Farmers Insurance Episodic Ads On Hulu: Enticing Consumers With Storytelling
Baiting consumers requires a delicate approach. Farmers Insurance is implementing the latest method of teasing their consumers, using short commercials or “episodic ads” on Hulu to entice consumers and conduct a story-like campaign.
Farmers Insurance’s Episodic Ads Tell Stories, Instead Of Boring Consumers With Repetition
Farmers Insurance’s latest ads are short, less than 30-second clips, meant to work together to produce cliffhangers and build stories in addition to grabbing consumer attention and radiating brand awareness.
Instead of repeating the same ad during commercial breaks on Hulu’s streaming service, each 30-second Farmers Insurance clip tells part of a story that the next clip continues.
Farmers has two episodic stories running, “Parking Splat,” featured above, and “Fly-By Ballooning,” each of which includes three less than 30-second segments.
TV Advertising Shifts From Primetime TV To Streaming Services As Consumers Opt For Hulu And Netflix
Many brands are working with over-the-top (OTT) TV platforms, like Hulu and Netflix, as U.S. consumers shy away from primetime television for streaming services. The majority of American households were expected to be reachable through these streaming platforms in 2018, and ad spending on OTT TV was projected to increase by 40% to $2 billion last year.
But despite primetime TV viewership dropping, TV ad prices are still high. As consumers shift away from network television, marketers do, too, going where the return on investment is higher and the price is lower.
Episodic Ads Engage Consumers, Avoid Growing Ad Fatigue
When advertisers purchase all the ad space within a TV show’s episode, consumers are often faced with the same advertisement in every commercial break, resulting in ad fatigue. Episodic ads offer a solution to this growing ad fatigue by interesting consumers with a storyline.
Hulu is incorporating new ad formats, like their “pause ad,” which launched this year, to attract marketers like Farmers Insurance. The streaming service is aiming for advertisements that aren’t repetitive, don’t push consumers away and allow for a natural break that leverages storytelling.
Hulu expects more than half of ad revenue to come from these “non-disruptive” advertisements over the course of the next three years.
OTT TV advertisements help brands to reach American consumers as they hand in their cable boxes and opt for subscription streaming services.