3 million reach for free? Mix classic media & branded content… then shake it!

After suffering two difficult years between COVID & massive flooding forcing to close the park most of the year, Walibi Belgium had to make a massive comeback and most importantly, (re)launch their new key attraction: the Kondaa.

The Kondaa was launched in 2020 and is the fastest and highest rollercoaster in the Benelux. It's so powerful that it is used by the European Space Center for astronaut training. A huge investment for Walibi. Capitalizing on this attraction to appeal to the consumers was obvious.

/ OBJECTIVES & BUDGET

It was crucial for Walibi to re-invest its new key attraction to launch the 2022 season. After 2 difficult years, the customers changed and Walibi had to take this train onboard. The objective of the campaign was to welcome back the customers and attract new ones in search of sensations.

Nevertheless, despite the importance of bringing customers back to the park, the total budget was limited and we had to take smart decisions to make the best out of the money at our disposal. We had to find a way to engage Walibi's two target groups: families with children and 16/25-year-olds (in the south) and young people (16/25-year-olds in the north) with a limited budget. 

So concretely, build on the right mix between paid/owned/earned media to make the best out of this challenging briefing.

/ STRATEGY & TARGET

The Kondaa was launched at the worst time possible. Luckily, we could still count on existing assets. We focused on exploiting them to the maximum.

In order to re-launch the previous year's campaign, but in a different way, we opted for a branded content approach—media beyond the media. Our choice was naturally directed towards this solution to create engaging content with the specific targets, reaching both reach and engagement objectives. Media itself wasn’t enough and using all POE channels was key to success.

The Kondaa, being such a crazy attraction, was a no brainer we needed to use in the communication. We challenged the different stakeholders to perform activities, but in an exceptional environment. It needed to be activities you can’t perform at home or in a studio, and we asked them to perform this directly on the Kondaa.

To cut a long story short: take all the ingredients and shake it!

/ SOLUTION AND IMPLEMENTATION

Of course, ‘’only’’ having the challenges wasn’t enough as we needed to extend their visibility to the maximum.

In the north of Belgium, we opted for a fully digital solution and partnered with TAGMAG and a series of influencers to create articles but also videos for Youtube, Tik Tok and Instagram shared on the networks of TAGMAG and each influencer. These challenges highlight the baseline of the campaign "do you dare to face the Kondaa?".

In the south of Belgium, we opted for a two-pronged approach. A radio partnership with the largest radio station in the country benefitting from a huge & highly engaged social media community: Radio Contact. The partnership consisted of 3 phases:

1. Teasing (viral video 1): the radio host is blindfolded when leaving the studio and will not open her eyes again until she is at the top of the Kondaa;
2. Contest: win a day at Walibi as a VIP with Valentino (a host known for his catastrophic karaoke);
3. Share & inspire (viral video 2): the karaoke of Valentino in the Kondaa with Radio Contact listeners.

/ RESULTS

The results were astonishing as we engaged massively with the audiences both in the north and south of Belgium.

In the north: amazing!

Social videos: 6 long videos, 6 posts; 12 stories, 6 TikTok videos, 4 articles, and 16 influencers' Instagram posts and stories were shared. An average of 2:30 minutes views on YouTube, 20 seconds on Facebook and a reach of 2 million in total (YouTube + Facebook + TikTok + Instagram).

A very high engagement at the cost of a classical CPM (including production costs and shootings).

In the south: extraordinary!

The 2 viral videos reached more than 3,23 million people with 226 thousand engagements, thousands of comments, likes, shares and more than 3.700 re-shares, with zero media investment. A never-seen-before on some channel of Radio Contact.

The radio talks obtained 172 GRPs from parents with kids and 62,9 GRPs from 16/25-year-olds. Leading to a cost per GRP on parents with kids: -40% below 30-sec NET benchmarks for more than 1 min talks. Taking into account the 2 complementary audiences we reached 235 GRPs: -51% below benchmarks. 

The lesson of the day: branded content increases attention and engagement, we all know that. But, when included in a POE approach, it is also able to reach an amazing reach/cost ratio, even on smaller budgets.