Hulu Launching OTT Advertising

Disney’s Hulu is launching a “self-service” tool to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to buy ads on its service.

By testing a self-service ad platform, Hulu joins the growing list of digital media companies releasing online tools for running ad campaigns into the hands of marketers. Just last week, TikTok introduced a self-serve platform and pledged $100 million in ad credits to help small businesses get started with such campaigns. The TikTok for Business Ads Manager has tools to create ads as well as manage ad spend. Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitter have also been running self-serve advertising platforms for years.

In a post on their site, the company said it has “long enjoyed collaborating with many of the top 200 brands in the U.S.,” but also wants to accommodate businesses with more modest budgets, and who might not already buy ads on streaming TV. The new tool allows companies to buy in with a minimum campaign spend of just $500, enabling them to be flexible in the budgets and personnel they dedicate to the channel.

This is not only a new marketing channel but should also be viewed as a way to enhance the overall viewer experience on the platform. By opening Hulu’s tools up to small and medium sized businesses, they are providing viewers more creative diversity and relevancy in their ad experience.

Today, viewers are spending more time with content on Hulu than ever before. For the first time, with Hulu Ad Manager, small and medium sized businesses have access to a self-service solution that gives them the ability to tell their story in Hulu’s premium streaming TV environment.

With the ubiquitous rise in streaming services, a new medium known as OTT (over-the-top) advertising has surfaced, allowing brands to reach their audiences while they stream shows and movies. OTT advertising is delivered directly to viewers over the internet through streaming services or devices. It’s growing quickly in terms of both profitability and popularity, especially with younger audiences, and has spurred wide-ranging competition. OTT content can be accessed directly on a computer, but it is most often watched on a web-enabled television.

OTT ad revenues are expected to hit $5 billion by 2020, according to Magna Global, and OTT ad revenues hit $2.7 billion in 2018 with an impressive 54% year-over-year growth. For this trend to continue, OTT providers need to win the war against linear TV for ad budgets.

Just as companies are increasingly moving to a supply-chain-as-a-service model, OTT creates the advantage of leveraging the brand experience of bigger companies in your own. This affords small and medium-sized companies greater brand agility, more opportunities for innovation, and channels to pursue more engaging, personalized consumer experiences—online and off.

Why should businesses advertise on streaming TV?

eMarketer has predicted that over 25 percent of households in the U.S. will ditch their cable boxes by 2023. The average American has been streaming for 8 hours a day since the start of Covid-19 and a survey found the average person has access to four streaming services with 38 percent logging into five or more.

“Streaming is an endemic trend in the entertainment industry, and while Hulu is still in the early days of that transition, not including streaming ads as part of your broader marketing strategy means losing out on potential customer engagement", Matt Koontz, Director of Product Management at Hulu adds.

At the end of the day, if you aren’t currently adding streaming services to your marketing mix, your business might be left behind as your competitors begin to take advantage of the opportunity. There is no doubt that streaming advertising will eventually be a cornerstone of every marketer’s investment plan. Now, the opportunity has arrived for smaller advertisers to get started, learn how to take advantage of the best storytelling mediums available, and create great viewer experiences.