Competing in a crowded entertainment market

The television landscape has changed dramatically as viewers have moved away from traditional television in favor of flexible streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Compounding the challenge, content providers and distributors are entering the market with their own apps and services that reach viewers directly, known as over the top (OTT). In some regions, regulations are further accelerating the pace of change by opening the market to allow such companies to use infrastructure built and owned by traditional telecommunications providers.

All of these changes make it much more difficult for established cable companies such as Telenor to compete for audiences. Telenor delivers television and broadband solutions to more than half a million Norwegian households over coax and fiber optic infrastructure. The company is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, serving customers in eight countries across northern Europe and central Asia.

Over the past several years, as fiber optic infrastructure has become an important selling point for telecommunications companies, Telenor Norway has invested heavily in that area. Telenor believes in offering great quality and incredible customer service at a fair price and it is using those strengths to stand out in a crowded market by showing customers the additional value they get by signing up with Telenor.

Working with Telenor, customers can receive top Internet speeds and reliable, high-quality television service. The brand aims to increase revenue through cross-selling deals, upselling customers to faster Internet speeds or premium television channels, and reducing churn. The company connects with customers primarily through customer service, telemarketing, website, and mobile apps, but its marketers want digital sales channels to drive increased engagement.

More targeted digital advertising

The digital marketing team decided to deploy Adobe Experience Cloud to gain more information about audiences and apply that customer intelligence toward more targeted digital ads and experiences. Adobe worked closely with Telenor to roll out Adobe Advertising Cloud and get stakeholders working with the new technology quickly.

“One of the things that I love about Adobe is that it not only has really powerful solutions, but it also provides fantastic support,” says Ahmet Demirel, Head of Marketing at Telenor. “Even the best technology is worthless if no one is using it. Adobe has a great support system—workshops, consultants, online training—that encourage adoption and help our marketing team achieve great results for Telenor.”

Working with Adobe Advertising Cloud, Telenor is optimizing advertising spend across audiences and encouraging more people to participate in broadband checks. This is when potential customers visit the website and enter their postal codes to determine what types of Telenor services are offered in their areas. The digital marketing team looks for broadband checks as a key indicator that potential customers are on the road to learning more about Telenor and will ultimately become subscribers.

Using artificial intelligence to increase subscriptions

Paid search is an essential channel for connecting with customers today but trying to manage advertising spend effectively can be difficult. It can take a lot of time for marketers to analyze keyword performance and adjust how much money they bid on ads for keywords to get the most from their marketing budgets.

Telenor deployed Adobe Advertising Cloud Search to automatically optimize advertising spend. Communications agency OMD runs search campaigns for Telenor. Using Adobe Advertising Cloud Search, OMD can quickly identify search terms and target audiences that lead to more broadband checks. By reducing wasted spend on ineffective advertisements, Telenor can apply more budget toward reaching customers with a higher likelihood of conducting broadband checks, and eventually, subscribing to services.

“One of the reasons that I championed Adobe Advertising Cloud was the intelligence in Adobe Sensei,” says Demirel. “Working with smart capabilities enabled by Adobe Sensei, we can optimize marketing efforts in any channel to improve sales and retention.”

Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, powers the bid optimization technology in Adobe Advertising Cloud Search. Using artificial intelligence, Performance Forecasting and Performance Optimization—both powered by Adobe Sensei—determines the expected rate of clicks and broadband checks for different keywords.

Sensei then automatically adjusts spend across all keywords to help ensure the ad budget is allocated in the best possible way.

“I believe in data-driven marketing. One of the reasons that I championed Adobe Advertising Cloud was the intelligence in Adobe Sensei,” says Demirel. “Working with smart capabilities enabled by Adobe Sensei, we can optimize marketing efforts in any channel to improve sales and retention.”

By automating performance analysis and keyword bidding, OMD staff can focus more attention on creating exceptional advertising copy or adjusting the overall search strategy to attract more audiences to Telenor.

“After deploying Adobe Advertising Cloud, we improved click-through rates by 18% and broadband checks by 58%, all while reducing total spend by 11%,” says Demirel. “We’re achieving much greater results with less money because we get the visibility that we need to understand performance and shift budgets away from under-performing search keywords towards high-performing keywords.”

The company achieved even better results from optimizing mobile search, decreasing costs by 14% while improving the number of completed broadband checks by 117%. While optimization led to a 70% uplift in total return on ad spend, returns for mobile search improved by 144%. This strong performance from search optimization helped Telenor identify mobile as a growing, important channel for engaging with customers.

Precise audience targeting across service areas

Adobe Experience Cloud solutions also play a critical role in helping Telenor understand and target audiences. Adobe Analytics, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud, uses real-time data to measure and understand customer behaviors. This data can help marketers figure out what information customers are searching for, what types of advertisements encourage them to act, and other vital data that helps Telenor best execute its digital initiatives.

Adobe Analytics data feeds into Adobe Audience Manager, also part of Adobe Analytics Cloud, to create audiences for website personalization and targeted advertisements. By using Audience Manager as a central data warehouse for audience segmentation, Telenor can create consistent audience segments for use across any digital channel. Agencies and internal employees can take advantage of audience segments more clearly aligned with their marketing goals, without needing the know-how to build and manage their own audiences.

Using Adobe Audience Manager, Telenor targets offers and personalizes experiences. By feeding Audience Manager segments into Adobe Advertising Cloud, marketers can deliver geotargeted advertisements only in cities and neighborhoods where Telenor has a strong service coverage. By suppressing advertisements in locations with more limited coverage, the company can reduce wasted spend to make its ad budgets go further.

The same Audience Manager segments feed into Adobe Target, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud, to deliver on-site targeting and personalization. For instance, if a visitor to the website already has Telenor television services, Adobe Target will shift offers towards cross-sell opportunities such as broadband deals or up-sell banners focusing on premium movie or sports channels.

Working closely with its agency OMD, Telenor continues to look at ways to optimize digital channels to better reach customers. “Using intelligent capabilities in Adobe Experience Cloud, we gain the insight needed to market to any audience more efficiently and with better precision,” says Demirel. “By understanding customers and building loyalty, we’re positioning ourselves to stay ahead of the competition in a changing market.”

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