Standing out at US retail in the cluttered holiday season is tough, yet HBO relies on this period to drive sales of their DVD and Blu-Ray collections. To further our challenge, the DVD category has been in decline in recent years due to the proliferation of viewing options, ranging from streaming video and video on demand.

From an audience perspective, we understood that viewers were consuming digital media on their mobile devices and we knew that and we knew that mobile was playing an increasing role in retail purchasing activity.

The best thing about HBO is, well, all its awesome original programming. We knew that when consumers are given a chance to sample HBO content, they become much more likely to make a purchase for themselves or someone else. So we invited consumers into the HBO experience in a first to market mobile campaign, and rewarded them for engaging with the brand.

We identified the perfect mobile partner, and collaborated with rewards platform SessionM that gives consumers points for viewing content, and HBO was the first to activate the use of the platform’s instant redemption feature, bridging the gap between ad impression and actual transaction, to help us strengthen the link between stimulus and sales.

The execution encouraged targeted users to view a full :30 video spot (featuring HBO content) in order to earn a $5 HBO gift card from the HBO store. The key insight was to make it seamless for the target to be able to move through the consideration process – from viewing an ad to making a purchase, all from their mobile device.

The HBO gift card was so popular, multiple redemption code refills needed to be made over the course of the campaign.

Our content achieved a 96% completion rate (6% higher than SessionM’s average, 9% higher than the overall mobile video average) and 57% redemption.

Over $12,000 in gift cards were delivered, leading to almost $120,000 in direct sales, with an R.O.I. of 10:1.

We knew that when consumers are given a chance to sample HBO content, they become much more likely to make a purchase for themselves or someone else. Therefore we collaborated with mobile rewards platform SessionM that gives consumers points for viewing content, and HBO was the first to activate the use of the platform’s instant redemption feature, bridging the gap between ad impression and actual transaction, to help us strengthen the link between stimulus and sales.

The execution encouraged targeted users to view a full :30 video spot (featuring HBO content) in order to earn a $5 HBO gift card from the HBO store. The key insight was to make it seamless for the target to be able to move through the consideration process – from viewing an ad to making a purchase, all from their mobile device.

The HBO gift card was so popular, multiple redemption code refills needed to be made over the course of the campaign.

Our content achieved a 96% completion rate (6% higher than SessionM’s average, 9% higher than the overall mobile video average) and 57% redemption.

Over $12,000 in gift cards were delivered, leading to almost $120,000 in direct sales, with an R.O.I. of 10:1.