These are Hulu's Top 3 Advertisers

Hulu promises potential advertisers that it offers the best access to the cord-cutting generation as the top ad-supported streaming platform. The company also promises that this audience’s purchasing intent is more effectively swayed by ads on Hulu compared to ad exposures on other platforms. The streaming giant credits non-disruptive ad timing, interactive ad options, and the GatewayGo ad placement product with its success at reaching streamers.

But which companies are most keen on taking advantage of these offerings, and what are they promoting? In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the top 3 Hulu advertisers over the course of July 2020.

Carvana tops Hulu’s chart in more ways than one

In order of budget allocated to the Hulu advertising platform, July’s top 3 advertisers are Carvana, Geico, and Walmart stores. It’s an interesting mix because these three advertisers are quite unique in terms of their revenue, advertising budgets, and how much of these budgets they allocate to Hulu.

The image above contrasts how Carvana, Geico, and Walmart allocated their July budgets to Hulu compared to Carvana’s other top advertising platforms.

Carvana, in the top spot with almost $4.4 million dedicated to Hulu ads, is a used car dealership famous for its multi-story car vending machines. Though its 2019 reported revenue of $3.94 billion is nothing to shake a stick at, Carvana is in a different league compared to insurance giant Geico and especially to retail behemoth Walmart. To get to Hulu’s top spot for the month of July in spite of having significantly lower advertising budgets than Geico and Walmart, Carvana allocated about 75% of its ad placement budget to Hulu ads.

These ads focus on Carvana’s status as a trailblazer in the used car buying space, highlighting their daring choice to pioneer 100% online car buying, easy car delivery process, customer appeal, and, of course, their iconic car vending machines. Each video creative appears to be part of a brand awareness campaign that often promotes and always seeks to maintain the company’s position as the fastest growing used car dealership.

9% of its $26m advertising budget brings Geico to spot #2

July’s second-highest Hulu advertiser has the largest advertising budget of the top three in total, so only 9% of this budget was still enough to bring Geico to second place. In fact, Geico’s advertising budget represents 65% of the total of all three companies analyzed in this post, as shown in the pie chart below pulled from the Pathmatics platform.

Overall, Geico’s strategy is to place ads on a much more diversified mix of platforms, especially now that Facebook and Instagram are notably absent from the list.

No matter the platform, Geico is widely promoting the saving potential its customers can benefit from if they bundle insurance policies together. Of the top 10 creatives from the month of July, the two that aired on Hulu focus on bundling home and auto insurance. Other platforms also run this same campaign contrasting the ease of insurance bundling compared to dealing with an HOA. Interestingly, Geico’s other top advertising platforms like Ebay also feature campaigns targeted to renters rather than homeowners more frequently.

Walmart rounds out the list targeting streamers observing quarantine

Behind Yahoo, Hulu was the top advertising platform for Walmart stores in July. Of its top 10 creatives for the month, three were served primarily on Hulu. Each of these focused on contactless delivery options and/or Walmart’s dedication to Coronavirus protocols that ensure the company can continue to serve essential goods to Americans safely. While many brands have phased out the bulk of their ads related to COVID-19, Walmart seems to recognize that consumers who are still exercising the most caution about contracting the virus are very likely to be found on their couches, watching Hulu. One of these creatives subtly reminds viewers that the seasonal summer produce featured in the video can be delivered to their homes. On the other hand, another is completely dedicated to Walmart’s three contactless shopping options: curbside pickup, delivery, and express delivery—the featured option of the video and a competitor to Amazon’s Prime Now 2 hour delivery option.

Meanwhile, Walmart’s ads placed on yahoo and other advertising platforms don’t maintain the same focus on contactless shopping. Instead, they promote current rollbacks, gift guides, and Camp Walmart—the retailer’s virtual summer camp for kids and parents.

Overall, Hulu advertisers represent a diverse bunch of companies ranging from loyalist Carvana to quarantine opportunist Walmart, with Geico rounding out the middle.

What’s your favorite part of Hulu’s platform? How else would you compare different brands’ advertising strategies on Hulu? Learn more about how Pathmatics Explorer makes it easy to compare brands and advertisers, or try our customizable insights dashboard.