Kayo Sports Scores Big with New Subscriptions
Image source: Kayo Sports.
Demand for online entertainment continue to rise, and existing and new companies are rolling out services daily. As media and entertainment providers compete for viewership, it’s not enough to offer great content and simply wait for consumers to subscribe. They need to win viewers one by one, reaching them with targeted messages in all the places people look at content, from mobile phones to connected TVs.
A strong, data-driven Customer Experience Management (CXM) strategy is key to success in the market for online entertainment—sustaining a cycle of winning new subscribers, keeping them engaged with content they’ll love, and persuading them to renew.
Kayo Sports has taken its CXM strategy seriously from day one, and the approach has paid off.
Launched just over a year ago, the streaming service had 364,000 customers 10 months later. Its appeal for Aussie sports fans is undeniable, with live and on-demand content covering 57 sports, accessible on virtually any device. That’s more sports than any other platform in Australia.
Programmatic advertising keeps Kayo on the playing field
A big part of Kayo’s success is its laser focus on customer acquisition and retention through highly targeted advertising, and Adobe Advertising Cloud forms the central piece of Kayo’s digital advertising trading desk. The company has already achieved a win in the promising arena of connected TVs (CTVs).
“Mastering connected TVs is the biggest challenge for advertisers in Australia today,” says Tom Mennetrier, Senior Customer Acquisition Manager at Kayo Sports. “We typically use the channel for branding activities, but we wanted to find out how effective it could be for driving customer acquisition.”
The team saw its chance in the Rugby World Cup. It’s one of biggest sporting events in Australia. Kayo set out to turn many of those rugby fans into subscribers by running a video ad—a funny spot featuring a pet axolotl named Owen who predicts match winners. Of all the channels, from YouTube and Facebook to the website, CTV performed the best.
“During the Rugby World Cup, Adobe Advertising Cloud showed that CTV outperformed all other channels in post-view conversions,” Tom says. “It generated the highest post-impression traffic volumes and moved 14% of visitors to sign up for a free Kayo trial.”
The numbers were a surprise, especially given that the team typically uses CTV for branding campaigns, not performance marketing. Now the company knows it can do both effectively.
But the big win for Kayo is gaining visibility into how ad campaigns contribute to top-level KPIs—subscriptions and renewals—not just metrics such as viewability and cost per click. That means the team can continually optimize toward outcomes that drive the business.
Kayo builds its A team
Kayo initially worked with Accordant, part of Isobar, to launch and adopt several Adobe Experience Cloud solutions—not only Adobe Advertising Cloud but also Adobe Analytics Cloud and Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions. Today, the customer acquisition and engagement teams are fully self-sufficient and moving forward with their data-driven approach to programmatic advertising.
“After implementing the Analytics for Advertising Cloud integration in Adobe Analytics, we started to get much deeper visibility into our prospects’ subscription activity on site, allowing us to better understand the relevance of our advertising campaigns.” says Matt Barden.
“The plan is to bring everything under Adobe Advertising Cloud,” says Tom. “That includes video, mobile, display, search, native, digital out-of-home, and audio. With Adobe Experience Cloud, we can optimize our targeting and create a smooth, personalized journey as people sign up for our 14-day trial, become a subscriber, and ultimately renew their subscription.”
Kayo Sports uses Adobe Advertising Cloud and other Adobe Experience Cloud solutions to drive customer acquisition and retention for its revolutionary sports streaming service.