Hulu recognized that a major customer pain point and barrier to entry are the commercials. So this year, Hulu listened and created a solution for its subscribers—Hulu came out with a new, commercial-free option. And of course to announce a commercial-free option on Hulu, we made a series of commercials. Ones that fully embraced the irony of commercials advertising a no-commercials option.

In addition to running on the Hulu platform as streaming ads, Hulu’s “Commercial-Free Commercials” ran on TV, specifically late night programming such as Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. They also ran on NFL Network and National Cable. Primetime TV was the most prominent place to reach TV lovers and get our message across. Digitally, these were also released on YouTube as pre-roll. Accompanying messaging ran on Buzzfeed (skin), Federated Media, Boingo and Pandora to name a few, standard banners ran as well. There was also a social push on Facebook and Instagram. The campaign ran for approximately five weeks.

The NOAH spots, Fireside, Jingle and Director, were the most impactful at driving lower funnel improvements in free trial and subscription intent

People exposed to the ad:

53.6% Brand Favorability (12.4% more than control)

32.9% Free Trail Intent (9.9% more than control)

11.3% Subscription Intent (4.1% more than control)