivott and Google) seized the opportunity to reach out to this target group during those extremely precious moments. How? With that relevant message we were talking about earlier. Or more specifically: free mobile data to watch the match via the Proximus TV app. On the road with public transport while the match was being broadcast live on TV? No problem for your data usage, because Proximus simply offers it to you for free!

Nothing special in itself? Hold your horses because our story is not yet complete! As mentioned before, we used specific automated triggers. These real time triggers were divided into 2 categories supplemented with a non-trigger version, to measure just that difference in results. To summarize:

• General trigger (goal made, match won)
• Trigger based on a player (Lukaku scores, Mertens scores, …)
• Non-trigger or thus the general message

The campaign focused on display and it were those displays that adjusted automatically in real time based on a trigger. Yes in real time, since those football matches were broadcasted live and therefore results totally unpredictable. Because who on earth knows who would score first, last or ultimately win? A concrete example: when Dries Mertens scored the world goal against Panama, customized banners targeted on the language of the recipient instantly appeared on desktop and mobile websites which, in addition to the promotional message promising free Proximus data, featured an animated image of Mertens celebrating the goal.

By the way, the interesting thing about this target group is that they do not only focus on the match that is broadcasted live, but they can also be found online at those moments. Behind-the-scenes, online content, highlights, … you name it! We also call them ‘second screen viewers’. The use of real time triggers in combination with the visual appeal of famous players at crucial moments ensured a huge attention among these second screen viewers, i.e. thousands of soccer fans, online.

Once the match was over, the message adapted again in real time and led consumers for example to an overview calendar with the results and the upcoming matches (amongst other things).

But it didn’t stop here. We looked for permanent optimisation and better returns. Each banner, based on the trigger, was prodcued in different creative versions. In real time, the performance of each banner was checked and the campaign systematically optimized. If a specific message delivered better view results, that banner was shown more often.

Another important detail: Proximus and Pivott were selected by Google to be amongst the first 20 customers in the world to launch this real time triggered campaign. We can proudly state thatPivott was the only agency in Belgium to carry out this setup in such a short timeframe. A unique experience for Belgium and for Pivott as well.

The technology developed to produce this campaign was truly hard work, but the spectacular results for Proximus prove it to be a right investment choice. They exceeded all expectations!

A huge difference in CTR was observed between a triggered (using a player) and a non-triggered display: the result was almost 6 times higher! In detail: an increase of 537% on desktop and 20% on mobile devices. When the Red Devils scored, Proximus scored 6 times … This proved once again that relevance is appreciated by the target audience. Moreover, by being present at the moments the target audience highly appreciates, we were not only able to be hyper-relevant but also to amplify the conversations on social media.

Through this innovative use of display advertising, where technology plays a central role, Proximus was able to bring consumers closer to the brand by reaching them at the right time, with the right message, on the right screen. And the breathtaking results reflect this as well. A unique technological achievement, realised through a collaboration between Pivott, Google and Space for Proximus. This new beta API technology also served as a test for Google to run multiple campaigns through such triggers in the future.