Virgin.net
Industry: Media Solution: SageAMP
Key Benefits 
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Increased ad revenue from targeted advertising. |
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Increased run-of-site inventory yields by an average of 50%.
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50% higher CPM for targeted run-of-site inventory. |
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Six times more Auto and Travel inventory moved outside their respective channels; 10 times more for Shopping. |
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Rich criteria to create target groups based on behavioral and registration information. |
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Full integration with DoubleClick ad server. |
Client Profile Virgin.net is today one of the top ISPs in the UK. A wholly owned subsidiary of ntl, Virgin.net provides a range of Internet access options, including 1mb broadband, and is consistently ranked in the top three ISP performers for speed and reliability. Voted Best Dial Up ISP in 2002 and 2003 by readers of PC Pro magazine, Virgin.net offers a fast, reliable service. Virgin.net is also a top class destination website offering the latest entertainment news and reviews.
The Background Virgin.net has been running a successful ad sales team since inception in 1997, and was trying to find ways to improve advertiser performance, and CPM, in order to increase ad sales revenues. A long-time pioneer in adopting new technology, Virgin.net sought to improve its advertising programs with behavioral targeting – a technology the Company recognized had the potential to improve its inventory yield management and greatly enhance its advertising revenues. After evaluating a number of available behavioral targeting solutions, Virgin.net selected SageMetrics' SageAMP.
Why SageAMP? Virgin.net chose SageAMP because it considered SageAMP's audience targeting capabilities the most robust in the marketplace – which would offer even greater potential for increased ad revenue and more effective campaigns for Virgin.net’s advertisers. Leveraging all forms of data, including behavioral (content viewed, links clicked on, keyword search); geographical location; demographics (from registration, competitions, surveys or purchasing), and more (referring site, campaigns, affiliates), SageAMP would allow Virgin.net to discover and deliver high-value audiences to its advertisers with maximum relevancy to its advertisers' campaigns. Furthermore, Virgin.net's campaigns would be delivered based on 'who' the visitors were and not 'where' they were on the site – a capability that would eliminate the issue of inventory imbalances and enable Virgin.net to command a premium from advertisers in exchange for high-value audiences.
Other key influencers in Virgin.net's selection of SageAMP were the solution's:
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Real time targeting, enabling the delivery of customized campaigns to audiences upon their first visit to the site. |
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Unrivaled profiling and targeting capability, enabling the intersection of any kind of data to define audience segments, as opposed to the inflexibility offered by other solutions. |
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Analytics data engine, that eliminates marketing blind spots and data discrepancies, for better applications of behavioral targeting, more effective campaigns for advertisers, and an even greater promise of increased ad revenue. Virgin.net also anticipated that analytics integration would help increase conversion rates to ISP products, improve performance of campaigns and deliver a better understanding of user behavior on its site. |
The final factor in selecting SageMetrics was SageMetrics’ proven track record with multiple high-end clients, including the BBC, Guardian, Chello, BP and Shell.
The Implementation SageAMP was integrated with Virgin.net's existing DoubleClick ad server, tracking the behavior of individual visitors to Virgin.net's site. SageAMP then maps visitors' behavior to the 30+ audience segments, or 'Target Groups,' that Virgin.net has defined with SageAMP's Target Group Manager tool, based on multiple combinations of behavioral and registration data. Once the visitor is identified within an appropriate audience segment, SageAMP then dynamically passes that information to the DoubleClick ad server, which in turn pushes out the campaign designated for that segment. This process continually refines itself over time, becoming more targeted and increasingly effective by utilizing the 'latest and greatest' behavioral characteristics. As a result, SageAMP allows Virgin.net to move its high-value inventory anywhere on its site, in addition to charging a higher CPM for its run-of-site inventory.
The Results Virgin.net has improved its online advertising and significantly increased its advertising yield using SageAMP. In the months since SageAMP's deployment, Virgin.net has increased its run- of-site inventory yield by delivering audiences for advertisers outside their respective channels. Virgin.net also commands higher CPM’s for its run-of-site targeted inventory. In total, Virgin.net has delivered increased site performance to advertisers, with increased revenue yields, due to its implementation of SageAMP.
The analytics data Virgin.net has been gleaning from its behavioral targeting programs has also yielded significant business benefit. Virgin.net has utilized the data to segment visitors and track and optimize marketing initiatives – a process that has resulted in higher conversion rates to its access products.
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