Originally launched by a schoolteacher in the early 1990s, Airborne was well-known for years as a seasonal vitamin C supplement. More recently, the brand’s parent company Reckitt decided to reposition its product as daily immune support. To support this new goal, marketing resources needed to focus on making the brand top-of-mind for health-conscious consumers.
TV used to be one of Reckitt’s highest-reach drivers. With a dramatic shift in viewing habits, Reckitt wanted to reach people on connected TV (CTV). The company pivoted to CTV to re-engage those audiences and drive higher awareness for Airborne products. So together with their Google team, Reckitt created a planning and buying strategy to optimize its media spend to include streamers.
Using Google reach planners to maximize budget across TV and CTV
The Reckitt marketing team started by analyzing who they reached using CTV ads. With the reach planner tool in Google Ads, they segmented the TV audiences they already reached and then identified those they could reach with YouTube. They then harnessed Display & Video 360 forecasting capabilities to estimate how much incremental reach they could get by bringing together their YouTube ads with their network CTV deals – Disney, The CW and Discovery – in the same campaign. The tool enabled them to create accurate, custom media plans and pull insights like optimal spend and reach to compare the effectiveness of different campaign types.
Harnessing Google custom audience segments to reach streamers
Reckitt then built custom audience segments based on viewers’ interest in Display & Video 360. They first identified custom keywords like "vitamin C benefits," "zinc benefits" or "elderberry supplements." Next, Display & Video 360 analyzed the keywords and automatically created tailored audiences designed to maximize the brand’s reach on CTV.
The brand complemented this strategy with ready-to-use Google affinity and in-market audience in Display & Video 360. These Google-made segments allowed them to reach streamers interested in boosting their immune system across YouTube and other CTV apps.
Creative from Airborne campaign.
Measuring incremental CTV reach
To measure the incremental reach of CTV ads generated on top of TV ads, Reckitt turned to iSpot, a TV ad measurement platform. iSpot calculated that the Display & Video 360 campaign generated 2.2 million more viewers which represents an 18% reach increase versus TV alone.
Armed with solid results, Reckitt’s Vitamins and Minerals Supplements division is applying these learnings across other brands like Neuriva and increasing investment in CTV as a way to complement TV and drive effective reach. The marketing team is particularly excited to test the new version of Display & Video 360’s reach planner which now not only estimates unduplicated reach across YouTube and CTV buys, but also incorporates linear TV to the forecast.
