In Hulu’s worldview, viewers don’t necessarily universally dislike advertising. You just have to be smart with your commercial load, give them a value proposition with regard to ads and let them choose for themselves.
“I think restraint is a good business model when it comes to advertising load,” says Peter Naylor, the company’s SVP of Advertising Sales.
Noting the trend toward selling ads horizontally—by target audiences—as opposed to vertically—by shows or networks—Naylor says Hulu “almost backed into” the horizontal model. “When we license the content from third parties they say, ‘Look, you can have the content but you can’t conspire against my sales force so you have to sell on a horizontal or blind basis,’” Naylor says during an interview last month at the LUMA Partners DMS conference.
This where data comes in. “We’re happy to sell age, gender, geography or, more interesting, tailor the ads to data sets and behaviors,” says Naylor.
Right now, the majority of people who sign up at Hulu choose the advertising- supported plan. “It shows that advertising isn’t universally disliked. It means when you put a value proposition in front of consumers they will make a choice for them and this is a choice for time and money,” Naylor says.
Looking ahead to the Cannes advertising festival, Naylor expects to hear a lot of discussion about branded content. A lot of publishers have started up creative services that compete with the creative agencies,” Naylor observes. “It will be interesting to see who will wade into those waters.”
This interview is part of our series “The Road to Cannes”, presented by FreeWheel. Please visit this page for additional segments.
