Viu is an Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming platform which is beating Netflix and Disney in the streaming game to become South-East Asia’s leading platform for exclusive and premium Korean and Asian entertainment across a wide range of genres.

Like any other OTT platform, Viu wanted to increase brand love among its audience to increase loyalty & ensure viewership. At the same time, they wanted to grow their revenue through in-stream commercials, the nemesis of uninterrupted viewing.

With the recent backlash Netflix faced when they announced a potential launch of 15-30 sec adverts that would run before and during shows and films, our challenge to achieve the two objectives of increasing brand love & revenue through in-stream commercials simultaneously seemed impossible.

To achieve these polar opposite objectives, we needed an idea that could change consumer perception of in-stream commercials from an unnecessary interruption to hyper-personalised content that enriches their viewing experience.

We created the first ever ‘5D’ OTT viewing experience, where consumers could not only watch & hear but also smell, touch & eat whatever their beloved characters were eating in the shows.

Introducing ‘Eat What You Watch’, a revolutionary in-stream commercial that pops up as characters consume food on-screen, allowing viewers to order the same food they see in the show. We made commercials inviting instead of intruding, and changed viewer perception towards ads from being ignorable to irresistible.

Remember when you were watching your favourite show and your mouth started watering when that character bit into a juicy burger, well! You’re not alone. All the reports and research we found were consistent and conclusive; our food choices are majorly influenced by what we watch.

Empowered with this insight we were able to add value to our audience’s viewing experience by helping them connect to their favourite show, film or character through food. Giving new meaning to the metaphor, ‘the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach’.

With a proprietary algorithm, we identified moments across our shows where cast members chowed down on food, and linked the dish to the same food item found on food delivery apps, Deliveroo & Burger King.

So when the audience watched their favourite shows and the dish appeared, an instant on-screen notification would pop with the exact same dish ready to be ordered from the app. To not disrupt the show-watching experience, these notifications are small, text-based blurbs that appear temporarily above the show’s progress bar. Upon tapping on the notification, our audience would be taken to our partnered food delivery app where they can place the order, make payment & seamlessly return back to watching the show on Viu while their food is prepared and delivered.

With that, we let our Viu-ers binge on more than just our shows.

During the campaign period, Viu registered a 143% increase in click-through rate for their in-stream commercial in just two weeks, which means our viewers loved it.

Furthermore, brands outside the F&B category reached out to us to extend the campaign to include their products from the luxury to the FMCG category

Well, this is the kind of drama we all love!