In this week’s egtabite, we explore a creative campaign delivered by Ireland’s RTÉ in a unique content partnership with media agency Mediacom and renowned retailer Boots. The partnership aimed to create an integrated content collaboration that would make Boots a premier destination for beauty brands, by building on the platform of the TV beauty show Glow Up Ireland.

In response to the continued erosion of its premium beauty share, Boots Ireland was at risk of being more known for potions and plasters. To increase penetration, Boots needed to persuade a new generation of “beauty believers” they were a credible destination for all their beauty needs. In a category reliant on traditional media, a linear TV-only approach was not going to do the job. In line with Boots’ always-on “digi-till” content strategy, RTÉ delivered a unique partnership with bespoke native and digital activation built on the platform of the TV beauty show, Glow Up Ireland.

Sponsorship and in-show product placement

Glow Up Ireland is a competitive entertainment series where ten of Ireland’s best amateur make-up artists are challenged in a range of assignments where they show off their technical know-how, skill, artistry, and imagination. They are each tasked with creating amazing make-up transformations – all taking place in a dedicated studio space – Glow Up HQ. One of the ten is crowned Ireland’s Next Make-Up Star and wins a fantastic opportunity to further their professional career.

In response to the brief from Mediacom, RTÉ was tasked with designing a content partnership that would help build consideration amongst a key Boots segment known as ‘Beauty Believers’. The foundation of the partnership solution was the sponsorship of the first-ever series of Glow Up Ireland. This included sponsor stings and in-show product placements. The sponsorship (and products featured) was also supported with wider Boots campaign amplification across digital out-of-home (DOOH), social, homepage takeovers (HPTO), search and programmatic.

Native executions working hard

To bring the partnership to life in a very tangible ‚show-and-tell‘ way, RTÉ devised an exclusive native video series, offering practical advice on ‘getting the look’ that was featured in each episode of Glow-Up Ireland delivered by make-up artist Aideen Kate. Aideen has 159,000 followers on Instagram, so she brought a unique inheritance to the content. Each native piece mirrored the linear broadcast, with a corresponding native episode being published the morning after the linear broadcast.

In total, there were eight native executions, with eight bespoke video episodes embedded in each. To make the native work even harder, RTE introduced a ‘click-and-buy’ element whereby all the products used in the native content and video could be purchased instantly via the Boots Ireland ‘Glow-Up’ e-commerce hub. All video assets created by RTÉ were also re-formatted and supplied to Boots for social media.

Great campaigns drive results

The partnership delivered a Boots Beauty makeover through inspirational content and an optimised digital journey that drove sales AND built Boots beauty credentials:

Glow Up fuelled dramatic increases in revenue, +40% vs 2020 and delivered a +30% increase in volume YOY

90% of exposed viewers saw the partnership as a ‘perfect fit’

Search was integral to harvesting the demand created for the latest products – premium beauty ROAS during Glow Up increased 54% vs 2020 and a whopping 147% vs 2019

The Native Content had over 82,000 views and over 14 million co-branded display impressions were delivered

Unique creative collaboration – RTÉ creating and hosting the ‚twin‘ native series to complement TV shows and drive e-commerce

Crucially Irish shoppers are looking at Boots differently with more agreeing that Boots is a destination for brands they want to buy (73%)

You can read more about this campaign and tens of others in egta’s latest Creative Cases publications available here.

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