Our desired audience was unfamiliar with Tubi and questioned the relevancy of our service. The third most searched Tubi item was “Is Tubi legit.”

As an AVOD, this was an especially tricky issue. With zero subscriptions, they rely on exposing viewers to a variety of ad types on the platform.

Without new viewers, Tubi’s revenue and growth was capped. We needed to legitimize Tubi in a way that would lessen trepidation when directed to the platform — and Super Bowl was our time to strike.

The brief was to make Tubi unignorable at the Super Bowl.

Make Tubi famous, measured by impressions and a stretch goal of trending on Twitter.

Drive viewership, measured by increase of users vs. previous year.

By catching 113 million viewers off guard, Interface Interruption wasn’t just another ad — it became a cultural moment.

With the score at 35:35 and only a few minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, millions of Americans were on the edge of their seats.

There’s an ad break, but luckily, it’s quick. Before you know it, they’re back in the studio with the FOX Broadcasting crew. Millions of eyes are glued to the screen. Ears listening intently to every word.

Without warning, the TVs main menu is pulled up on the screen. As the cursor scrolls, it lands on Tubi.

With another mystery click, the app is opened, scrolling through a list of titles. It lands on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”. With another click, the Tubi logo appears. Surprise. Confusion.

Just as Americans start scrambling to find their remotes, the ads continue. As if nothing happened.

That was Tubi’s Interface Interruption.

Thousands of titles to choose from, and an interface Americans won’t forget.

While other streaming platforms continue to take a title-first marketing approach, Tubi insisted on leading brand-first to break the mold—debuting a personality reflective of its content: quirky, unexpected, and fun.

PR strategy was built around Tubi’s mission to both introduce its brand personality and showcase the product. What better way to illustrate the gravitational pull of Tubi’s content than by throwing people into a product demonstration from a viewer so enthralled by the platform’s offerings that they’d want to exit one of biggest live sporting events to scratch that itch.

The target audience was everyone who’d never heard of Tubi or understood what it is/does. And to capture their attention, we’d need an element of surprise. We were clear during our multi-phase, multi-beat media relations strategy that there were additional elements at play to keep on the radar, then went wide as soon as the spot aired.

We only had 15 seconds to steal America’s attention.

It had to be big. Quick. Bold.

As if that wasn’t tricky enough, our spot was scheduled to air during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. A high-risk moment to show up. A tight game with only a few minutes left would ensure millions of eyeballs. But a major blowout could just as easily end the night early.

With so many factors out of our control, we utilized what we could control. On gameday, we knew who would be commentating, the studio setup and the stadium location — so we copied the formula. Using cliche sports language to pull viewers in, we tricked millions into thinking we were back from a commercial break.

With a simple rebuild of a standard Smart TV, we reflected exactly what any user would see as they navigate through the various titles on Tubi.

In 15 seconds, Tubi became the most talked about brand at the Super Bowl garnering:

6.8 billion impressions

2,000+ articles

4.2+ million video views

1196% increase in social conversation

Google searches hit an all-time high

In the biggest game of the year, Tubi became #4 trending topic on Twitter behind only Rihanna and the two teams playing.

In the month following, Tubi recorded their most viewing hours and unique viewers in the brand's history. They, for the first time, broke into the top 10 on Neilsen’s rankings, with a 1% share of total US television viewership in February, equalling rival Peacock and passing key competitor Pluto TV to become the 6th most watched streaming service.

We also drove conversion: “Advertisers are thinking of us in a new creative light, and media buyers are telling us we made their jobs easier.” – Mark Rotblat, Chief Revenue Officer at Tubi