Hannah Montana

Problem

During the Fall of 2006, Walt Disney Records was preparing to launch the soundtrack to the widely popular Disney Channel show Hannah Montana. Hannah Montana already had a large number of followers and an active online fanbase. Our challenge was to effectively inform this established audience about the new CD in a way that would maximize preorders and first week sales.

Approach

Working closely with Hyfn, Walt Disney Records' interactive design agency, Gupta Media designed and executed a search engine marketing (SEM) program designed to inform Hannah Montana's audience and interested users about the new soundtrack.

The aim of the campaign was to reach the most interested fans; those that were actively searching for the Hannah Montana without publicity or other media prompts. Additionally, Walt Disney Records wanted to leverage the reach of the Disney Channel and capture the interest of users researching other Disney Channel programming . Though not actively searching for Hannah Montana, this audience would be among those interested in the show's soundtrack.

In order to track the success of the media plan, Hyfn implemented their post-click tracking service Hyfntrak, which tracked user interaction with the Hannah Montana media player in real-time. Gupta Media utilized this tool to measure post-click performance in areas including engagement (as measured by audio listens), purchase intent (as measured by "preorder" and "buy" button clicks), viral activity (as measured by actions like "IM a friend"), and the audience's interest in other Hannah Montana promotions including live performances and mobile ringtones.

Hannah Montana Media Player

Ad copy for the campaign centered on Hanna Montana's CD release, inviting users to hear the CD before it hit stores and to check out the other offerings that the media player had. With ringtones, videos and new tracks to listen to, the media player was full of fun and interactive entertainment for users to enjoy and share.

Beyond driving traffic to Hannah Montana's media player, Gupta Media created ad groups that drove users directly to the CD's preorder page where they could be first in line to buy the CD. These ads were designed to sub-segment the highly interested audience into those that wanted to buy the CD immediately, and did not need the additional "sales pitch" that the player provided. For instance, users searching for "hannah montana release date" were shown an ad that informed them about the new CD, its price and the benefits of preordering. These ads then took users directly to the preorder page to drive the point home.

Results

The Hannah Montana SEM campaign hit the ground running, and was driving over 16,000 clicks per day by the end of the first week. Due to the high volume of clicks building up to the release date, and the resulting daily spend, Gupta Media's analysts opted to "daypart" the campaign to maximize the quality of the media spend and ensure that those with the highest intent to purchase were being reached. With dayparting, Gupta Media was able to run ads only between 2:00 pm and 10:00 pm, the after school time when Hannah's fans were home and most active. Dayparting reduced the velocity of the campaign to a more predictable speed while increasing the quality of the users. The period of day-parting is illustrated in the graph below. Dayparting started on September 25th, and the daily spend was kept at a constant level until closer to the actual release date of October 24th. Near the release date the daily spend was increased to maximize the volume of users brought to the Hannah Montana media player and preorder page. In total, the search campaign brought in 382,000+ clicks, at an average CPC of only $0.095.

Hannah Montana Clicks and Cost. Dayparting began on Sept 25

With the media player, users displayed incredible purchase intent, clicking on the "preorder" button more than 94,400+ times, which achieved Walt Disney Records' goal of driving preorders and first week sales. During release week, when the CD was available for purchase, the SEM campaign drove 14,300+ users to the purchase page.

Finally, the campaign was very successful in creating chatter within the tween community. Viral activity was exceptionally strong as over 44,500 initial visitors IM'd a link to the media player to a friend. The SEM campaign was also very strong in driving mobile interest - 166,000 visitors wanted Hannah songs on their mobile phone! Finally, the campaign revealed that that Hannah's fan base was interested in seeing her perform live in concert, with over 123,200 visits to the concert tour schedule.