Driving Award Success: How Optidge Boosted Lovie Awards with a Strategic Meta Ad Campaign

The Lovie Awards, established in 2010 by the European arm of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), aims to recognize European internet excellence across various categories, including AI, XR/Web3, Film & Video, Podcasts, and more.

Despite its prestige, the Lovie Awards wanted more growth in the number of entries yearly while maintaining profitability and aimed with the help of Optidge to address these goals ahead of the 13th annual program.

View more

Campaign Challenge

The Lovie Awards focused on achieving several key goals:

  1. Increase Entry Numbers

They wanted to increase the number of annual award entries and grow the awards program. 

  1. Multi-Phase Campaign

The Lovie Awards needed a strategy that optimized ad spend and campaign structure across three distinct entry deadlines (Early Entry, Final Entry, and Extended Entry), each with its own pricing and incentives. 

  1. European Market Complexity

Targeting a diverse European audience presented challenges in managing different advertising costs across countries while ensuring the highest number of entries came from key markets, particularly the U.K.

Optidge Strategy

Optidge developed a three-phase Meta ad campaign to optimize budget allocation, strategic timing, and audience targeting.

  • Phase 1 targeted early engagement.
  • Phase 2 capitalized on peak entry submissions.
  • Phase 3 focused on last-minute entries.

Marketing Funnel

In the initial phase, resources were allocated more toward prospecting to generate awareness, gradually shifting to retargeting near each deadline to capture conversions.

Audience Targeting

Prospecting used interest-based targeting and lookalike audiences, including past entrants and users who engaged with the website or social media.

Retargeting focused on users who interacted with ads, engaged with the site, or began but did not complete entry submissions.

Testing and Scaling

The daily budget was incrementally increased throughout each phase, and successful audiences and creatives were prioritized.

Extensive testing in Phase 2 allowed adjustments to optimize the campaign’s prospecting and retargeting.

Messaging

Copy emphasized the Lovie Awards’ prestige, new categories’ introduction, and deadlines to create urgency. Messaging was consistently aligned with European norms (e.g., European date formats).

Results

Optidge’s campaign exceeded expectations, achieving:

  • A 32% year-over-year (YoY) increase in entries, surpassing the original goal by 162%.
  • An impressive 11.3x ROAS, outperforming the target of 10x ROAS by 110%.
  • The strategy of testing, scaling, and optimizing creative elements and audience segments led to highly effective and profitable campaign results, allowing the Lovie Awards to grow significantly while remaining cost-efficient.

Takeaway

Optidge’s approach delivered substantial growth and ensured profitability, showcasing the importance of data-driven optimization in award advertising campaigns. By leveraging a meticulously crafted strategy, including precise audience targeting and adaptive budget allocation, Optidge helped the Lovie Awards exceed growth and revenue goals, cementing its position as a premier European digital awards program.

The client appreciated the comprehensive strategy, stating that the campaign delivered exceptional results while maintaining the integrity of the Lovie Awards’ mission to celebrate Europe’s best in digital innovation.

This campaign harnessed recognition for Optidge at the 2024 AMA Crystal Awards for the Best Paid Social Campaign.

If you are interested in learning more about how Optidge can improve your digital marketing strategy, check out our services here.