As part of our ongoing relationship with Go Ape, Elixirr Digital was tasked with driving their brand awareness by engaging with their audience online through a number of video assets and across multiple platforms.

The primary objective for the video campaign was to drive brand awareness of Go Ape’s adventure parks across the country, and we were tasked with reaching its core audience with a set KPI of obtaining a minimum of 1,750,000 completed video view hits. These views were to be from high-quality prospects, and we were to achieve an average completed view rate of 20%.

Our Approach

In order to identify the target audience for the campaign, we analysed and profiled Go Ape’s core customer base and identified three key audiences.

Firstly, Go Ape is a mecca for thrill seekers who love the excitement of ultra-fast zip lining through the tree canopies.

We identified the adventure park’s second key demographic as families or parents with children between the ages of 4 and 17 years old. This audience typically visits the adventure parks for family-fuelled fun in the great outdoors.

The third audience targeted were those interested in the outdoors – expressing an interest in getting active out in nature and exploring the great outdoors.

In addition to targeting Go Ape’s core customer base, we also wanted to ensure the campaign reached a wider, highly engaged audience. As a result, we wanted to target those who were likely to convert either due to past brand engagement or possessing similar attributes to previous customers. Therefore, the campaign also targeted:

• Lookalike audiences
• CRM lookalike audiences
• Users who had shown interest before – either by engaging with previous ads, spending a certain amount of time on the website or the check-out process

In order to reach the key audience, we used a series of videos targeting the audiences across YouTube, Facebook, Programmatic Display and Snapchat. In order to increase engagement on each platform, we uploaded these videos in 4 different sizes to maximise views across multiple devices including horizontal mobile, vertical mobile, desktop and TV.

As part of our strategy to target the primary audiences, we experimented with a variety of key messages. These ad messages were designed to tap into each audience’s key ideologies around adventure, energy and time with the family.

Prior to the creative build, we advised that the design of video should ensure that the Go Ape logo, key message and call-to-action were each shown within the first 5 seconds. This ensured that this key information was presented before users were able to skip the ad; guaranteeing that the viewer was exposed to the brand and call-to-action. In addition, this meant that we were able to maximise the impact of each video view, whether it was viewed in its entirety or not.

The Results

Following a highly-targeted and engaging strategy, the campaign resulted in over 4 million completed video views – so not only were we able to meet the original KPI of obtaining a minimum of 1,750,000 completed video views, but were able to exceed it by 141%, generating a total of 4,153,589 completed views.

We were asked to obtain views from high-quality prospects, and the high-quality nature of the audience we reached resulted in an average cost per view of just £0.01. Additionally, we were tasked with aiming for a 20% view rate, which we outperformed, achieving 26%; with Programmatic Display and Facebook accomplishing 79% and 42% respectively.

Although the aim of the campaign was to drive brand awareness and not to meet any revenue targets, the views from the video assets across the four platforms resulted in 359 transactions, bringing in £23,820 of additional revenue.