BackgroundIn 2012, British Airways sought to communicate its competitive edge over low-cost airlines. In the UK, BA ran an online campaign across various sites and networks communicating key messages surrounding comfort and ease of flying. British Airways sought to optimise the campaign mid-field by upweighting the best performing creatives and sites to maximise campaign impact. Millward Brown employed their AdIndex Dash solution to measure the campaign’s contribution on key performance measures and allow for in-field optimisation.

Key FindingsOverall, the campaign had tremendous success and led to a significant increase in Consideration for British Airways (BA) as well as enhanced perceptions of BA being an easy and stress free airline.

Bold Green font indicates statistically significant positive data

MethodologyAdIndex uses simultaneous and continuous recruitment in the campaign footprint. This ensures that both control and exposed cells are filled evenly over time, meaning that both groups have an equal chance of being influenced by external factors.

Both groups are matched in terms of demographics and behaviours so that any differences between control and exposed can be attributed to the online campaign.

Optimising digital campaigns A case study

British Airways

Control

Exposed

Delta

Unweighted Control <50 or Exposed < 50

Bold Green font indicates statistically significant positive delta

Bold Red font indicates statistically significant negative delta

**Indicates significance at the 90% confidence level

Makes flying easy and stress freeOffers good value for money

Overall Performance

Purchase IntentOnline Ad Awareness

Actual Dashboard

+11.2** +6.1** +6.3** +7.2**

Male

Target

18-34

NoneGender

Target: 35+ C1C2DE

Age

Brand Usage

Female

Non-Target

35-49

1-3

50+

4 or more

ASocial Grade Combined

BDEC1C2

A highly effective creative, the use of well-targeted sites and synergies with offline media all created a powerful online campaign which delivered impressive overall results for the brand. Real time data allowed for the deployment of additional budget against the highest performing sites and ad formats, which further enhanced performance and allowed increased campaign ROI.

Alongside employing AdIndex Dash on future campaigns, Millward Brown recommended taking investment out of skyscraper formats and increasing the weight of the top performing sites on media plans for future branding activity.

For more information on our case studies or for access to our wider learning on advertising effectiveness please contact; Media&Digital@millwardbrown.com or follow us @MBMediaDigital

Implications

During the course of the campaign, the media agency used the dashboard to monitor campaign performance and optimise towards the best performing sites and creatives.After reviewing the dashboard mid campaign, the client decided to shift spend from Skycrapers to better performing formats, such as MPUs and Leaderboards.

The client also decided to move spend from underperforming sites towards better performing sites.

Optimisations

Online Ad Aareness Purchase Intent Makes flying easy and stress free

Statistically significant decrease*

Masthead

Pre Roll

MPU

160x600

728x90

120x600

Statistically significant increase*

MastheadMasthead

Pre RollPre Roll

MPUMPU

160x600160x600

728x90728x90

120x600120x600

+0.2 -4.4 -3.1

+14.7** +7.2 +1.2

+16.5** +14.3** +11.4**

+15.7** +18.8** +20.1**

+10.9** +8.4** +9.0**

+8.1** -2.1 -0.8

Site 1

Site 2

Site 3

Site 4

Site 5

Site 6

Site 7

Site 8

Site 9

Site 10

Site 11

Site 12

Site 13

Site 14

Site 15

Site 16

Site 17

Statistically significant decrease*

Statistically significant increase*Online Ad Aareness+19.6** +23.2** +6.4** +15.9** +10.0 -16.30.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 +3.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0+23.0**

UPWEIGHT DOWNWEIGHT DOWNWEIGHT