Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Hulu promotes top marketer amid national TV spend increase (Score 63)

Sales Lead: Hulu recently expanded the role of Barrie Gruner, its originals marketing and publicity marketing EVP since October 2022 (we are still confirming Gruner's email & will update as we learn more).

• Gruner joined Hulu in December 2013 as its originals marketing and publicity VP.
• She succeeds Scott Donaton, who is leaving his post of SVP and head of marketing.
  • He stepped into this role in February 2021.
• The company will likely:
  • Implement shifts in strategy
  • Keep increasing national TV spend
  • Return to higher digital spend
  • Seek new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Millennials and Gen-X with a male skew​​​​​​​

Additional recent leadership shifts:

• Over the past several months, Hulu has made other hires such as brand media director Sarah Loeb (August 2022), brand marketing VP (September 2022), and strategic growth director Diana Hua (October 2022).

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, Hulu has allocated roughly $36.2m toward national TV commercials, 82% more than the roughly $19.9m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The streaming service allocated around $90.2m toward this channel after having allocated 13% less, allocated $78.6m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Hulu's 2023 commercials have targeted millennials and Gen-X watching shows such as The 65th Annual Grammy Awards, The First 48, the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBA Basketball, and The Big Bang Theory.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The company has spent approximately $56.9m on digital ads YTD, only about half of the approximately $95.6m spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, Hulu has earned ~6.2b digital impressions via YouTube (34%), Facebook (30%), Instagram (16%), desktop display (15%), mobile display (3%), Twitter (1%), and desktop video (1%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, the company's estimated full-year spend increased slightly (1%) to $286.4m from that of $283.3m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes local broadcast, OOH, print, digital, radio, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and online video (via Youtube Android, Youtube IOS, and Youtube.com).
  • Hulu sponsors podcasts such as The Daily, Dateline NBC, Crime Junkie, Up First, and Stuff You Should Know.
  • It also invests in short-form DRTV.
    • ​​​​​​​It has slightly highly concentrated network TV coverage and will likely launch a new campaign within the next 30 days or so.
    • Hulu's top TV networks include FXX, FX, GEO, CMT, and NGW.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Agency reviews could easily follow this hire, so reach out soon to remain top-of-mind.
• Current agency roster:
  • Publicis North America​​​​​​​: Media AOR
  • Big Family Table: Creative and digital AOR
  • MediaMonks: Digital and social agency partner
  • Matterkind: Programmatic agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.​​​​​​​