Hulu Flashcards 2.0
Q: Can we daypart our campaign?
A1: What goal are you trying to achieve with this type of targeting? A2: While we have the capability to daypart your campaign, we recommend against it, because on Hulu, content is primetime all the time. Choice and control are in the hands of our viewers. They are highly engaged, actively choosing their favorite content when and where they want. Research shows that delivering your ad to the same audience in the same content at 10am versus 10pm delivers the same successful results.
Q: We are looking to target Hispanic/Latino viewers for this campaign. How can we achieve this targeting with Hulu?
A1: Will your creative be in English or Spanish language? A2 (English Creative): As Hulu continues to draw in Hispanic viewers, we have developed a number of targeting tactics for our partners to reach this audience on the platform. See below: •Contextually Relevant Genres - Hispanic viewers on Hulu over-index against the following genres: Action & Adventure, Adult Animation & Cartoons, Reality & Game Shows, Drama & Comedy. •Internal Watcher Segment - Through our first party watcher data, we are able to identify and target Hispanic viewers based on their viewing habits. With this targeting, your message will be delivered to fans of Latino content as they watch their other favorite shows on Hulu. For example, if a viewer watches The Riveras, then clicks into their favorite Adult Animation series, your brand will have the opportunity to reach them within that show. •3rd Party Data - With Salesforce as our DMP, we have the ability to tap into the most premium and trusted 3rd party data sources available to reach Hulu viewers who have self-identified as Hispanic or Latino. A3: (Spanish Creative): Through our first party watcher data, we are able to identify and target Hispanics viewers based on their viewing habits. With this targeting, your message will be delivered to Spanish speaking viewers as they watch their favorite shows on Hulu. The viewer will be served a Spanish language ad in either English or Spanish shows. (Please note, this type of targeting is very small in scale) Latino Targeting internal 1-Sheet linked HERE
Q: Can I see a list of shows our ads will run in?
A2: *if insisting on show-specific list* Hulu does not provide show-level reporting of any kind for our advertisers. We have strict Content Licensing Agreements in place that do not allow for us to 1. Specifically target individual shows and 2. Provide any level of reporting on advertising that may have run within a series. Please keep in mind that your impressions will deliver into the shows that receive the most viewership based on your targeting parameters, and therefore effectively reaching your desired audience where they are viewing across Hulu.
Q: What is FX on Hulu? How is this different than the FX content that is already available on Hulu?
A: 'FX on Hulu' is a dedicated content hub that will be the new official streaming home for FX Networks' current, legacy, and new original series. The hub will feature past seasons of acclaimed and award-winning shows, new seasons of current and new original series, and a new slate of FX Originals that will be exclusively available on Hulu. With FX on Hulu we are bringing together the power of world-class creativity and technology to create an exclusive streaming experience to reach young and highly-engaged audiences.
Q: What is my SOV? (for a Hulu Original Sponsorship)
A: *try and move conversation away from SOV; If advertiser is insistent on receiving a SOV, reach out to P+P and IM* Your SOV within a Hulu Original will vary based on your commitment level and the number of advertisers that sponsor the show. Hulu Originals are exclusive opportunities, and we partner with a limited number of advertisers to ensure that each advertiser has a healthy presence across the show. At this time, you are 1 of "#" advertisers aligned with this Original, effectively owning "%" of the show!
Q: How many downloads can I have at one time?
A: A subscriber can have a total of 25 playable downloads across their devices at any given time, with up to 5 devices per account. Once playback has started, downloaded content will expire after two days, and is renewable at any given time. For un-played downloads, content will expire after 30 days. Once a download expires, a viewer will need to either renew the download or delete it. But, there is no limit on downloaded renewals!
Q: What is the breakout of ad-supported vs. commercial-free?
A: About two-thirds of new Hulu subscribers sign up for the ad-supported versus the commercial-free plan. We have found that a majority of our viewers don't mind commercial interruption, especially with a light ad load of only :90s max per break.
Q: Are you able to provide competitive spends for (x competitor) through tools such as Pathmatics, Media Radar, or a similar tool?
A: Although we are unable to provide competitive spends across these tools or Hulu-specific numbers, we are more than happy to share overarching industry insights on our platform.
Q: Why does our SOV seem so low?
A: As Hulu continues to grow in scale, even significant budgets can sometimes equate to what seems to be a small SOV (less than 10%). Hulu offers max SOV at 10%, and meaningful results can be achieved with SOV at 2-4%. This also serves to reduce ad fatigue and create a better experience for the viewer and your brand.
Q: Does your viewership decrease during the summer?
A: As Hulu's overall breadth of content has grown, we are less dependent on broadcast current shows, and we don't see the same large declines that linear television experiences during the summer months. In addition, our robust Summer counter-programming, including Hulu Originals, keeps viewership relatively consistent throughout the entire year, unlike linear TV.
Q: With new streaming services entering the marketplace, will Hulu be losing content?
A: As more streaming services have and will enter the marketplace, there will be an expected shift in what content is available where. Given our access and partnership to Disney and Fox content, along with our continued agreements with NBCU and Warner Media, we do not anticipate a major shift of content. That said, individual titles alone can't make a streaming service successful, and we believe that our unique offering of Live TV, next-day currents, Hulu Originals, FX on Hulu, premium add-ons, and past TV hits will continue to prove that Hulu is a top choice for consumers.
Q: Are we able to target kids content?
A: As you know, COPPA regulations restrict publishers from targeting anyone under the age of 13. Advertisers looking to reach a "kids" audience on Hulu have the ability to unlock this opportunity through our "Kids Sponsorship", only available to vetted advertisers that have been approved to contextually align with Kids Content. For those that are unable to participate in this Sponsorship, Hulu utilizes a three-pronged approach: target households who have watched kids content, target genres that over-index for family co-viewing, and utilize behavioral targeting segments to reach this audience. This approach allows advertisers to reach households with children and gain exposure with both the younger audience as well as the parents with purchasing power.
Q: Can I target specific shows?
A: At Hulu we sell audiences. Traditionally, TV advertisers have bought specific shows as a proxy to reach a certain audience. On Hulu, we can skip that step and serve to the desired viewers, no matter what they're watching. Please keep in mind that all content on Hulu is premium programming. We do offer show-specific sponsorships of Hulu's growing slate of original programming.
Q: What does bingeing look like on Hulu? What is an average session?
A: At Hulu, we define a binge as watching 3+ episodes of the same series within a single viewing session. Over 50% of all ad-supported hours are binged, with more than 65% of all viewers bingeing at least one series a month. Hulu viewers are also 39% more likely than the rest of the population to binge watch TV shows. Hulu has over 80,000 episodes on our platform, allowing for plenty of bingeing!
Q: Will live and on-demand inventory be sold separately?
A: At this time, we do not sell our on-demand and live offering separately. We are unable to accommodate a buy that is interested in Live Only.
Q: What creative lengths are recommended at Hulu?
A: Because Hulu is not constrained to a specific pod length, we can accommodate video commercials of varying lengths, anywhere from :05s to :90s. Keep in mind that regardless of length, Hulu ads are non-skippable and we only transact on 100% completed views.
Q: Branch is our mobile attribution partner and we'd like to confirm if you are currently integrated with Branch. We typically implement Branch tracking within DCM. May you please advise if you're integrated with Branch?
A: Branch is currently not an approved vendor because Hulu does not agree with Branch's methodology. The main challenge with Branch's methodology is that they use publisher's data to build their device graph. We don't allow vendors to leverage Hulu data to contribute to their device graph. Additionally, because Branch works with mostly PC and Mobile focused partners, their existing graph has limited Streaming TV/OTT coverage which presents a large gap in their measurement solution. With over 80% of Hulu's viewership taking place on Streaming TV/OTT, conversions tracked through Branch would be vastly under reported and not allow for an accurate assessment of campaign performance on Hulu.
Q: Is Hulu moving away from supporting Smart TVs? I have a Vizio and I'm no longer able to access the Hulu app on my TV anymore. I've heard that Netflix might not support Vizios anymore; is that the same for Hulu?
A: Differently than you may have heard about Netflix, Hulu has no plans to disable Hulu partnerships across Smart TVs. That being said, we do have a deprecation program in place, affecting a very small portion of our audience to ensure that we are providing the best viewer and advertiser experience for everyone. In 2017 when we completed our re-design and launched Hulu + Live TV, some devices/models were unable to accommodate our new UI, and therefore no longer able to accommodate Hulu. Hulu subscribers with these specific devices and/or models were sent email notifications of this update. Again, this affected a very small portion of our audience, and ensures that we are providing the best viewing experience for all.
Q: What content is available for download? Where can I download?
A: Downloadable content is available as of October 7th, 2019 on iOS mobile devices (with Android capabilities rolling out soon). This will be made available to viewers with Hulu No-Ads and Hulu No-Ads + Live TV subscribers. Thousands of our original and licensed programming series will be available to download. At this time, premium add-on content is not available for download, i.e. HBO, Showtime, etc.
Q: Why is some content available for download, but other networks' content is not?
A: Due to our content and licensing agreements with each network, some of our partnerships do not include download rights, however, we are actively working with all of our partners to secure these rights and will continue to update our download offering with more titles over time.
Q: What kinds of targeting is available?
A: Effective targeting is key to our offering at Hulu. Targeting options include Demo, Geo, Behavioral, Platform, Genre, Content Language, and more! In addition, Hulu offers demo-guaranteed buys validated using Nielsen DAR and comScore VCE, allowing marketers to buy Hulu exactly as they buy TV.
Q: What is Digital Ad Ratings for OTT / DAR Total Audience? Why is it now the currency for advertisers on Hulu?
A: Establishing Nielsen's DAR with CTV as the currency for advertisers on Hulu represents a sea change in the way digital streaming has traditionally been measured. Whether viewers are watching via desktop, mobile or connected TV, DAR on Hulu will provide advertisers with an accurate, holistic measurement of everyone watching. Specifically, DAR allows for advertisers to take advantage of a living room "co-viewing" experience, to properly track and run against these audiences. DAR with OTT 1-Sheet linked HERE
Q: What qualifies someone for a Hulu Watchers segment? What is the look-back period?
A: For all of our custom segments, we utilize a look-back period that has been determined to be a meaningful and relevant indication of what we consider to be a "hand-raiser" viewer of each particular segment/audience. We also ensure that the viewer has watched full episodes of the shows within a segment (and not just started and never finished). All parameters that our analytics team defines for our custom segments are based on the data and viewing behaviors they analyze, and all learnings are kept confidential to ensure Hulu's "secret sauce" of custom targets.
Q: Is Hulu GDPR/COPPA/LDA compliant?
A: GDPR: GDPR does not affect US data privacy and is only applicable to companies operating in the EU, nor does Hulu offer goods, services, or monitor the behavior of EU data subjects. COPPA: Hulu is in compliance with COPPA regulations as Hulu does not permit targeting viewers under 13 (additional details can be found on slide 12 under kids content) LDA: All alcohol brand campaigns on Hulu have specific category restrictions applied, one of which excludes viewers with a profile age of 0-20, ensuring Hulu is LDA compliant.
Q: What percent of in-season inventory can Hulu sell in relation to what can be purchased in-season from networks direct on Hulu?
A: Hop on a call! Talking points: •Hulu owns 10% of in-season inventory from our media partners, although the networks do have the ability to buy back 100% of any 2 shows each month. Additionally, Hulu serves into unsold current season inventory from each network. •As Hulu's content library has grown, the broadcast current shows now represent roughly 15% of overall consumption. •Always be sure to ask why they're focused on current season programming when in fact, the effectiveness of an ad is completely unrelated to the recency of the show in which it aired. You might also point out that the ad load in Hulu Originals and licensed programming is always much lighter than in broadcast current shows, leading to higher ad effectiveness.
Q: What kind of impact do you think the Disney Ownership will have on Hulu?
A: Hop on a call! Talking points: •Our owners have tremendous resources, are very supportive of Hulu, and have been very clear about their desire to grow Hulu as a leader in the Streaming TV space. •Bob Iger direct quote: "We're bullish about Hulu for a number of reasons, but mostly because we see it as the best consumer television proposition out there." •Regardless in the change of ownership, Hulu will continue to be a more attractive place for advertisers to reach their target audience, as viewers continue to shift the way they choose to view premium television content.
Q: How much does Hulu cost and what are the level offerings?
A: Hulu (ad-supported): $5.99, Hulu with No Ads $11.99, Hulu + Live TV $54.99, Hulu (No Ads) + Live TV $60.99, Disney Bundle (Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu) $12.99.
Q: What is the difference between demo guaranteed and non-guaranteed targeting?
A: Hulu captures data on viewers throughout the sign-up process and interactions with the product, including but not limited to, age, gender, viewership, device usage, and advertisements viewed. For both guaranteed and non-guaranteed demo targeting, our algorithm utilizes a combination of profile data and show indices that skew high against that demo to appropriately serve the ad to the specific demo. The difference between the two is that guaranteed is validated by Nielsen and the advertiser only pays for verified demo impressions.
Q: Will Hulu Live TV inventory be included in our ad buys?
A: Hulu has inventory available in live cable programming, similarly to how a traditional pay TV carrier operates (roughly 2 minutes per hour), during local ad breaks. Through dynamic ad insertion, advertisers running on Hulu will also receive inventory within the live viewing environment. Please note that this is a small percentage of your overall Hulu Buy, and advertisers are unable to target through our Live TV offering.
Q: How does Hulu stack up compared to competitors like Netflix and Amazon? Do you think you will ever catch up to their huge subscriber counts?
A: Hulu is in a different business. We are the only service that brings together live, on-demand, originals, and library content all in one place, across living room, desktop, and mobile devices. Our focus is on growing our overall business in the context of every pay TV competitor, not just SVOD players like Netflix and Amazon, BUT if you do just look at SVOD, Hulu is the largest Streaming TV library with 80K+ episodes of TV. We're also experiencing massive growth, as we have been for years, with more than 32M subscribers!
Q: How can Hulu ensure a brand safe environment?
A: Hulu offers a 100% guaranteed brand safe environment. With no fraud, industry-leading viewability, premium content, domain transparency and 3rd party verification, Hulu is committed to investing in solutions to safeguard brands against the issues plaguing our industry. Combatting Fraud 1-Sheet linked HERE
Q: Should I evaluate Hulu on clicks and conversions?
A: Hulu serves ads in long-form premium content, comparable to a traditional TV experience. As a result, most advertisers view Hulu as a brand awareness platform, and therefore look at metrics beyond clicks and conversions when measuring success. Advertisers are experiencing significant lift when measuring upper-funnel metrics like ad effectiveness, recall, likeability, and purchase intent. This goes back to Hulu's lighter ad load, non-skippable ads, effective targeting, and category separation.
Q: We are using Placed for our next campaign. Can Hulu accommodate these tags?
A: Hulu understands the value that Placed's location-based attribution measurement brings to the marketplace and have worked closely with them to build an infrastructure that measures all of Hulu's impressions, including Connected TVs. Hulu also understands the value of an agency/client measuring the entirety of their buy (across all publishers) and are happy to participate in those measurement efforts. However, Placed shares overall performance results at significance levels as low as 60%. Data comparisons at these levels are below industry standards and therefore should not be used to make business decisions. It is Hulu's belief that results should only be shared if they meet the 90% significance threshold, and until Placed is able to accommodate this, we can't stand behind those specific findings. We've discussed these issues with Placed and they are working towards addressing them, but in the meantime we urge all our agency/client partners to caveat results accordingly and more importantly, to help push the industry for more rigorous, consistent, and meaningful reporting. Foursquare, Cuebiq, and Ninth Decimal have all raised their reporting standards to show Hulu data at 90% or higher, and as such are now certified partners for location-based attribution.
Q: Do you optimize between segments if we are running multiple targets?
A: Hulu's primary KPI is Video Completion Rates (VCR). Because our ads are non-skippable, we see very little variance in VCR across different targeting segments. If your team would ever like to shift impressions based on performances you're seeing, we're happy to accommodate that, pending scale.
Q: What can you tell us about your MVPD offering?
A: In late 2017, we launched our Hulu + Live TV service. Hulu added live news, entertainment, and sports from 21st Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, CBS Corporation, Turner Networks, A+E Networks, and Scripps Networks Interactive to its offering - making it the only TV service that brings together live, on demand, originals, and library content all in one place, across living room and mobile devices. In short, we are providing a Live TV service that's easier to use, more personalized, and gets you to the content you want faster, so you can spend more time watching what you love and less time scrolling through what you don't.
Q: As a viewer, I get the same ads over and over. Why is that?
A: Pick up the phone, ask what they were watching, and go from there. Talking points: •Our media partners, ABC, NBC and Fox, have the ability to buy back inventory within their own programming up to a certain level, and they control the ad experience within that inventory as it is not served by Hulu. However, as of June 2019, all media partners now adhere to Hulu's 90 second ad pod! •For Hulu-served ads, we implement our own frequency cap, which is 2x per 60-minute viewing session and 4x per day.
Q: Can you lower my CPM? This pricing is not competitive.
A: Pick up the phone, ask what they're comparing Hulu to, and go from there. Talking points: •Digital comparison: •Are you considering completion rates, viewability, content alignment, fraud, etc.? •TV comparison: •Are you considering category separation, Hulu's much lighter ad load, effectiveness (IAG Hulu v. TV) •Most advertisers compare Hulu to traditional prime due to our premium content offering
Q: What is the difference between a Splash and a Targeted Blitz?
A: The Hulu Splash is our version of a Hulu takeover, providing a one-day high impact placement, allowing your brand to hit virtually every unique viewer on Hulu within that 24-hour period. The Splash is only available to one advertiser each day, giving 24-hour exclusivity for your brand. On the other hand, the Targeted Blitz is the max buyable impressions (10% SOV) within a minimum of 48-hours against a specific audience, focusing on frequency of message and owning your audience.
Q: How can I ensure my ad runs in Hulu Originals?
A: The best way to align your brand with a Hulu Original is through a Sponsorship. We offer a tiered approach to our sponsorships, varying based on the commitment. Our three tiers are Silver, Gold, and Platinum, and as you increase your commitment, you are able to unlock additional opportunities such as custom content and integrations into the show. If you are interested in gaining presence throughout all of our Hulu Originals, we offer a 'Hulu Originals' genre targeting option, ensuring that your brand will run across all Originals.
Q: Are there demographic differences between ad-supported and commercial-free subscribers?
A: There is virtually no difference in age, gender, geography, income, or other demographics, when comparing ad-supported viewers to commercial-free viewers. The only difference is that some viewers are receptive to ads and some aren't. The ad-supported plan allows marketers the opportunity to run their ads in front of those who will be receptive to them, in an environment with a lighter ad load than traditional TV.
Q: How does Hulu measure viewability?
A: Through our direct integration with MOAT, we have the ability to track viewability for any campaign using their verified measurement tool and provide reporting once the campaign has ended. As a friendly reminder, a majority of our viewership happens on OTT devices, which are 100% viewable.
Q: What is Nielsen Media Impact (NMI)?
A: Unveiled at Hulu's NewFront, we're excited to share that Hulu is now fully integrated with Nielsen Media Impact as the first ever Streaming TV partner. Prior to the integration, Hulu was limited to measuring incremental reach post-campaign. Now, Hulu and NMI subscribers will have access to NMI as a pre-campaign planning tool that will provide brands the opportunity to see what kind of reach they can expect across linear and digital properties, unique incremental audiences, and brand insights including share shifts.
Q: What happens when our ad serves to a device that has ad-blocking software enabled?
A: Users with ad-blocking software enabled are shown a prompt that explains how advertising plays an important role at Hulu and allows us to continue carrying premium content. We then require users to disable ad-blocking software to continue watching.
Q: Will my video always run with my slate? Will a user see our ad within a program if they saw the premium slate?
A: We expect the viewing experience to have your slate followed by your video in most instances, however, we cannot guarantee that this will occur 100% of the time. Therefore, we recommend site-serving the campaign to better ensure this user experience.
Q: Can you please provide a show list/top genres against the 3P:_____ segment?
A: When 3rd party audience segments are applied, we follow and target the viewer wherever they are consuming their favorite content on Hulu. Therefore, it makes it difficult to predict what type of content this specific audience is consuming without the viewership happening in real time. With 3rd party audience segments, we typically see alignment with Hulu's top performing genres such as Drama, Comedy, Adult Animations, and Reality & Game Shows and will be able provide additional genre insights post-campaign.
Q: Even though we are buying nationally, do we have visibility into where impressions are falling at a DMA level?
A: When buying on the national level, we can't guarantee that a certain % of impressions will fall into a particular market, as impressions serve dynamically based on desired audiences. The only way to guarantee impressions within a DMA is to target that DMA directly. That said, our top 10 DMAs on Hulu are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
Q: What is the percentage of viewership happening on Roku devices?
A: While we are unable to disclose specific device details, we can share that over 80% of Hulu streams take place on OTT devices in the living room, 12% on mobile/tablet, and 7% on desktop. Over half of those OTT streams are happening on a set top box, which includes streaming consoles like Roku, AppleTV, FireTV, etc. As a friendly reminder, Hulu represents all of its own inventory across all devices. (If client is interested which specific devices Hulu runs on, here's a helpful list linked HERE)
Q: Can you provide reach/frequency of my campaign?
A: With Hulu's new internal tool, we now have the ability to determine estimated reach and frequency pre-campaign. This tool will estimate the amount of unique devices and number of times a unique device will see your advertisement on Hulu during a campaign period. Additionally, we can include unique devices reached within post-campaign reporting. (If transacting on DAR with CTV, we can provide estimated unique people reached)
Q: What is Disney Hulu XP?
A: With the power of the Disney and Hulu brands, Disney Hulu XP provides access to the largest premium content library as well as Live Sports, News, and Entertainment. Launching on 10/1/20, Disney Hulu XP is an opportunity to effectively reach your desired audience and deliver scale across all Disney platforms. Additionally, partners have the ability to extend their advertising beyond traditional audience demos leveraging data to reach segments that matter using a wealth of data sources from first party to third party to proprietary data sets from Disney and Hulu.
Q: Can we compare Hulu on a cost-per-point?
A: Yes, Hulu can be compared on a CPP. We convert our planned impressions into a demo rating and use the same Nielsen TV Universe to give you a completely comparable measurement for your TV campaign.
