As advertisers look to reach specific audiences at scale, small business owners and decision-makers can be particularly challenging to find efficiently. NatWest needed to reach this audience across England and Wales with a two-part video brief: build awareness for NatWest Business Bank accounts, and introduce Mettle, its app for new business owners. To help NatWest capitalise on this opportunity, its agency, Initiative, teamed up with OpenX on a video-led programmatic campaign built on three pillars: precise data, premium supply, and rigorous measurement.

Through OpenXSelect™, the team ingested Acxiom data directly, unlocking postcode-level targeting across industry-heavy regions to reach the right B2B audience efficiently, with no wasted spend.

Quality scoring kept delivery focused on premium, brand-safe inventory from start to finish. To go beyond delivery metrics, NatWest also commissioned two brand lift studies (one for Mettle, one for NatWest) to measure real impact on perception, not just reach. 

Through this approach, the partnership delivered:

• +23% In prompted brand awareness for primary decision makers or contributors
• +25% Lift in brand favourability and consideration for NatWest amongst A35+
• +21% Uplift in brand trust for A35+
• 72% Positive reception and strong action rates amongst those actively in-market for business accounts (58.4% benchmark)

Kate Swanson, client partner at Initiative, comments: “This campaign shows how precision data, premium supply, and strong measurement work together to deliver real brand impact. Partnering with OpenX meant we could activate efficiently at the supply side while still achieving strong brand lift across key business audiences”