Universal: Halloween Kills

With a rich history of working with global entertainment houses such as Universal, Venatus was the perfect partner to develop an unmissable creative and deliver it amongst engaged audiences both at home and on the go.

Target Audience

Inventory / Network

Considering the graphic nature of ‘Halloween Kills’, Universal sought 18+ audiences (particularly those aged between 18-45) who were also fans of horror, suspense and thriller movies. With Venatus' audiences found 3x more likely to be fans of horror movies (Nielsen), targeting existing fans of similar film genres allowed for greater engagement throughout the campaign.

18+

Males Females

Strategy

To deliver upon intended KPIs, Venatus’ rich media Premium Expandable Takeover was first chosen for its typically high engagement and viewability benchmarks, with a supporting video placement implemented to increase reach and awareness amongst the target audience.

Creative

Ad Formats

Venatus’ custom Premium Expandable Takeover allowed for the film trailer to be directly embedded, displayed across targeted web inventory with users able to hover over the video to expand the trailer and unlock audio. In addition, Venatus’ cross-device video placements utilized the original trailer and drove awareness amongst horror fans both at home and on the go.

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Delivery

Venatus’ extensive film and entertainment inventory was selected to best capture movie fanatics, bolstered with supplementary gaming inventory. Delivery was split into two bursts, with an upweighted spend over weekends, in order to sustain awareness of the film’s release and target users when they were most likely to engage with the trailer.

Results

Scarily impressive results

By optimising targeting towards fans of horror movies, delivery of the ‘Halloween Kills’ campaign exceeded expectations, meeting all initial KPIs. The Premium Expandable Takeover surpassed benchmarks in its click-through-rate (CTR), achieving 3.34% with a view-through-rate (VTR) of 70%, whilst video VTR was over 76%.

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