In 2020-2021, HGTV, Food Network, and Best Buy came together to create a strategic partnership that tapped into Best Buy’s Home Experts’ knowledge and passion for tech through a digital-first program called “The Give Back”. The main objective was to increase recognition and awareness for their Best Buy Home Expert service, a free virtual or in-person consultation with a tech expert who can recommend specific technology for your lifestyle, while simultaneously reaching and inspiring the “high touch tech fan” with custom video and high reach distribution.
At the core of “The Giveback” was to tell an authentic story of how Best Buy’s Home Experts can transform any space, and can in turn leave the viewer feeling educated and inspired to start their own journey with a Home Expert. Besides wanting to highlight that their Home Experts can work with any budget or house style - big or small, Best Buy also wanted to show that their Home Experts can handle your needs right down to ordering the products and booking installation, making it a truly turnkey process.
When it came down to the details, Best Buy wanted the videos to:
Feature HGTV and Food Network talent
Feature real Best Buy Home Experts
Lean into their key timing around Holiday Entertaining in October 2020 and Healthy Home in January 2021
Show both virtual and in-person consultations
Feature a variety of home styles
Highlight Best Buy’s priority tech areas (i.e. Home Entertainment, Connected Fitness, Kitchen, etc.)
STRATEGY:
Best Buy has tech experts, HGTV has design experts, and Food Network has food experts - but how do you bring those experts together into authentic stories? That’s where “The Giveback” comes in. After an unprecedented year full of uncertain experiences and challenges, HGTV and Food Network thought this would be the perfect time for our design and culinary experts to literally give back to their loved ones with the help of Best Buy’s Home Experts - creating real stories where everyone can shine.
In order to meet Best Buy’s goal of creating at least 4 pieces of content, we featured 4 different talent (1 per video): HGTV’s Brian Patrick Flynn and Food Network’s Jet Tila in October, and HGTV’s Tiffany Brooks and Food Network’s Eddie Jackson in January. From family and friends fighting on the front lines, to those whose businesses were affected by COVID, “The Giveback” program gave HGTV and Food Network’s stars the opportunity to do something special for those who inspire them the most.
Best Buy’s Home Experts were then able to partner with HGTV & Food Network talent to provide the best tech solutions for each person. Throughout “The Giveback” campaign, each video followed the HGTV and Food Network talent as they surprised and delighted their friends and family with the latest and greatest in home and cooking technology.
IMPLEMENTATION:
In this program, Best Buy leveraged HGTV and Food Network’s trusted brand voices, while delivering content to educate and engage viewers on Best Buy’s Home Experts service - the key to what sets Best Buy apart from competitors. “The Giveback” did this through custom video content and strategic distribution via:
HGTV and Food Network’s Facebook & Instagram Brand Pages with clickthrough to learn more
TVE Cutdowns that ran as midroll across Discovery portfolio
Brightline Interactive Ad Unit with cutdowns of the videos and a carousel featuring more information about the Home Expert service
HGTV & Food Network Sites with an Interactive Ad featuring cutdowns of the videos and a clickthrough to learn more
HGTV & Food Network Talent posting on their respective Instagram handles to promote the campaign
Best Buy’s email marketing by featuring the talent’s likeness, which further extend the reach of this campaign
KEY FEATURES:
We were able to meet Best Buy’s goals by:
Featuring Home Experts as the heroes who found the perfect personalized solutions for the talent’s loved ones
Showcasing different types of families, homes, and technology needs
Demonstrating 2 virtual consultations and 2 in-person consultations (with real life COVID protocols in place)
Achieving a cohesive look and feel across all of the content with a custom “Best Buy | The Giveback” logo lock-up for this campaign
Best Buy’s “The Giveback” campaign with HGTV and Food Network did more than just tell real stories of our talent working with Best Buy Home Experts to treat deserving loved ones to their very own personalized tech upgrades - this campaign delivered real results. From delivering 14.7MM+ impressions of integrated social content, 9.7MM+ TVE video impressions, 1MM+ Interactive Site Ad impressions, to 57K+ link clicks from social videos to BestBuy.com, it’s safe to say that this campaign elevated the presence of Best Buy’s Home Expert service across HGTV & Food Network’s digital properties.
Beyond overall stats, this campaign delivered some strong performance. HGTV’s Instagram video with Tiffany Brooks saw the strongest overall engagement, 2x HGTV social video benchmarks, with viewers being most likely to save the post for future reference, and react. In addition to strong engagement, both the Instagram and Facebook placements generated above benchmark click-through rates.
Food Network also saw strong performance with the video featuring Jet Tila, generating above benchmark clicks on both Facebook and Instagram. Particularly impressive was the Facebook placement which generated a CTR 3.4x the Food Network social video benchmark, with viewers also being more likely to react to the post.
