BALNEA

For the second consecutive year, Espace M was mandated to increase brand awareness and drive sales for BALNEA within the highly competitive landscape of Montreal’s South Shore.

In a crowded category where purchase decisions are largely driven by emotion, we faced two core challenges:

• Standing out in a saturated advertising landscape;
• Generating a measurable impact on sales.

The Goal: Build brand awareness while supporting tangible revenue growth.

An analysis of consumer behavior and media consumption contexts revealed a key lever: the decision to visit a spa is often triggered by a need for escape from daily stress.

Our approach went beyond promotion,  we wove BALNEA into the everyday moments marked by stress and tension:

• Traffic and road congestion
• Commuting to work
• News consumption
• Financial market volatility

Rather than interrupting the audience, we decided to intervene at the exact moment when the emotional need was strongest.

To capture the attention of commuters, we leveraged:

• Strategically positioned bus shelters and billboards;
• OOH placements within the REM;
• Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) programmed based on contextual triggers.

Key Activation: DOOH placements were triggered only when traffic was congested, using real-time traffic data. This dynamic activation maximized message relevance for a particularly receptive and stressed audience. The creative assets, fully adapted to the context, offered a visual immersion into BALNEA’s soothing universe, providing an immediate contrast to the stressful environment.

To amplify reach within stress-inducing environments, a targeted editorial strategy was deployed at the heart of the news.

• Result: An average click-through rate (CTR) 38% higher than the previous campaign, and 3.6x higher than traditional programmatic advertising. This overperformance demonstrates the power of contextual placement when aligned with emotional insight.

During the fall—a key period for BALNEA—we activated Optable (A data clean room) to integrate the client’s CRM data. 

Objectives:

• Retarget existing customers;
• Model qualified lookalike audiences;
• Promote Holiday offers to high intent consumers.

This data-driven approach generated:

• A 0.55% CTR – 2x the performance of traditional programmatic for the same activation;
• 6 direct sales on the website. This was a first for the client’s programmatic activations, proving that a premium contextual environment combined with first-party data can generate a direct impact on sales, even for campaigns initially focused on engagement.

To support the broader awareness strategy, a bottom-funnel ecosystem on Meta and Google worked to capture intent, convert exposed audiences, and turn increased search demand into measurable results.

This integrated approach created a clear synergy between awareness, consideration, and conversion.

The contextual and data-driven strategy delivered concrete results:

• +34% YoY increase in website sales;
• +13% YoY increase in Google searches (the largest increase among competitors);
• A CTR up to 3.6x higher than standard programmatic;
• The first direct sales attributed to a programmatic editorial activation;
• A 6% YoY increase in website traffic.

These results demonstrate that a well-orchestrated awareness strategy, backed by data and structured as a full-funnel approach, becomes a genuine driver of commercial growth.

By integrating emotion, context, and first-party data into a cohesive media strategy, this campaign positioned BALNEA not just as a wellness destination, but as an immediate solution to daily tensions. Beyond reach, this approach proves that a thoughtful, continuously optimized media strategy can transform moments of stress into measurable growth levers.