In a recent research project comparing the performance of TV and online video, Cocio explored YouTube’s ability to deliver incremental reach with their crucial millennial audience.
Cocio’s chocolate milk has been a favourite with consumers in Denmark for 65 years, and its popularity is now growing throughout the rest of Europe. In that time, the brand have established a reputation for entertaining and original advertising, delivering some of the most cherished and well-remembered ads in Danish history. With a well-known and well-loved product, awareness is already high, so the goal of much of Cocio’s marketing activity is focused on ensuring that this familiarity doesn’t lead to forgetfulness, and that the brand remains on the radar of consumers.
Adopting a 'Social First' strategy
Traditionally, Cocio have relied on television advertising to reach their customers, but as younger generations increasingly turn to online entertainment and social media, television’s reach has declined. To counter this trend, Cocio have adopted a ‘Social First’ strategy to ensure that they are present on the platforms favoured by their target audience of 16-30 year olds. “We realised that our audience are becoming harder to reach using only TV,” explains Carsten Mortensen, Global Senior Brand Manager at Cocio, “and on top of that we know that multitasking and distraction from other media can interfere with their attention.”
Understanding the value of online
As part of their move to ‘Social First’, Cocio wanted to understand more about the value of online video, so they undertook a research project to measure its potential impact on their existing activity. To do this, they ran a campaign simultaneously across TV and YouTube for two weeks, and modelled incremental reach based on the results. The creative chosen for this experiment was part of an existing series that playfully explored Cocio’s core message of “Nothing but great taste”. As per Cocio's usual strategy, the ad was developed for use online, but in a way that works across channels.

To measure the results of their experiment, Cocio worked with AudienceProject, Denmark’s leading provider of Online campaign measurement. Using an acknowledged modelling method of “random duplication,” the study looked at overlaps and gaps between viewing measured in the TV panel and impressions measured in AudienceProject’s large online panel to understand the incremental reach provided by YouTube. In addition, YouTube’s own Brand Lift Studies were used to measure Ad Recall and Purchase Intent for impressions served on the platform.
The results
AudienceProject’s campaign analysis showed that a combination of TV + YouTube reached 75% of Cocio’s target audience. Viewed separately, TV reached 40% of the target group, while YouTube achieved higher penetration at 58%, suggesting that for this audience, YouTube delivered an incremental reach of approximately 35%. Beyond the top line reach numbers, the study also revealed that 61% of YouTube’s ad exposures were unique, compared with 37% for TV, making YouTube a cost-effective means of creating additional reach.
Metrics from YouTube’s Brand Lift Studies were also positive, with a 65% overall increase in Ad Recall, and more than 300% increase in relevant Search activity for users exposed to the campaign. Purchase Intent increased by 37% among the segment of users who viewed the entire creative, and rose by 20% for users who received two or more campaign impressions, despite the focus of the campaign being on awareness rather than sales. View-through Rate for the campaign was 14%, and resulted in some 650,000 total views of the creative.
“This was the first time we allocated so much spend to YouTube,” explains Carsten Mortensen, “and the result was a net reach higher than we’ve seen before.” As a result, Cocio intend to adjust their budget allocation for future campaigns, and double down on their ‘Social First’ strategy to ensure that advertising assets are optimised for use across channels. “TV isn’t dead, but it has fallen down the ladder a little, so the key is to have faith that your brand assets can engage effectively on new platforms,” says Carsten. “We’re already working on our creative for next year, and we’re focused on making sure the content works even better online.”