HULU.COM: An Intriguing Advertising Opportunity

When I read that Hulu is drawing huge audiences, I went to the Web site and clicked on a movie—"Abel Raises Cain." It is a 82-minute documentary about professional hoaxer Alan Abel, who was famous in the late 1950s for dreaming up and publicizing the "Society of Indecency to Naked Animals" with the mission of clothing naked animals. Over the years he has duped the media and made talk show hosts look like chumps and generally made a hilarious nuisance of himself with a slew of nutsy-fagen schemes, many of which are chronicled in this film.This unique Web site offers full-length television shows and motion pictures; viewers remain on the site for a long time, sometimes a couple of hours—a boon for advertisers.I sat through the entire film, which was presented with "limited commercial interruptions." The TV-type commercial advertisements ranged in length from 10 to 30 seconds. Among the advertisers: "Angels and Demons" (upcoming Tom Hanks film) Nestea Green Tea Honda Insight Healthful Cat Food, Purina Sprint Now Network Swiffer Cleaner Coldwell BankerReturning to "Abel Raising Cain" on another day, I found additional advertisers: American Chemistry Council BMW Z4 Roadster Toyota Prius Panasonic Viera Plan B Levenorgestra CitiAt the end of this blog is a screenshot snapped during the BMW commercial. As you will see, the moving picture area takes up about half the computer screen, leaving a blank area above. At upper left is the film title, running time and the number of stars by reviewers. At upper right is a small response box that shows the car, the BMW logo and the headline: The all-new Z4 Roadster An Expression of Joy.In light gray mousetype are two words: "Explore now"—the hyperlink to more information.Once the commercial is finished and the film resumes, this little box remains on screen until the next commercial interruption. Then the next commercial's response box stays on the screen. For the advertiser, this represents his presence onscreen for far longer than the 10-30 seconds allotted in the commercial.Further, Hulu combines the razzle-dazzle of action-packed TV commercials with the advantage of direct marketing. The prospect clicks on the box, the advertiser has a record of the response to that commercial and that venue. This closes the loop: ad -- response to ad -- further info requested -- and (hopefully) sale. The advertiser can do the arithmetic, measure the sales and determine whether the ad more than paid for itself or whether it was a financial loser.This is far more valuable than running an ad on old-fashioned TV and hoping that people (1) have not left the room for a potty break and (2) will remember the thing when they are at the car dealer or supermarket.What a direct marketer would do differently:1. The response box at upper right is tiny compared to everything else going on. If Hulu wants happy advertisers, it should at least double its size, so that it is immediately obvious what to do.2. The advertisers must make a terrific offer—something Free, for example—so the movie watcher is impelled to leave the film and go for the freebie. Or download a $500 certificate. With the tiny box and mousetype, these advertisers seem almost ashamed to ask you interrupt your movie to see what they have to offer. "Learn more" or "Explore now" in teeny-tiny light gray mousetype is not a compelling call to action. 3. My sense is that Hulu may be a tremendously efficient and relatively low-cost medium for testing TV commercials. Run an A-B split where one viewer gets the A commercial and the next viewer gets B and so on. The commercial that wins—gets the most responses—becomes control and is rolled out on TV, in movie theaters and anywhere else … until it is displaced by new commercial that tests better on Hulu. With the Hulu model, razzle-dazzle TV-type commercials are combined with an immediate direct response mechanism. Trouble is that it is obvious the advertisers are allowing the general agencies that created the great commercials to handle the direct marketing element, which they know nothing about.Old rule: never use a general agency for direct marketing.But do spend some time at Hulu and think through how you might use it—either for sales or for testing.

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HULU.COM: An Intriguing Advertising Opportunity

Denny Hatch

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