Suit Up appeared in the United States. In the US, Branded Entertainment has matured over the past 10 years. Suit Up appeared almost exclusively through digital outlets, where there is very little regulation from the government or other regulating bodies.

The Association of National Advertisers (the US trade body) surveyed 73 senior client-side marketers, and reported 63% plan to engage in branded entertainment projects during 2012.

The number of respondents using the internet for branded entertainment purposes has grown from 28% to 55% between 2006 and 2011, totals standing at 15% and 31% for online films.

The audience was drawn to the content exclusively through a digital campaign.

We utilized the social media presences of our talent (including series leads), distribution partners, and sponsor (DIRECTV) to announce when new episodes, trailers and supplemental content were premiering during the series rollout.

Press included reviews from MediaPost, USA Today, NPR, Variety, and Broadcast Newsroom.

Multiple versions of trailers were syndicated through a targeted video ad-network and through other forms of earned and owned media channels.

Display advertising included homepage takeovers, video carousel placement, and featured placement in YouTube playlists. Additionally, a sweepstakes supported the release of the series.

Almost 50m total verifiable impressions were delivered (over 12m and 33% higher than goal) from mid-September through the end of February. 16m total video impressions of the pre-roll and 30m cumulative display impressions were delivered as part of the media plan. This resulted in nearly 3m views of the individual episodes.

Due to continual optimization of publishers, placements, targeting, and creative, the Pre-Roll CTR (click-through-rate) increased every month resulting in an overall average of 1.14%. The average Display CTR increased from 0.11% in Month 1 to an average of 0.28% over the life of the campaign.

The three distribution partners delivered approximately 2.94 million stream starts of the individual episodes.

The purpose of a Suit Up was to give DIRECTV the opportunity to communicate its image to its target audience (affluent males) in an original way, by creating positive links between the brand and the program. The client (DIRECTV) was so happy with the outcome that they aired it on their exclusive television channel and ordered a second season.