Case · Streaming
SF Anytime rents and sells films and series digitally across the Nordics. We ran Google Ads from 2019 to 2024 and built up advertising on YouTube.
SF Anytime is SF Studios' streaming service for renting and buying films and series. It has more than 13 000 titles. The children's service SF Kids was part of the engagement from the start.
When SF Anytime acquired the Danish service Blockbuster in 2023, Blockbuster joined the engagement too.
SF Anytime was early when films began to be rented and bought digitally and has long been at the forefront among Sweden's tech companies. We have always liked both the product and the way they think.
Daniel at DigitalMassa and Mohamed Lamaa at SF Studios had worked together before. Both were driven and wanted to be at the forefront with YouTube and Masthead and create things that did not yet exist. We liked to think outside the box and reached our goals in creative and sometimes unexpected ways.
We are grateful to have been part of SF Anytime's journey for almost five years from the first release campaigns to the launch of Blockbuster across the Nordics.
The assignment was to grow search volume and transactions at a lower cost per purchase. Google's channels were to become more profitable.
A film sells the most around its release. Advertising had to be live from day one and make the most of the whole window.
In early 2022 SF Anytime's head of marketing and performance marketing manager left. From May the assignment grew into support for the whole marketing department, with analysis, reporting across all digital channels and conversion optimisation on the website. We strengthened the team on our side and in practice acted as a fractional CMO, a part-time interim head of marketing.
2019
In April 2019 we took over Google Ads for SF Anytime and SF Kids. The goal was more purchases at a lower cost per purchase.
Five months after we started, Google's account team got in touch. The growth in the account led them to propose closer collaboration with SF Anytime. It began with a strategy meeting about YouTube and the brand.
It's great to see the progress you've made since partnering with SF Anytime! With the growth trajectory Daniel has helped unlock, the head of our team felt it was the right time for us to regroup and see what we can do together moving forward.
Harris Bell
Former Account Strategist at Google
We were pleasantly surprised and excited by the YouTube initiatives lined up for 2020 and the success of the Avengers launch. We really appreciate all the hard work you are doing for SF Anytime. The good work is clearly evident in the account and in how well it scales.
Isaac Nilsson
Former Associate Account Strategist at Google
We built up advertising on YouTube with a dedicated ad account for SF Anytime. Purchase tracking was set up together with Google's team so that purchases after a YouTube ad showed up in the account.
Every title got its own ad group with its own cost target. Keywords were split by whether people wanted to rent, buy, stream or download the film.
2020
Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland got their own ad accounts for both SF Anytime and SF Kids. That gave control over budget and messaging country by country.
Joker was released to buy in January 2020 and we built interest with YouTube campaigns before and after the release.
An incredibly good result and clearly the outcome of our big campaign for Joker!
Mohamed Lamaa
Former Performance Marketing Manager at SF Studios
When cinemas closed SF Anytime began offering current cinema releases at home under the name Biofilm hemma. Within a week the campaigns were running in four languages and in March the ads held the top spot in Google more often than in any month since 2018.
In 2020 SF Anytime sold 73% more films and series through search ads than in the whole of 2018 before we started. The value of those purchases grew by 65% over the same period.
On 18 and 19 December 2020 Tenet ran in the Masthead, the most visible ad placement at the top of YouTube's home page.
2021
In July 2021 the title keywords got broader matching and captured buyers searching for the film together with the name of another service. That brought more purchases and a larger share of impressions.
2022
When the head of marketing and the performance marketing manager were about to leave SF Anytime, we presented a plan for how the collaboration could grow. SF Anytime chose to extend the assignment, and from May we supported the whole marketing department with analysis, reporting across all digital channels and improvements to the purchase flow on the website.
What a professional presentation, Daniel! It's good that you are already in touch about continuing the collaboration. This is going to be great!
Jessie Ross Skärvad
Former Head of Marketing & Sales at SF Anytime
The marketing team received a weekly letter every Friday with the week's work and next week's focus.
In December 2022 search advertising in Norway went live with new translations and a bidding strategy of its own for the Norwegian market, prepared together with SF Anytime.
2023
As fewer people searched for films to rent and buy, being visible in search was not enough. Triangle of Sadness therefore got a YouTube campaign at its premiere in January 2023, and 375 people bought the film after seeing the ad.
Ahead of the premiere of Håkan Bråkan the film got a search campaign of its own encouraging viewers to add it to their watchlist. Every watchlist addition could be tracked, and those who had saved a title became an audience of their own that we reached with remarketing once the film could be rented and bought. More titles got the same setup.
When SF Anytime acquired Blockbuster we drew up a plan so that Blockbuster's visibility in Google would carry over when the website moved. Each market also got monthly reports of its own.
When SF Anytime acquired Blockbuster we took over its ad accounts and rebuilt them in the same structure. Blockbuster's ads went live in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland in the same week. In the first month in Denmark the click-through rate was 296% higher and the conversion rate 122% higher than in Blockbuster's previous account.
+73%
Purchases through search ads
+65%
Value of the purchases
+77%
Clicks
+59%
Purchases from searches without SF Anytime's name
In 2020 search ads sold 73% more films and series than in the whole of 2018 before we started. The value of the purchases grew by 65% and clicks by 77%.
Purchases from searches without SF Anytime's name also grew by 59%. These are buyers who were looking for a film and found it at SF Anytime.
16.8m
Views of the films in 2020
37 323
Purchases after a click on YouTube and display in 2020
118 738
Purchases after someone saw an ad in 2020
We built up advertising on YouTube from October 2019 with a dedicated account and purchase tracking. In 2020 the films were viewed 16.8 million times.
The same year the account counted 37 323 purchases after a click on YouTube and display and 118 738 purchases by people who had seen an ad without clicking.
Every title got its own ad group with its own cost target. Keywords were split by whether people wanted to rent, buy, stream or download the film.
The budget could then be steered title by title and follow each film from its release onwards.
From October 2019 we built up advertising on YouTube with a dedicated account. We set up purchase tracking together with Google's team so that purchases after an ad showed up in the same account as the views.
Audiences were built on traits and interests that matched each film and combined with remarketing.
Ahead of major releases YouTube and display built interest before the premiere.
When the film was released the ads reached people who had already shown interest and search ads captured those looking for the film.
When Tenet was released in December 2020 the film ran in the Masthead, the most visible ad placement at the top of YouTube's home page. SF Anytime was early with the new format where the Masthead is bought per impression.
Google's follow-up showed that the ad performed particularly well on TV screens.
From January 2020 Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland had their own ad accounts for both SF Anytime and SF Kids.
Each country got its own budget and ads in its own language.
In 2022 we analysed how visitors moved through the website. Those who used the site's search function rented or bought almost twice as often as those who did not.
The analysis gave SF Anytime a basis for improving the purchase flow.
When SF Anytime acquired Blockbuster in 2023 we took over Blockbuster's ad accounts and rebuilt them in the same structure as SF Anytime's.
The advertising went live in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland in the same week.
From September 2022 a weekly letter every Friday summarised the week's work and next week's priorities with links to all the dashboards.
The marketing team could follow every release and every market without extra meetings.
You should know that we read every word of the weekly letters. Great work on the adjustments!
Marcus Hultin
Former Ecommerce Manager at SF Anytime
As early as December 2019 SF Anytime and SF Kids had their own dashboards. When Blockbuster joined in 2023 it got its own as well.
There the marketing team could follow the advertising and the purchases for every brand and market.
The dashboards we have had for SF Anytime have been really good, so I am very confident that the new one for Blockbuster is at least as good.
Daoud Benjamin
Former B2C Marketing Manager at SF Anytime
The close collaboration with Google meant SF Anytime could test several new ad formats before they reached the rest of the market.
Among them were longer video ads that cannot be skipped and a new campaign type for reaching more people on YouTube.
“The collaboration with DigitalMassa has been a journey of strategic growth for SF Anytime. Their expertise in digital marketing, and specifically their approach to YouTube advertising, has contributed significantly to our expansion, above all in Sweden but also in the Nordics. We are more than satisfied with the results we've achieved together and their ability to reach the right audience with the right message.”
Michael Holmberg
Former Head of SF Anytime
We review your accounts and your measurement and show what should be done first.
Book a call