JM Bruneau was about to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, and the marketing department wanted to offer its customers a gift worthy of the occasion. It would be a web series featuring the adventures of the very peculiar employees of the Vénus Détectives agency.
The series is in French – the episodes below are French-spoken.
The first steps of an exceptional web series…
Before becoming one of France’s most spectacular examples of branded content in animated form, the production began very cautiously, with two test episodes, packed with statistical markers to measure how the series would be received by the customer base.
Thus, 300,000 customers received in their mailbox an invitation to follow the series. And JM Bruneau had not dared hope for such a positive reception! Customers were literally thrilled, and they let it be known by massively expressing their satisfaction in a qualitative survey.
Bruneau ordered two additional episodes, to be delivered before Christmas. It was Bruneau’s last gift to its customers for this “anniversary” year, and the beginning of a particularly original and ambitious web series that would run for 3 seasons!
For Bruneau, this 50th anniversary went very well… And for the investigators of the Vénus Détectives agency, it was only the beginning!
Big news
The first episode of the saga commissioned by JM Bruneau introduces the characters of the “Vénus Détectives” agency.
This episode coincided with the brand’s 50th birthday, and it was designed as a gift to its audience. Nothing to sell. Just two minutes of relaxation offered to JM Bruneau’s hundreds of thousands of customers…
The marketing team knew perfectly well that there would be no directly measurable return on investment for this first try, since there was nothing to sell… But, first relief for the client, the mailing was a success. Curiosity was definitely there! The click-through rate of the mailing campaign was spectacular.
Place Vendôme
This second episode concluded the test period initiated by JM Bruneau’s marketing department.
Nothing was left to chance. A multitude of statistical markers made it possible to analyze the behavior of the customers who received the episode announcements in their mailboxes.
In addition, a detailed questionnaire at the end of the episode was designed to provide a qualitative study of how the series was perceived. The results were beyond dispute! No fewer than 6,000 customers answered the questionnaire, expressing exceptionally positive satisfaction.
JM Bruneau’s bet paid off. The series went on…
Trapped
Still aiming to meet their customers’ expectations as well as possible, JM Bruneau’s marketing department decided to use this third episode of the saga to push the experiment further.
The third installment came in a double format: this time, 4 intense minutes of animation were offered to the public’s curiosity.
The advertising pressure was kept at a very low level, and it is only incidentally, in a way perfectly woven into the plot, that Bruneau reminded viewers of its role as the series’ producer.
A lesson learned from the success of the first two episodes.
Delivered in early December – and 3TOON worked hard to deliver the Christmas special right after… What a crazy pace!
Merry Christmas!
Designed to land in customers’ mailboxes just before Christmas, this fourth episode took on festive colors.
Two more minutes of offbeat humor and relaxation offered to JM Bruneau’s customers…
And one more step in the history of the series, which got its own website, separate from JM Bruneau’s.
