The Challenge
After a 15-month pause in offline activity, OVO Energy faced a familiar but critical question:
Was brand advertising actually driving impact—or just spend?
Traditional measurement approaches—based on OTS and siloed channel studies—were no longer fit for purpose. They lacked the ability to:
- Prove the true impact of cross-channel campaigns
- Identify incremental reach across platforms
- Link media exposure to real brand outcomes
Without clear, unified measurement, justifying continued investment in brand media became increasingly difficult.
Main Objectives
OVO set out to move beyond assumptions and establish a clear, data-backed understanding of campaign performance. The key goals were to:
- Prove brand impact
Demonstrate that media exposure directly drives improvements in Spontaneous Brand Awareness (SBA)
- Optimise media mix
Understand which channels contribute most to reach and incremental reach
- Evaluate creative effectiveness
Identify which creative executions deliver the strongest results
The Beatgrid Solution
To solve this, OVO partnered with Beatgrid to implement a single-source, cross-media measurement approach.
Using Beatgrid’s ACR-powered mobile panel:
- 17,500 opted-in panellists were passively tracked
- Exposure was measured deterministically across 7 media channels
- All data was unified within a single, consistent methodology
This enabled OVO to move from fragmented, modelled insights to real, observed exposure and outcomes—providing a true view of campaign performance.
The Results
1. Proving Media Impact
The campaign delivered a measurable uplift in brand awareness:
- +6% increase in Spontaneous Brand Awareness (SBA)
- Top-performing channels driving SBA:
- Linear TV: +11.5%
- BVOD: +7.1%
- Radio: +5.6%
What this means:
Brand media was not just delivering reach—it was driving meaningful movement in core brand metrics.
2. Unlocking Channel-Level Insights
Beatgrid revealed how each channel contributed to overall campaign performance:
- Radio delivered the highest incremental reach to TV (+11%)
- Digital and AV channels worked together to extend reach beyond core audiences
- The optimal frequency threshold was identified at 10+ exposures
What this means:
Adding channels does not automatically create incremental reach—but when measured correctly, it can unlock significant efficiency gains.
3. Driving Smarter Creative Decisions
OVO also tested creative performance within the same framework:
- Compared “Solar” vs “EV” creatives
- Identified a clear top performer
- Applied the winning creative across the next campaign phase
What this means:
Creative effectiveness can be measured with the same level of precision as media—enabling faster, more confident optimisation.
The Outcome
With Beatgrid, OVO transformed how it approached brand measurement:
- Validated the role of brand media in driving growth
- Reallocated budget toward higher-performing channels
- Built a more efficient, insight-led media strategy
Most importantly, brand advertising shifted from a cost centre to a proven growth driver—backed by deterministic data, not assumptions.
Why It Matters
In a fragmented media landscape, relying on siloed or modelled data leads to incomplete—and often misleading—decisions.
This case demonstrates that with single-source, cross-media measurement, brands can:
- Accurately quantify incremental reach
- Understand true channel contribution
- Optimise both media and creative in real time
And ultimately, prove what actually works.
