Broccoli
A Case for Television Advertising
The Broccoli Campaign
In an environment of:

media hyper-fragmentation,

rapidly advancing technology,

advertiser pressure to demonstrate results,

anti-television research & sentiment,
the Television industry had to provide it’s advertising partners
with renewed proof of the power of Television advertising.
The Broccoli campaign was our answer…
The Broccoli Campaign
Insert case study video:
http://www.tvb.ca/BroccoliCase/BroccoliCaseVideo.wmv
Why Broccoli?
• john st, (TVB’s creative partner) recommended an actual case
study as the best way to prove the power of TV
• Broccoli was an unadvertised product – perfect for an
advertising effectiveness test
• Broccoli is an “un-owned” product, one which we could
anonymously commandeer for our test
• Broccoli had little to no top-of-mind advertising awareness, is
a generally disliked product, but being a highly nutritious
food, would be beneficial to Canadians as an advertising
message
How did we do it?
• As a not-for-profit association, TVB could not fund a television
advertising campaign
• The media airtime was donated by TVB member stations
• TVB paid the hard costs of commercial production
• Our creative agency and their production partners provided
their services pro-bono because they believe in the power of
television advertising and agreed that it was in the advertising
community’s best interests to “set the record straight”
What did we do?
•
The campaign had two primary measurable goals:
1. To prove that television could make a “mundane” product such as
broccoli relevant by raising top-of-mind ad awareness by 20 points and
intent to purchase by 10 points;
2. To increase year-over-year sales of broccoli by 5%.
•
Achievement of these goals would clearly demonstrate
television’s ability to build brands (even as the sole medium),
and should be a part of any media mix
What did we do?
• TVB approached this campaign as if it were a product launch
• As primary grocery shoppers, W25-54 were identified as the
target audience
• john st’s media agency partner recommended we support the
launch with 1,500 grp’s over the course of the campaign
• The Broccoli campaign was initially planned as a 6-week flight
i.e. 250 grp’s per week, however due to talent issues we had
to condense the campaign to 5-weeks and adjust the weight
level to 300 grp’s per week (achieved to 275)
What did we do?
• The campaign ran from January 4th, 2010 to February 7th,
2010
• Campaign timing was determined by the greater availability of
airtime in a traditionally low-demand period
• Weekly GRP objectives were defined as 60% prime, with a
60/40 conventional/specialty GRP split
• Prime was defined as 7-11pm for conventional stations, and
5pm-12am for specialty stations
What did we do?
• Unlike traditional television executions, donated airtime was
100% ROS, but consistent with established % prime and &
% specialty goals
• To manage the GRP tracking task, the target markets were
limited to Ontario and B.C.
• Every EM in both provinces was part of the campaign, and
individual market objectives took spill into account
Ottawa (E)
Kingston
Peterborough
Barrie
Toronto
Kitchener
London
Windsor
Sudbury/Timmins/North Bay/SSM
Thunder Bay
Okanagan-Kamloops
Terrace-Kitimat
Prince George
Dawson Creek
Vancouver
Programs
24
90210
20/20
30 Rock
48 Hour Mystery
Access Hollywood
All My Children
American Idol
Anthony Bourdain
Appt with the Arts
As The World Turns
Avonlea
Bernie Mac
Best Recipes Ever
Big Bang Theory
Biggest Loser
Bold & Beautiful
Bones
Bonnie Hunt
Boston Legal Rotation
Breakfast Television
Breaking Point
Brothers & Sisters
Canada AM
Cash Cab
Castle
Chopped
Chriss Angel
Cityline
Cold Case
Comedy Hour
Conviction Kitchen
Coronation Street
Cowboy Country
Criminal Minds
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: New York
Curling: Hearts Prime
Daily Planet
Daily Show
Days of Our Lives
Death To Town - Kids in Hall
Deep Space Nine
Degrassi
Degrassi: Next Generation
Designed to Sell
Desperate Housewives
Destroyed In Seconds
Dharma and Greg
Dirty Jobs
Disney/CBC Movie
Doctors
Dollhouse
Dr. OZ
Dr. Phil
Dr. Quinn
Dragon's Den
Ellen
End Leash
Entertainment Tonight
ER
ET Canada
Everyone Hates Chris
Extreme Cuisine
Extreme Makeover Home
Family Guy
Fashion Television
Fifth Estate
Flashforward
Flashpoint
Football: US College
Frasier
Friends
General Hospital
Ghost Hunters
Ghost Whisperer
Glee
Golden Globe Awards
Good Wife
Gossip Girl
Grammy Awards
Grey's Anatomy
Heartland
Holmes on Homes
Home Improvement
Hour
House
House Hunters
How I Met Your Mother
In The Kitchen
Inner Space
Inside the Actors Studio
Insider
Intervention
Jamie Oliver
Jay Leno
Jeopardy
Judge Joe Brown
Judge Judy
King of Queens
Kitchen Night
Last 10lbs
Law & Order
Law & Order: SVU
Law & Order:CI
Let's Make a Deal
Letterman
Little House on the Prairie
Look-A-Like
Lost
Lots of daypart rotation
Lots of local news
Lots of syndicated strip
Man vs Wild
Marketplace
Maury Povich
Medical
Medium
Melrose Place
Mentalist
Mercy
Metropia
Michael Coren
Monk
Murder She Wrote
Murdoch Mysteries
Myth Busters
National
Nature of Things
NCIS
NCIS: LA
Newlywed
NHL
No Snooze Tuesdays
No Way! It's Thursday
Numb3rs
O.C.
Office
Old Christine
One Life to Live
Oprah
Party Mamas
Passionate Eye
People's Choice Awards
Planet Earth
Poker
Power & Politics
Price Is Right
Private Practice
Property Virgins
Providence
Rachel Ray
Ramsey
Real Housewives of Atlanta
Real Housewives of New Jersey
Real Life
Regis & Kelly
Republic of Doyle
Restaurant Makeover
Revamped
Rez Bluez
Ricardo
Sanctuary
Seven-2-eight
Shimmy
Simpsons
Smallville
SNL: Weekend Update
So You Think You Can Dance
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: NG
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG 1
Sue Thomas F.B. Eye
Supernanny
Supernatural
Survivor
Tennis: Australian Open
The Waltons
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
Throwdown
Til Debt Do Us Part
TMZ
Tonight Show
Top Chef
Torry and Dean
Trauma
Travelling Chef
Tudors
Two and a Half Men
Tyra
Vampire Diaries
Verminators
View
Wedding SOS
Weight Loss
Wheel of Fortune
Without a Trace
X Weighted
Young & Restless
The Broccoli creative…
Insert commercials:
http://www.tvb.ca/BroccoliCase/BroccoliCommercials.avi
The Broccoli Website
• To add legitimacy to the campaign, a website was created to
respond to the call to action included in each commercial
• Content on the site was limited to static pages espousing the
virtues of broccoli and offering a few recipes
The Results
In short,
the campaign was a unequivocal
success!
Measurement
• Pre and Post flight surveys were conducted by Ipsos Reid in
October 2009 and February 2010; the sample base was
1,636 adults between the ages of 18 and 64
• Year-over-year sales (volume) were analyzed using AC
Nielsen data
• Social media and Online were monitored using Radion 5 and
Google metrics
Ad Awareness Results
• Overall advertising awareness reached an astounding 90%
vastly surpassing our goal of a 20 point increase
Survey Results
• Top-of-mind awareness for broccoli grew from no mentions to
being the second most mentioned produce in the grocery
aisle
• 13% of respondents indicated they purchased at least one
more bunch of broccoli on their latest shopping trip as
compared to the pre-campaign period
• Intent to purchase at least one more bunch of broccoli
increased by 13 points compared to the pre-campaign period
which surpassed our intent to purchase goal of a 10 point
increase
Product Traits
Online/Social Results
• Mentions of “broccoli” or “miracle” increased by 444%
Online/Social Results
• Search volume was up 100%
• Fans of the campaign created a Facebook fan page which
garnered more than 17K followers
• Fans posted the commercials to YouTube which generated
more than 30K additional views
• Fans created more than 15 spoofs which were posted to
YouTube and viewed more than 20K times
Sales Results
• Best of all, according to AC Nielsen the volume of broccoli
sold in Ontario and B.C. increased 8% in same period yearover-year sales surpassing our goal of 5%
That’s an additional
188,574
pounds of broccoli!
To paraphrase Mark Twain:
“the reports of my death have
been greatly exaggerated.”
Television State of the Nation
“Television …the current super media”
(Deloitte Canada, TMT 2011)
 Scientific proof of television’s supremacy in generating
engagement and recall
 Viewing time is as high as ever (or growing)
 Advertisers continue to invest in television
TV Update
• Science has proven TV advertising effective
– In 2009 Innerscope Research conducted a Biometric study of Canadian
advertising to measure the subconscious effect that it has on
consumers
– Respiration, heart rate, skin conductance and movement were
measured along with eye tracking to determine how engaged subjects
were with the advertising to which they were exposed
– Subjects were exposed to television advertising from 24 national
brands; each brand had a corresponding ad in either Newspaper, Radio,
Online Video or Online Display
– Television advertising proved to be more engaging and generated
higher recall that all other media included in the study
TV Update
• Science has proven TV advertising effective
TV Update
• TV viewing remains strong – per capita weekly hours PPM
TV Update
• RTS Fall 2010 - Multi-media “time spent” per capita
TV Update
• Cross study comparison – Weekly hours Adults 25-54
na
Source: Marketing Magazine May 17, 2010
na
na
na
na na
na na
TV Update
• Advertisers are producing more and more commercials
TV Update
• TV ad revenues have rebounded following the recession
+8.0%
+9.5%
+4.3%
+2.5%
+0.9%
+9.5%
+2.8%
-7.7%
+7.2%
Source: TVB TSS Report
Thank you!
(www.tvb.ca)