How the Streaming Shift Has Shaken Up TV Marketing

John Landgraf, a.k.a. the exec who coined the phrase "Peak TV," has been at the helm of FX for nearly 20 years. However, he's recently seen more change in the TV industry than ever before. “It’s so unpredictable and bumpy right now,” the chairman of FX content and FX productions told Adweek. “Every day, I wake up not knowing what the headlines are going to have and if I might be surprised.” When it comes to the streaming wars, marketing is one of the areas experiencing the biggest change. And Landgraf has a particularly unique insider's perspective on it. FX content officially joined Hulu in 2020 as the FX on Hulu branded hub, but Disney dropped the moniker at the end of 2021 when it repositioned FX as a global brand. Under Disney, which acquired FX as part of the Fox merger in 2019, the brand has changed its entire structure, including how Landgraf approaches show promotion and marketing. From Basic Cable to Global Brand, John Landgraf Has Big Plans for FX “It's taken time. I've had a lot to learn,” Landgraf said during his executive session at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour in January. One of those lessons learned has been a shift in how FX approaches marketing its shows in the streaming era, now that all of its original content—whether it debuts on the FX or FXX linear channels, or is exclusive to Hulu—is available to stream in its entirety on Hulu. In the past, before it teamed with Hulu, FX would put about 90% of its media budget against the premiere of a show. After all, if the initial linear ratings weren’t high and there wasn’t much press coverage, there wasn’t much of a chance of having a hit show, according to Landgraf. Now, that premiere budget is around 50% or less. That’s been a new thing for me and our whole marketing department to learn.John Landgraf, Chairman, FX Networks “We know that people don't always come to the premiere. They wait for your reviews. They wait to hear if something's good. Sometimes, they wait until all the episodes are available to binge,” Landgraf said. But marketing budgets shifting away from premieres is just the beginning. The entire TV ecosystem has changed as more content becomes exclusive to streaming. “You weren’t especially marketing for customer acquisition in the basic cable era,” Landgraf told Adweek. “But people had the product. They had the cable bundle or the satellite bundle. Churn was low. This is new for us, trying to help the streaming service acquire and keep customers.” Landgraf’s team collaborates closely with the customer acquisition and retention groups to ensure that marketing values are aligned. “[It’s] to make sure that everything we’re doing for marketing is not only trying to drive awareness of the program and interest, consumption and tune-in, but it’s also trying to drive subscription and retain subscription," Landgraf said. "That’s been a new thing for me and our whole marketing department to learn to be coordinated across all those different business groups." Shifting economic tides In the midst of an economic downturn, where consumers are watching their wallets more closely, there are bright spots for the Disney-owned property. “It’s never going to be truly equality," Nick Grad, president of FX Entertainment, told Adweek about his streaming competitors. "What money is to Amazon and Apple can’t compare to what a dollar means to The Walt Disney Company. But when some of our competitors don’t have monopoly money and actually have to spend real money, it’s not a bad thing for us in terms of the competitive landscape and landing projects and paying actors.” Still, like most media companies, FX is tightening its belt to adjust to 2023’s economic uncertainty. “Because the business is changing to a certain degree, we’re trying to be as precise as we can about our shows because we anticipate shrinking,” Gina Balian, president of FX Entertainment, told Adweek. “The [biggest] priority is trying to make sure we're having every demographic’s favorite show and trying to be laser-focused about what we're buying and what we're making.” After 2022 saw a record 599 scripted series across the TV landscape, the FX team believes that Peak TV has peaked. As such, the company is focusing on a smaller slate of high-quality series this year. Why Peak TV Is About to Enter a Bear Market “There’s no wasted slots because there’s a lot of rigor that goes into everything and making sure it’s a brand deposit for us,” Grad said. “We don’t want to be 20 million people’s favorite show. We want to be 5 million people’s favorite show.” Landgraf recognizes the entire industry is facing economic pressure. So, from show production to marketing, it's about making meaningful decisions. “I would say anybody anywhere in the business who tells you they aren’t under pressure is just not being straightforward,” Landgraf said. “The notion that money is free just has never really sat very well with me. We’ve always tried to treat money and opportunity and the care we wrap around the shows and the nurturing we do and the marketing and publicity as a precious thing.”