The biggest single moment of entertainment each year is the Super Bowl.

Which is why many brands spend their whole media budgets trying to entertain the 110M+ viewers.

When Tubi hijacked the big game by making millions of Americans think they had changed the channel, we drove millions of Americans across the country to hunt for their remotes.

All before they realized it was a stunt from Tubi.

Celebrities tweeted about it, TikTok was flooded with reactions, even Snoop Dogg (who had a Super Bowl spot with Skechers) posted about it. Tubi was the only brand to trend on Twitter.

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.

In a sea of streaming services constantly looking to one up each other with the next billion-dollar blockbuster, people were largely unfamiliar with Tubi, they’d Google it to cover their bases. With a limited history of advertising, unfamiliarity became our enemy.

The bad news is that humans are terrible at taking a chance on something new. But the good news is that once they feel like something’s familiar, they feel confident exploring.

We wondered how we could use the Super Bowl to engage 113M people with our interface to familiarize themselves with Tubi.

We tapped into a familiar experience — the moment your TV channel unexpectedly changes.

Who’s sitting on the remote? Did the baby grab it? Frenzy ensues.

We leveraged this insight to gain attention at the Super Bowl. A relatable human moment, utilized to make a nation engage with Tubi’s product interface.

It’s midway through the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl with the score at 35:35.

With tensions through the roof, an ad break served as a brief reprieve.

After a few ads, we’re back in the studio with the Fox Broadcasting crew — but the TV screen starts changing to the main menu. The cursor begins to scroll through your apps. Somehow it clicks on Tubi, opening the app and scrolling through a list of titles. It lands on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, clicks and the Tubi logo appears.

While Americans are scrambling to find their remotes, the ad continues. With Tubi’s Interface Interruption, familiarity with Tubi’s interface was cemented.

We only had 15 seconds to make an impact.

As if that wasn’t difficult enough, we were also airing during the fourth quarter.

Our window for attention was narrow, but if we could nail it, the payoff would be huge.

To ensure we grabbed America’s attention, we leaned into simplicity by copying the look and feel of gameday commentating. We knew who would be commentating during the game, the studio setup and the stadium that it would be played in.

We tricked millions by using cliche sports language to pull viewers in, making them think 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

While most of the communications by our competitors highlighted a trailer for an upcoming release or their suite of programming, Interface Interruption allowed viewers to familiarize themselves with Tubi’s interface.

The Super Bowl is America’s most widely watched sporting event of the year.

Sure, the ads are sometimes fun to watch, but that’s not why millions gather around their TVs.

They gather to watch the game. To see the big plays. To prepare their hot takes for work the next day. To catch the most anticipated halftime show of the year. To partake in culture.

We aired during the fourth quarter. A time when a close game could have the nation gripped, to a blowout could lead many to change the channel. It was a high risk, high reward media placement.

With the clock winding down during the biggest neck and neck game of the year, Interface Interruption stole the show.