Fox gave its ad-supported streaming service Tubi a big push on TV’s biggest stage Sunday with two brand spots during Super Bowl LVII.
The spots showed giant bunnies tossing people down a rabbit hole, a metaphor intended to show viewers the depth of content available on Tubi.
Fox Sports also ran a promo for Tubi that made it appear as if viewers were moving from the Fox game announcers to the Tubi home screen to watch a movie.
“With our inaugural Super Bowl campaign, we wanted to introduce Tubi to the world brand first,” Tubi chief marketing officer Nicole Parlapiano said. “While much of the streaming world still revolves around an obsession with the latest movie or series, we are on a mission to give all people access to all the world’s stories. That means having a deep and diverse library that allows people to dive into their own personal content journey where they can discover anything from Hollywood blockbusters and classics to subgenres and subcultures that just might lead them down the perfect rabbit hole for them.”
Fox does not own a big subscription streaming service. Instead, it bought Tubi in 2020 for $440 million and has been cashing in on the popularity of ad-supported streaming.
Tubi has grown since and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch has made a habit of bragging about how well Tubi is doing on quarterly earnings calls with analysts.
On Fox’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call last week, Murdoch said Tubi ad revenues grew 25%.
“We have seen increases in almost every major KPI [key performance indicator] of Tubi, including CPMs [cost per thousand viewers], TVT [total viewing time] and engagement,” Murdoch said. "In fact, Tubi had its highest quarterly viewership in this fiscal second quarter, with total viewing time up 41% year-on-year, while December alone was the highest TVT and highest user month ever. These trends have continued early into the third quarter as Tubi adds viewers and content to the platform.”
Last week Bloomberg reported that Fox turned down a $2 billion offer to sell Tubi.
The Tubi campaign was created by ad agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address.
“Nicole and the Tubi team came to us with a unique brief for the streaming sector: Reveal Tubi to the world, personality-first. Not title-first,” Mischief co-founder and chief creative officer Greg Hahn said. “These spots reveal a personality we’ve had fun creating over the past few months: Quirky, playful and a bit unexpected. Tubi is poised to be the troublemaker of the streaming world.”
Tubi teed up the "Rabbit Holes" campaign over the past week with 3D out-of-home ads at five locations New York and Los Angeles. Teasers have also been running on paid media and social media. ■
