OceanSaver Launch Brand Building Campaign: The Ocean Will Thank You

OceanSaver® is to make its TV debut helping its mission to save Ocean life from the plastic pollution and the harmful chemicals in 28 billion single-use plastic cleaning products created every year. OceanSaver provides plastic-free, plant-based Laundry, Cleaning Sprays, and Dishwashing products that clean like the leading brands without harming Ocean life.

OceanSaver were one of 5 winners of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund, which awarded the small team £250,000 worth of TV media across Sky Media’s portfolio of TV channels. OceanSaver’s campaign idea “The Ocean Will Thank You” is a fun and radically positive way to encourage people to make an easy everyday switch to save our Ocean. The wider campaign launched on Earth Day, 22nd April 2024 across OOH, social and in store activities with the TV advert kicking in today. Aiming to inspire a reconnection with the waters that surround us introduces the nation’s new favourite crabs Bluey, Lil’ Hermit, Fiddler and Hairy Harry, along with the OceanSaver jingle, sung by the incredible Bristolian sea shanty group, The Longest Johns.

OceanSaver’s first ever TV campaign, introduces the nation to a new brand platform, “The Ocean will Thank You”, and a new set of brand mascots, the singing crabs, all created by Hearts & Minds. The film features a quartet of crabs, surprising a man named Gareth as he puts his washing on using an ocean-friendly laundry capsule. The crabs burst into a sea shanty to thank him for his efforts. The TV spot was written by Andy George and Jonathan Thake, and directed by the award-winning Jake Mavity, of Rogue Films. The ads were produced using AdGreen standards, with minimal carbon usage, all of which was triple offset.

Andy George, Founder of Hearts and Minds, says, “This category, and eco comms in general, so often deploy shock tactics or shame as a way to influence people’s purchases. Which just isn’t very effective. So, we’re very grateful to have found a partner in OceanSaver who share our belief in the power of positivity, entertainment, and a simple thank you, to get to Britain buying better for the Ocean and for the planet.”

OceanSaver’s new crab creations are set to become the meerkats of the Ocean, and the team is excited for the nation to fall in love with them. OceanSaver will also put their crab characters on all owned assets, so the more famous they are, the more recognisable the brand will be, and the greater the impact they’ll be able to make on Ocean health.

As part of the brand building from launch on Earth Day, OceanSaver will buy ad space via AdSmart from Sky and Video on Demand, targeting the top 20% of the most environmentally engaged households, using location-based targeting (obtained via DTC and Tesco sales data). The advert will reach 630,000 households every week, creating an excellent uplift in brand awareness bolstered by location targeted YouTube and Meta ads.

Adam Parker, Re-Founder and Marketing Director at OceanSaver says, “We need to save the Ocean, so the Ocean can save us. We’re crabsolutely delighted to partner with Sky and the Longest Johns to take our positive message to millions. Now anyone can switch from plastic and harmful chemicals – the Ocean will thank you. These are simple switches that can create impact for generations.”

Sarah Jones, Director of Planning, Sky Media, added: “OceanSaver’s advert shares a really important message – small changes make a huge difference. Something that is crucial to Sky Media’s mission in tackling the climate crisis. The Sky Zero Footprint Fund celebrates brands that make sustainable swaps easy and enticing. OceanSaver delivered exactly this in their humorous, creative campaign. We’re really excited to get this creative live and see the huge impact it is going to have on the cleaning products market.”

OceanSaver will also be looking to their community to make the most of this pivotal opportunity in the challenger brand’s journey, encouraging maximum organic sharing and viewing of the ad on YouTube by incentivising sharing, for every share, they will donate the cost of an oyster to their partners Blue Marine Foundation, creating restorative new oyster reefs in the Solent (up to a value of £5000); OceanSaver will also partner with TikTok creators to re-share and riff on the ad.

Sky Media Elevates Search Behaviour Targeting Through Captify Partnership

Last year, Sky Media launched Search Behaviour Targeting, allowing brands, for the first time, to target TV audiences based on online search behaviours. Following strong advertiser uptake, Sky Media has enhanced its partnership with Captify, the leader in real time audiences and insights fuelled by search intelligence, offering even more granular and bespoke targeting for brands.

With 1.5 billion UK searches tracked each month, the number of categories available for advertisers has more than doubled to eighteen off-the-shelf audiences, meaning greater targeting options and granularity. Alongside this, sectors such as ‘Holidays’ and ‘Home Improvement,’ have been introduced. Sky Media has also enabled bespoke audiences through a custom request process. This allows advertisers to tap into Captify’s extensive list of custom categories, including everything from ‘Pet and Animal’ Interests to ‘Real Estate’ and ‘Fantasy Sport;’ combining Captify’s custom categories to create a bespoke target audience for their campaign.

British Airways Holidays and The Ministry of Justice, in partnership with MG OMD and OmniGOV, were first to bring this new product to market as pilot partners.

Brands such as British Airways Holidays have utilised the ‘Travel’ search behaviours to expand their campaigns to reach active holiday seekers, as well as kitchen retailers who have targeted those looking to improve their homes.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) were one of the first advertisers to embrace Sky Media’s Search Behaviour Targeting to great success for their Prison Officer recruitment campaign*. AdSmart enabled the MoJ to reach households that had been searching online for ‘Jobs’ and ‘Education’ in the last month, combined with regional targeting around key prison recruitment areas. As a result, the MoJ saw a 170% uplift in prompted ad recall from those exposed to the ads versus the unexposed audience, which was a 24.3%pt uplift.

*All Sky Media targeted advertising is compliant with the GDPR regulations and audience targeting data is Sky Media owned, licensed, or processed on clients’ behalf.

Ben Stack, Ministry of Justice’s Deputy Director of Recruitment & Retention Communications, said: “Targeting our advertising in this innovative and effective way delivers better value for the taxpayer and allows our campaign investment to go further – having a real-world impact on our work to protect the public.”

The partnership will allow for targeting across both linear and on demand content across hundreds of Sky Media channels.

Rishi Chande, SVP of Global Strategy & Business Development at Captify said: “We are delighted by the growing demand from Sky Media’s clients to use Captify search data to reach desired target audiences. We are working closely with the Sky Media team to improve the targeting and attend to the demands of their different clients. This partnership means a step forward of bringing the digital world to the TV and helping clients such as the Ministry of Justice to reach TV audiences as never before.”

Dan Cohen, Director of Product & Advertising Innovation at Sky Media said: “Our effort to bring the best capabilities of digital to the brand-safe, big screen world of TV has been recognised by our clients, through their adoption of Search Behaviour Targeting. The Ministry of Justice is an excellent example of this. We listen to our client’s needs and have worked hard to improve our offering to cater to more clients and our partnership with Captify is a great example of this.”

Horlicks Makes Long-Awaited TV Comeback

Iconic hot beverage brand Horlicks is returning to TV screens for the first time in 20 years via AdSmart from Sky.

The first month-long campaign will launch on the 19th of February with the commercial airing in 30-second slots. Utilising Sky Media’s addressable targeting technology, the campaign will reach specific audiences in Sky and Virgin households across the North West BARB region.

The feel-good creative, developed by Manchester-based creative agency Doodledo in close partnership with Horlicks manufacturers Aimia Foods, has been designed to challenge the perception of Horlicks as a bedtime drink, instead positioning the much-loved malted beverage as a way to make everyday a bit more ‘stress-free’, ‘calm’, ‘comfortable’ and ‘relaxing’.

The campaign message is brought to life by way of a series of light-hearted scenarios in which several individuals – who look as if they are preparing for bedtime – are being comforted by a Horlicks in everyday situations. The commercial ends with a catchy tagline, ‘Horlicks – not just a bedtime thing’.

Rebekha White, Brand Manager at Aimia Foods, commented: “Horlicks’ return to TV after two decades marks a hugely exciting development for the brand, one which we are confident will help us to meet our key objectives of increasing front-of-mind awareness and purchase consideration within our growth focus audience.”

Rebekha continued, “The message behind our memorable creative, which tackles brand perception head-on and in a humorous way, is also designed to drive frequency of purchase by demonstrating the ways Horlicks can add comfort to consumers’ everyday lives, and not just at bedtime. The initial regional-focused TV campaign will be supported by a comms plan including PR, influencer marketing and digital advertising with plans to extend the campaign nationally in Q4.”

David Sanderson, Director of AdSmart Local and Development said, “We’re thrilled to be welcoming Horlicks back to TV after a long hiatus, and we’re excited to help such an iconic, well-known brand reach new audiences with AdSmart’s targeting capabilities.

“AdSmart is the ideal platform to deliver Horlicks’ key objectives and campaign messaging, so we look forward to growing a new consumer base in the next chapter for their business.”

The Horlicks brand was acquired by Aimia Foods in April 2018. Comforting families for 150 years, it is the oldest malted drink brand (in fact it is older than the tea bag which dates from 1904), and has nourished soldiers, given sustenance to explorers and fortified athletes since 1873.

Made in Britain since 1906, Horlicks has a strong British heritage, and formed part of the forces kit bag during WW2 due to its ‘complete and well-balanced nourishment’.

With over 25 production lines across 225,000 sq ft. of product site space, Aimia Foods pack, manufacture and distribute a wide range of food and beverage products in a number of different packaging formats, with particular specialism in blending and manufacturing ambient, dry, powder-based products.

Based in Haydock, Aimia covers a multitude of markets and categories for retail, cash & carry, food service, vending as well as offering a co-manufacturing service across the business. For more information, visit www.horlicks.co.uk

Sky Media secures exclusive partnership with digital garage, Regit

• Sky Media advertisers now have access to Regit’s first-party automotive data such as make, model and fuel type as well as a whole host of after sales-related information such as service, MOT and insurance expiry dates…
• This is a world-first partnership further enhancing AdSmart’s targeting capabilities.

Sky Media, has announced a new and exclusive partnership with Regit, the UK’s leading digital garage that helps motorists buy, sell and maintain their vehicles online.
Regit holds vast amounts of data relating to its users’ vehicles, including the likes of make and model, age, fuel type and length of ownership as well as information related to after sales such as service, tax, MOT and insurance expiry.

This robust first-party data can now be matched to AdSmart’s household data allowing automotive partners to better target potential customers with everything from new and used cars to a range of aftersales essentials including finance, insurance, accessories, and anything related to car ownership.

This opens up an exciting range of targeting capabilities when also combined with Sky’s existing detailed geographic and lifestyle data. For example, a car brand looking for potential electric/hybrid or cleaner petrol/diesel customers, could specifically target drivers of non-compliant cars in London’s ULEZ zone or other Clean Air Zones across the UK.

This exclusive partnership – a first in the world of automotive, will also be used to help build the Regit brand via TV, expanding the user base and scale of their first-party data. Regit already has millions of digital garage users and the deal will fuel Sky’s own addressable data in real-time, providing advertisers with up-to-date and verified targeting data. Advertisers will also be able to match against their own customer data, by sharing data securely with Sky Media.

Karin Seymour, Director of Client and Marketing from Sky Media said: “Sky is in a truly unique position with millions of engaged customers and a direct connection into their front rooms and favourite shows. By combining Regit’s extensive data with Sky’s, advertisers will be able to better connect with more relevant and in-market audiences for improved campaign results“.

Chris Ashton Green, CEO and founder, from Regit said: “Regit exists to make things easy for the motorist and by building a technology platform that enables them to take every management action related to their car or van, we’ve been able to generate hundreds of data points on each vehicle meaning that – for the first time – automotive partners can be extremely targeted when it comes to placing TV ads through Sky Media.

“We’ve already provided Sky Media with its biggest ever data match and our own ambitious plans to scale, coupled with what we can achieve by working with Sky, means we’re collectively very excited about where this partnership will go as it reshapes the way TV advertising works in automotive.”

Sky brings TV and digital closer together with new Search Behaviour Targeting

Sky Media, has announced new Search Behaviour targeting capability for the AdSmart addressable platform. Driven by wider industry demand to bring digital and TV campaigns closer together, Search Behaviour attributes allows brands for the first time to target audiences based on specific online search behaviours including frequency and intent.

Using search data categorised by frequency and intent, which is then matched to Sky’s first party data – advertisers can engage audiences who are in market and actively searching for products and services. Leveraged through market leading AdSmart, targeted ads are delivered into relevant households in both live and on demand content across millions of Sky, Virgin and Now homes.

Seven search behaviour categories are available at launch: Home & Garden, Travel, News, Job & Education, Arts and Entertainment, Games, Pets and Animals. Search Behaviour Targeting identifies people at every stage of their purchase journey, from initial research, through to adding items to their online basket. Search behaviour habits can be combined with any of the other existing 1000+ AdSmart attributes to refine campaigns. This could include postcodes, lifestage, mosaic groups or an advertiser’s own first party data. As an example, a custom campaign could see a holiday or insurance company target those who are actively searching for holidays or flights. This could be further refined or creative adapted to those looking at beach, sightseeing or ski holidays in a specific area of the country. The Search Behaviour targeting capability has been developed in conjunction with Captify, who are the largest independent holder of search data.

Ruth Cartwright, Investment Director at Sky Media – “TV remains the most effective and engaging platform for brands. Being able to embrace the best capabilities of digital but in the brand safe, big screen, world of TV, makes campaigns more relevant and impactful. That’s what we’re hearing from brands and agencies, so that’s where we’re focusing our innovations.”

Helping advertisers connect with audiences wherever they watch is part of an ongoing roadmap of innovation from Sky Media, bringing TV and digital closer together. AdSmart launched nearly ten years ago and was the world’s first TV addressable advertising platform. Launched a few years later Sky AdVance opened-up digital targeting based on TV viewing and upcoming Creative Optimisation will help performance brands programmatically adapt their TV creatives to optimise response.

Serious Tissues rolls out its first-ever TV campaign

Sky Zero Footprint Fund 2022 Grand Prix winner launches TV campaign promoting carbon-neutral toilet roll

Today, Sky Media reveals Serious Tissues’ £1 million Grand Prix-winning, Sky Zero Footprint Fund advertising campaign.

Serious Tissues wiped out hundreds of competitors to be awarded the top prize for their campaign, showcasing the UK’s first carbon-neutral toilet roll. The resulting advert will run from 24th April – 22nd May, using AdSmart to reach audiences in a selection of UK regions across Sky Media’s Linear TV, and later featuring on Sky’s VOD service.

The advert campaign will display how Serious Tissues’ no-frills products are saving trees, shrinking landfills, and aiding reforestation. Serious Tissues’ innovative production methods aim to cut the number of excess trees used to create toilet paper, creating a toilet roll made from 100% recycled materials. By using paper that would have been otherwise thrown out – such as unused office reports and celebrity glossy mags – Serious Tissues is reducing the toilet paper industry’s carbon footprint and cutting air miles by basing production in the UK. Serious Tissues is also carbon neutral and plastic free.

The advert was first unveiled to the competition’s judges at the Sky Zero Footprint Fund Showcase event on December 7th, 2022. It was recognised and applauded by judges for its witty animation, which kept the production footprint low and featured personable tree characters discussing the impact of toilet roll on the environment – with huge potential to drive consumer change and disrupt a significant category. The trees are voiced by Kiell Smith-Bynoe, of Ghosts, Dreamland and Taskmaster and comedian Emily Lloyd-Saini.

Chris Baker, Co-Founder at Serious Tissues, said, “Toilet paper is an every day essential – which only makes it all the more important that it is produced in the most sustainable way possible. We were thrilled to take home the Grand Prix prize, £1 million of advertising across Sky’s linear TV and VOD service, which will expose our brand to millions of new customers. Not only will this help us reduce our industry’s carbon footprint, but it will also be instrumental in helping us make massive strides towards our reforestation goals.”

Serious Tissues worked with Brilliant Artists, Oh Studio and Wonderhood Studios who wrote and produced the advert. In order to keep the production’s footprint as low as possible, they created a simple film with a very small team of an illustrator and two animators. This meant the production was 5-10 times lower than the average London shoot based on the AdGreen calculator.

Here are some insights that helped lead the planning and execution of Serious Tissue’s award-winning advert:

1. Every day, one million trees are cut down to create toilet paper.
2. Serious Tissues’ product provides people with a simple switch that can have a huge impact – for every 1% share they get of the UK toilet roll market, Serious Tissues would plant 10 million trees.
3. So far, in just over two years of business, Serious Tissues has planted over 1.7 million trees and helped keep over 8,700 in the ground; proving that it is possible to change the world from your toilet seat.

The 2023 Sky Zero Footprint Fund is now open for entries. Sign up here to register your interest in learning more about how to submit your entry, before the deadline on the 26th of May 2023.

A search a day helps keep climate change away

Search engine Ecosia launches its climate active advert created for the 2022 Sky Zero Footprint Fund

Sky Media has announced that the Sky Zero Footprint Fund finalist, Ecosia, unveiled its winning advert on 21st March to coincide with International Day of Forests, and will run until the 25th of April.

Ecosia, the green search engine, won £250,000 media value as a finalist in the 2022 Sky Zero Footprint Fund. The TV campaign will be aired across a mix of channels and programming on Linear, as well as on AdSmart and VOD platforms using Sky Media’s One Campaign Addressable proposition.

After the brand’s creative concept made it to the Sky Zero Footprint Fund’s final 5, Ecosia unveiled its 30” TV advert to Sky Media’s panel of judges at the Fund’s Showcase event in December 2022. The judges praised Ecosia for the way their advert communicated their vision so beautifully and the simplicity of its use and potential impact – simply asking the nation to switch to Ecosia and then continue doing internet searches, which would equate to trees being planted.

Sophie Dembinski, Ecosia’s Head of Policy & UK, at Ecosia, said: “We are so proud to be finalists in the 2022 Sky Zero Footprint Fund – not only because our team have produced a world-class advert. Ecosia’s collaboration with Sky Media highlights the positive impact businesses can make in fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity at a crucial time for the planet.”

Sina Samavati, Ecosia’s Creative Director said, “Ecosia’s impact in combating the climate crisis is all thanks to a community of users and tree planters across the globe. Our aim is to make sure we grow this community however we can. Switching search engines and using Ecosia is the easiest way we can all be climate active and bring about positive change to people across the globe as well as our planet. Our ad was conceptualised, written and directed in-house and produced thanks to an amazing local creative team in Berlin. Our challenges were our limited budget and our commitment to produce the ad as sustainably as possible. We implemented a number of sustainable measures and we worked with highly committed people to produce an ad that delivers our message in a simple yet effective way.”

Here are some insights that show the impact Ecosia is already having:

• It has 20 million active global users per month, nearly 2 million of which are in the UK
• Ecosia’s users have planted over 160 million trees
• Ecosia currently plants trees in over 35 countries with over 70 partners across 75 projects around the world in over 13,000 planting sites
• Ecosia users finance one tree every 1.3 seconds through their online searches
• 100% of Ecosia’s profits go to climate action

Think your organisation could be a winner in the Footprint Fund 2023? Click here to register your interest in hearing more about Footprint Fund 2023 ahead of the launch.

Sky Media invites innovative AdTech firms to pitch for place in first ‘Innovation Sprint’

• New two-day ‘Innovation Sprint’ for the media industry in 2023
• Collaboration to identify exciting opportunities harnessing Sky tech and data
• Invitation for AdTech firms and start-ups to join the ‘Innovation Sprint’ and incorporate their technology with Sky’s, across TV and digital platforms

Today, Sky Media, the advertising arm of Sky has announced an inaugural ‘Innovation Sprint’ that will take place at its Osterley HQ on 26th and 27th January 2023.

Sky, a business built on innovation has a track record of both market-changing consumer products (Sky+, HD, Sky Glass) and AdTech capabilities (AdSmart, Sky AdVance, Web Attribution and upcoming Smart Sponsorships). In 2023, Sky Media’s ‘Innovation Sprint’ aims to work with the industry to build the next generation of advertising innovations.

The two-day ‘Sprint’ will be attended by the hottest industry talent who will be nominated by media agency leadership teams. The event will be a combination of keynotes sharing inspiring thought leadership on innovation, an inside look into Sky’s processes and product roadmap for consumers and advertisers; and a competitive brief for delegates to collaborate and build ideas for future advertising solutions.

The winning teams will take part in the follow-up process as the ideas are scoped and built out, as well as winning individual Sky VIP experiences.

As a key component of the new initiative, Sky is inviting innovative AdTech companies and start-ups to pitch their ad technology to be part of the ‘Sprint’ itself. Up to five shortlisted companies will then present to the delegates at the event with the potential for the products/capabilities to be featured in the ideas that are generated.

Sky Media is committing to turning the best ideas – generated during the ‘Sprint’ – into proof of concepts with the potential to incorporate the technology in future product launches.

Submissions are open from today until 24th November 2022 via https://www.skymedia.co.uk/innovation-sprint-form/. The invite is open to all ad innovative tech companies, from content creation and production to data analysis and AI – and everything in between.

Dev Sangani, Advertising Capability and Strategy Director – Sky Media UK & Europe said, “Innovation is part of our DNA at Sky, and Sky Media are always working on new products and capabilities to improve our customers’ advertising. With the Innovation Sprint, we want to collaborate with the media and ad tech worlds to address current challenges and find innovative new solutions that only Sky can deliver. We believe in better, and we believe we’re better together, which is why we want to “Sprint” with the media industry’s star performers.”

Barclaycard Payments and Sky Media partner to champion the small businesses behind some of the UK’s biggest cultural events

On Saturday 1st October, a bespoke TV campaign, created in partnership between Sky Media and credit card and payment services provider, Barclaycard Payments, aired for the first time during Saturday’s Premier League coverage. The greatly anticipated West Ham v Wolves game saw 954k viewers at its peak at 6pm as West Ham scored the first goal of the game.

The bespoke campaign features UK-based small business Piglet’s Pantry. The advertisement is the second installment in a three-part series celebrating the transformational journeys of small businesses – and often the unsung heroes – behind some of the UK’s key cultural moments.

On October 1st 2022, audiences who tuned into the Premier League got the chance to hear from the much-loved pie business, Piglet’s Pantry, about its transformational journey from a small baked goods business to a national enterprise feeding millions of fans at some of London’s biggest sport events. In the clip, Owner and Managing Director, Joanna Hunt, told Businessman & Entrepreneur Tim Campbell MBE how sporting events have been instrumental in her journey and why SMEs are the backbone of nationwide events.

The inspiring 90-second clip, filmed at King Power Stadium and presented by Sky Sports, first aired during the ad break of the West Ham v Wolves game. The clip was also shown during the Leeds v Villa match and airs again tonight during the Leicester v Forest match, with the ad running until 30 October 2022. 30-second cutdown clips of the advert are also being published across other Sky Media channels and platforms including linear, AdSmart, VoD and digital with a longer 120-Second version on @SkyUK social channel.

The three-part series takes viewers behind the scenes of some of the UK’s most loved events to meet the small business community supporting them. The previous installment, presented by Sky Arts, saw Tim Campbell MBE speaking with Electro Love founders, Damian Walshe and Airon Baker, who took their nostalgic 80s and 90s themed experience to the Isle of Wight Festival this summer. In it, the founders discussed how iconic British festivals allowed them to turn their passion into a career (watch it here).

The series is part of Barclaycard’s ‘The Payment Part is Just the Start’ campaign, which aims to get small businesses to rethink what payments can do for them – beyond being used for purely transactional purposes.

Sarah Jones, Director of Planning at Sky Media said: “We’re very excited to see this content go live during the Premier League coverage. Barclaycard’s commitment to supporting SMEs combined with Sky Media’s strength in bringing small brands on to TV makes it a natural partnership.”

Richard Atkinson-Toal, Marketing Director, at Barclaycard Payments said: “The stories showcased in this partnership are not only packed with insightful wisdom from real small business owners, but they’re compelling and feel-good too. At Barclaycard Payments, this is what we do – support small business with their growth. We’re pleased to be partnering with Sky Media to bring these stories to the masses in a way that really aligns with our purpose.”

The third and final part of the year-long series airs in December and will feature a behind the scenes sneak peek of one of the suppliers responsible for filming the latest Sky Original drama Christmas special.

Learn more about the partnership at: https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/business/business-matters/customer-case-studies/sky-partnership

Sky Media launches pioneering Smart Sponsorships

Addressable powered broadcast sponsorships allow brands to create targeted and relevant idents

Sky Media has announced an exciting new innovation for advertisers in the world of sponsorship – Smart Sponsorships.

Powered by the same game-changing addressable technology as AdSmart, Smart Sponsorships will allow brands to tailor their idents to different audiences using Sky’s 3rd party data or advertisers’ own 1st party customer data. Smart Sponsorship also opens-up the possibility of more local and geographic creative executions and opportunities – meaning programme or channel alignment can be bought for specific locations such as country, county, city, local authority area or even postcode area.

Sitting right next to trusted content, broadcast sponsorships have always been a highly-prized branding tool for advertisers, but without the ability, until now, to use different creative to connect with different audiences. Smart sponsorships will seamlessly swap out a more relevant creative message depending on which household is watching. This means a car brand could change the car model featured depending on the affluence or life-stage of the household, or change the scenery and voice over depending on location. Using their own data advertisers could also deliver different creative to current and lapsed customers. Smart Sponsorships will likely benefit from the same uplifts in relevance that Adsmart has seen, which delivers better outcomes for brands. On average, across thousands of AdSmart campaigns, advertisers have seen a 48% reduction in tune-away, 35% increase in engagement and 10% increase in spontaneous recall when using addressable technology.

Launched in 2014, AdSmart has allowed brands big and small to target their advertising to more relevant audiences, extend reach or make their move to TV possible for the first time. AdSmart is available across Sky and Virgin homes on over 100 channels. In 2021, over 450 brands came to TV for the first time because of AdSmart with a return rate of 73%.

Dev Sangani, Advertising Capability and Strategy Director at Sky Media, said, “AdSmart pioneered the use of TV addressability and that same technology will help do the same for Sponsorships. With rich data, exciting creative possibilities and trusted & engaging content – this latest innovation in our exciting roadmap will help brands create even more effective partnerships with our shows and channels.”

Smart Sponsorships builds on Sky long tradition of innovation in the ad market which includes AdSmart, Sky AdVance, CFlight, One Campaign, Web Attribution and Shoppable amongst many others. Smart Sponsorships will be available in market in H2 2022.