The creative concepts were developed to emotionally engage viewers without the interruptive and intrusive nature of typical pre-rolls. TrueView was the main approach, but we also posted to YouTube and Facebook and incorporated blogger outreach.

TrueView allows the viewer to skip the advertisement after 5 seconds, requiring us to capture interest early. We executed a TrueView buy to learn how informative and entertaining branded content resonated our with potential customers. Allowing viewers to choose to watch the advertisement or skip it potentially increases engagements. The challenge was capturing attention in 5 seconds and encouraging content exploration through clicking the advertisement.

Our primary goal was brand awareness.

Google’s brand study earned us 70.8% ad recall lift. Over half the respondents felt the content was informative, entertaining and supported brand message, as intended. TrueView’s view rate was 17.06% with a total 1,713 consecutive days of content consumption. The videos earned 97,000 views and 360 shares.

The videos received positive coverage on web, even being included in Newsweek’s Tumblr. Orkin’s campaign increased YouTube views by 50% in four months. View rate increased by an average 4% year over year.

Blogger outreach garnered 145 partnerships, 16.5 million impressions, and an average time-on-app of 1:22.

Pest control services are typically fairly transactional: You see a bug, you call your local pest control company, they come take care of the problem. Therefore, most category marketing is driven by product or service attributes with little differentiation.

To increase awareness for the Orkin brand, we researched the science behind viral online content to create videos people would watch and share. The “Fact or Fake” animated shorts reinforce Orkin’s authority on all things bug-related by debunking common myths in fun, engaging ways while reminding viewers to call Orkin for pest control. The videos are part of a larger campaign, including live-action videos and website content.

The Fact or Fake videos were created specifically for TrueView and interesting online content, with the challenge of being produced for a fraction of the cost of large-scale television production.