Appie Today, the world's first social broadcast channel, by a supermarket chain, serves everyday fresh content our audience wants to see and be a part of. That’s because we embody the outside-in approach. Culture first, brand second. Formats are series on food, trends, current events and love, inside and outside the supermarket. And all formats contribute to making customers, suppliers and employees a little happier. “Everybody Appie”.

A few examples: the vlog ‘Happy with Sjoerd’ fulfills the dream of a stock boy with Down’s Syndrome. He’s one of the 2000 disabled people Albert Heijn employs. He’s also a famous vlogger now. The hilarious food format 'I do not know this?' in which customers are startled and inspired with unfamiliar dishes, on a checkout counter. And to get people to move (commercially), there’s the satirical work-out format 'Belly Butt Bonus'. With the seductive Davy King, who uses promo products as dumbbells.

Appie Today is making the shift from a swipe to subscribe culture. It’s making the move from a paid media to an owned media first mentality. By building a media platform that’s constantly learning about the audience and optimizing & enriching content accordingly. Leading to a (cost) effective way of reaching and connecting to the audience.

To get Appie Today off the ground, it took a commitment to change from both the agency(ies) and client side. It called for a new way of working with an editorial approach to producing and campaigning. It’s onboarding new types of talent. It’s embodying an outside-in approach; culture first, brand second. It’s format-thinking. It’s a willingness to try new things and to seek out boundaries. In order to succeed, or fail. And learn from it, fast. It’s accepting that you’ll constantly be in beta. And that this is where the magic is created.

Results have been impressive and pretty unheard of in the current media landscape:

• In only one year we’ve managed to air 29 formats, which amounts to 300+ videos.

• Generating over 25 million ‘Appie Views’ (video viewed for longer than 30 seconds) on a small media budget.

• 30% of the reach is organic (benchmark at 20%).

• Cost Per Engaged Minute is €0.11 (regular Albert Heijn stories: CPEM of €0.30).

• High average View Through Rates of over 30% (target: 25% & regular Albert Heijn content: 20%), with a record-breaking 45% VTR for our 7-minute workout format.

It’s safe to say that we’ve succeeded in connecting to the “Netflix Generation” in an entirely new manner.

Appie Today is the world’s first social broadcast channel by a supermarket. It serves everyday fresh content our audience wants to see and be a part of. Our engine thrives of culture; we embody an outside-in approach. It’s the new way of connecting to the ‘Netflix’ Generation.

The general Appie Today media strategy is to focus on audiences that are easier to reach via social media. That’s why we have created formats that can compete with culture and make ‘advertising’ likeable again. Content that is relevant and finds resonance within the various segmented audiences.

We had two main objectives:

1. Gain a large and broad audience for Appie Today as social content broadcaster.

2. Connect to the Netflix Generation, a younger audience, starting at 15 years old.

For the first objective we utilized the large social platforms to reach as many people as possible with the popularity of the format. Although organic growth is preferred, we put (low) budget media spends behind the episodes to achieve enough views.

For the second objective we targeted specific audience profiles, with high engagement rates, mainly on YouTube. Primarily through organic growth, and by focusing on high View-Through-Rates.

Albert Heijn is the leading and loved supermarket chain in The Netherlands that is built on a decade of iconic & disruptive mass advertising. They aim to connect customers, suppliers and employees in a way that makes everyone happy: 'Everybody Appie'. However, the new “Netflix” generation is an audience that skips TV and ads. That’s why we were briefed on finding a new, engaging way to connect with this ‘under 40’ audience.