Back

From Emerging to Everywhere: How a Targeted TV Strategy Grew Online Subscribers 73% in Four Weeks

Aerial view of a cabin surrounded by dense evergreen forest.

Paid Media

Challenge

A high-growth tech brand had built strong momentum through performance channels like social and search but lacked meaningful brand awareness in rural and exurban markets, where service needs were highest. As network capacity expanded, the opportunity was clear: reach new audiences in the places most primed for consideration.

Approach

To close the audience gap, Backbone built a national TV and CTV strategy, contextually targeted based on deep audience research, to bring key consumers from brand unaware to active consideration.

Premium tentpole sports, primetime and broadcast placements (NASCAR, Survivor, NCAA, PBR, PGA and others) generated broad awareness with extended reach through streaming pass-through.
Syndicated and cable programming maintained steady visibility among rural and exurban audiences, reinforced by always-on national cable across audience-indexed networks to drive continuous reach and frequency.
Local cable and regional sports inventory across top service markets strengthened impact at the DMA level, while geo-targeted CTV reached high-intent households across premium streaming environments.

Audience-first planning

Backbone started with research, not media planning. Using first-party customer and capacity data, MRI, U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey and FCC serviceable location data, we identified two distinct audience groups: True Rural consumers and Exurbanites. Those insights shaped not just who to target, but how to reach them authentically.

Two photos comparing different types of media consumers: The Exhausted and True Rural.

A layered national-to-local media strategy

The campaign was intentionally built in layers, with each tier serving a distinct role in the awareness-to-consideration multi-touchpoint journey. Throughout, we tapped into our strategic partnerships with The Trade Desk, Tatari and Paramount based on their unique access.

Tier 1: Premium and Tentpole

Backbone leveraged 1:1 network relationships to secure premium inventory with accompanying streaming pass-through for expanded reach. A strategic partnership with Tatari unlocked access to large-scale tentpole sports and events at negotiated package rates with impression guarantees, a direct benefit of their economies of scale and the favorable terms it commands. Backbone's longstanding relationship with Paramount granted us first access to exclusive linear programming with streaming play-through in highly anticipated premieres that aligned perfectly with the rural audience we sought.

Tier 2: Syndicated Evergreen

Rather than going dark between tentpoles, Backbone utilized Tatari to maintain efficient, cost-effective presence in high-indexing syndicated and cable programs that rural and exurban audiences watch consistently, keeping the brand in the flow of daily viewing at a fraction of the cost of broadcast prime.

Tier 3: National Cable Frequency Expander

Backbone drove continuous reach and frequency with always-on placements across ~20 cable networks validated against MRI rural audience indices.

Tier 4: Local DMA Heavy-Ups

Using Tatari and their local TV partners as well as Home Team Sports (HTS) inventory, Backbone layered hyper-local cable and regional sports inventory in the top 20 priority service markets to amplify national investment at the local level.

Tier 5: Connected TV

Geo-focused CTV targeting in premium programmatic environments through The Trade Desk reinforced linear investment by reaching high-intent audiences, including new movers, in-market carrier switchers, hotspot-reliant users, and rural-demographic data segments across premium streaming publishers.

Programming chosen for relevance, not just reach

The type of programming intercepted was intentionally aligned to audience affinity.

In terms of sports, college teams carry more deep personal relevance to rural consumers than professional leagues, and NASCAR, horse racing (Kentucky Derby, Preakness), and golf (PGA Championship, Indy 500) consistently over-indexed among target homeowners.

On the entertainment side, programs like Survivor, Y: Marshals, Fire Country, NCIS, Chicago PD and syndicated staples like Wheel of Fortune and The Big Bang Theory all showed strong rural audience index scores and were incorporated accordingly.

Results

The results show how an audience-informed, layered TV strategy can move consumers from low awareness to active consideration, and that the right mix of national scale, local relevance and premium partners can deliver measurable business growth. Over the course of the four-week initial run, we observed: