• Data insights: Core to the success of this campaign was appealing to *female* Xbox gamers without alienating male gamers. Based on our research, male gamers tend to be action-oriented, while female gamers tend to be “nerd-first,” with an appreciation for the absurd. The targeted action/adventure gamer audience over-indexed in comedy shows. Our Data Strategy team assessed that 80% of the “heavy gamer” target was male, so any analysis of the target would overwhelm the nuances of the female gamer. Thus, Data Strategy unpacked the two segments separately and created actionable insights for each gender – and then joined the data to highlight where there was opportunity to leverage an overlap.

• Innovation: This campaign utilized the Viewprint, our proprietary predictive engine, a data-driven creative map that provides actionable audience insights to inform and strengthen integrated marketing campaigns by building empirical guideposts during the ideation process. The methodology aggregates the best-of-class behavioral and attitudinal data fused with multi-platform content consumption data to: set the tone, determine genre, identify talent, and find the most relevant platforms.

• Originality: The Viewprint is the first tool of its kind to use machine learning to help predict the efficacy of Branded Content.

• Data Gathering: Viewprint uses a “Fans First” approach that pulls in a unique combination of data specific to the custom audience’s segment from across the Search Graph (what are they searching for?), Social Graph (what are they liking/sharing?), and Interest Graph (what are they reading and watching?). Viewprint uses unsupervised machine learning techniques that allow fan data to uncover hidden correlations that connect the various insights from across the data sets. For XBox and “Tomb Raider” Viewprint was able to…

• Data Interpretation: …recommend: Genre & Tone (Comedy, Action/Adventure), Program Adjacency (Broad City and Inside Amy Schumer), and Talent (Amy Schumer, Abbi & Ilana). This aligned with the strong themes of female empowerment embodied by Lara Croft and the “Tomb Raider” franchise.

• Targeting: Targeting was fed by Viewprint, which ran cluster analyses across devices, social channels, and programming most likely to reach the target audience. To deliver a 360 convergent program, we relied on Viewprint’s Digital Viewing Overlap data. Broad City had significant shared viewership online, suggesting a need to maximize engagement by creating content specifically designed to pop on each platform. In total, we created 22 pieces of content, reaching fans everywhere across digital and social.

Upon release, the Broad City/Rise of the Tomb Raider execution trended on Facebook, with multiple press outlets and fans believing the branded content piece to be a trailer for the show itself, proving the organic nature of the integration. The overall feedback on social was exceedingly positive, with fans celebrating a mashup of two of their favorite things: Broad City and Tomb Raider. With the data garnered from Viewprint, we knew that it was extremely important to stay true to both franchises in order to not alienate fans of either, and by incorporating recognizable and beloved elements of both into the final product, we accomplished just that. The program was a success not just for fans of Comedy Central and Tomb Raider, but also for Xbox as a whole, who reported that the program succeeded in driving strong social engagement and brand recognition.