Discovery+ Debuts New Brand Campaign as It Looks to Disprove the Doubters

Discovery+ is happy to prove the haters wrong. As it nears its first anniversary, the streaming service, which debuted last January into an already crowded streaming video landscape, has helped bring Discovery to a total count of 20 million direct-to-consumer subscribers, according to the company’s latest public disclosures. (Discovery lumps Discovery+ subscribers together with the company's other smaller subscription streaming services.) “There was a question among some naysayers: will people pay for unscripted content?” said Lisa Holme, group svp of content and commercial strategy, Discovery. “I think we've proven in fact that, at least in our case, they will.” Discovery, which is known for its wide slate of unscripted programming, is branching out into new programming lanes, including documentary films and series like the well-received Introducing, Selma Blair, and an upcoming push into scripted fare with holiday films featuring unscripted stars like Ree Drummond (host of Food Network's The Pioneer Woman). As it makes that push, the company is still keen to lock in new customers, and today will debut a brand campaign highlighting the variety of programming available on the streaming service, from true-crime nail-biters to Shark Week. The full-funnel campaign, which starts today and will run through the end of the first quarter of 2022 on cable, satellite, streaming platforms, connected TV, out-of-home, social and digital platforms, is a continuation of the streamer’s brand-building efforts that began ahead of its January 2021 debut. “Our whole positioning is a service and a brand that is full of life,” Pato Spagnoletto, global chief marketing officer, Discovery, told Adweek in a recent interview. “From a messaging perspective, we launched really with a clear objective of establishing awareness for Discovery+, and now that that general awareness is out there—about 50% of awareness on any given week—it's about refining it.” Highlighting the ad-supported tier It’s no surprise that the campaigns highlights Discovery+’s ad-supported tier, which has become an increasing focal point for the company. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has repeatedly indicated to investors that higher-than-expected advertiser interest in the tier has made it the more attractive offering for the company to promote. Executives are heading into the fourth quarter of the year optimistic about their chances to grow their subscriber base further. So far, the subscriber growth “is a fabulous number by any standard,” Spagnoletto says, and Holme says that among Discovery+ subscribers, there is a roughly even split between subscribers who also have cable and those who do not. While the campaign introduces some of the bigger franchises would-be Discovery+ subscribers may be interested in, Holme said that behind the scenes, the company is leaning in on lesser-known originals, especially ones that serve as offshoots of the company’s most popular franchises. Spagnoletto follows a 60-30-10 rule for his marketing, where 60% of marketing time and money goes toward proven media channels and proven titles—"the Shark Weeks, the Fixer Uppers and the Ghostobers of the year,” he said. (Meanwhile, 30% of marketing is earmarked for franchise extensions, while 10% goes to the new, unproven titles and platforms.) The perpetual question: “How much do we lean on our heritage versus leaning into new titles, and what's the right mix between the three?” Spagnoletto said. “The good news is, for the most part, they've all contributed really well to our growth.” The company is also continuing to play in new programming sandboxes. Consumer data has shown Discovery that movies play an outsize role in the perceived value among streaming customers and are often highlighted as a driver of both subscriptions and cancellations, Holme said. That has promoted the streamer to stake its claim on more documentary films, which seemed the most natural way to expand Discovery’s unscripted DNA into the film space. Ditto with scripted holiday movies, which look to capture holiday viewing habits while pairing them with unscripted holiday offerings from Discovery brands like Food Network. As those programming efforts have continued, Discovery has also tweaked its overall marketing budget to favor originals. At the outset, the company spent about 80% of its resources on brand marketing and 20% on content marketing, Spagnoletto says; now, it’s more evenly split. Preparing for WarnerMedia merger The fourth-quarter campaign may mark one of the last standalone marketing campaigns for Discovery+ ahead of the expected close of the mega-merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia, which is expected to close in mid-2022. Executives can’t share much about those plans on the streaming side, especially as they remain contingent on regulatory approval, but the wheels are already turning about how to communicate to consumers what service will be post-merger—and how to bridge the content together when the ink finally dries. “There's very little duplication and overlap of what we do and what they do,” Holme said. “That also makes it complicated to figure out. How do you present all of the incredible IP owed by these two companies to the consumer in a way that makes sense?” In other words, Holme said with a laugh, “it’s incredibly complicated.” That merger, of course, will also require a shift in marketing strategy and present an entirely new slate of challenges. "From the consumer perspective, I just want to know where to go to watch this show that I really love," Spagnoletto said. "I think unfortunately, right now, we are going to make it more confusing before we make it better for the consumer—so the challenge for all of us, and for me at Discovery, specifically, is to make sure that consumers clearly understand the content of a value proposition that we bring to the table and how it's different from everyone else." Discovery Expands, Rebrands Streaming Ad Format Offerings