Hulu had made the evolution to the future of TV - a library of iconic shows, original content and Live TV on any device. But a decade of marketing that old paradigm had taken its toll; after over a year of offering streaming Live TV, awareness was struggling (only 14% of subscribers knew about it).

Research indicated that Live TV is really only compelling for two use-cases - watching the news and watching sports. Sports felt like the natural starting point, given that 59% of live sports viewers are confused about cord cutting options (compared to 55% regular cable subscribers). Lack of understanding in live streaming options is the #2 signup barrier for Hulu amongst cord cutters.

Our target of “Content Mavens” are highly-diverse, dedicated regular season sports fans who are always logged-on to sports culture. They’re the grinders; every game matters, because every game gives you more insight into your team’s “inside story”. They’re the most valuable for Hulu - if they’re watching mid-season games, they’re 10x more likely to subscribe after their free trial, and they’re 6.5x more likely to become a long-term customer.

What better way to show we HAVE sports than by demonstrating we GET sports?

In recent years, the NBA’s embrace of social media has powered it to the forefront of the American cultural conscience. Its nexus, “NBA Twitter” is a prolific, cultural engine that marries highlights and league gossip with touch-points across music, fashion, Hollywood... even politics.

These superfans aren’t just tracking statistics and watching highlights. In fact, knowing the off-court drama has become the true badge of fandom. Deciphering players’ cryptic Instagram captions, breaking down Twitter beef - for the real fans, it’s the authentic drama of the game outside the game that matters.

And, one of the biggest parts of the game outside the game is sponsorship. Unlike other brands who simply plaster their logo all over the country’s biggest sporting events, we decided to leverage the athletes and their platforms to shake up this primordial ooze of basketball culture. To do that required rethinking what an “authentic” athlete sponsorship means in the NBA Twitter era.

The world of sports has fundamentally changed; our approach had to as well. In the new paradigm of the celebrity-athlete, where what they do off the court matters more than their performance on it, we created a new paradigm of athlete sponsorship, by shamelessly owning it.

Hulu Sellouts is an influencer campaign you can’t call bullshit on. Long story short, we had six NBA All-Stars tell the world that Hulu paid them a lot of money to say “Hulu has live sports.”

To successfully infiltrate NBA Twitter, we had to think social-first. So, we created unique stories for our six athletes that messed with basketball culture by hijacking each player’s existing narrative. They followed this specific cadence: a culturally-disruptive teaser, the Hulu Sellout reveal, and then more content for the athletes to continue the conversation.

For example, leading up to NBA All-Star Weekend, Damian Lillard shared a selfie video where he teased a new, sponsored tattoo. After the internet ran wild with theories, he Instagrammed his Hulu contract the day of the All-Star Game.

Our approach set off the NBA fan community, creating legions of sellouts who proudly spread the gospel of Hulu Has Live Sports.

Hulu Sellouts had a huge impact on reach and engagement, delivering over 2 billion impressions, and earning almost 2.4 million organic social engagements. The campaign delivered 59 million earned media impressions in its first six weeks alone. It doubled Hulu’s internal benchmarks for interest, likability, and resonance, breaking the model designed to measure them.

On YouTube, “Damian Lillard’s ‘Hulu Has Live Sports’ Tattoo” has been viewed over 19 million times (and counting). Hulu Sellouts’ celebrity engagements were highlighted by TheFatJewish and NBA TNT Studio Host Ernie Johnson, as well as the dozens of fans who changed their profile names to include “Hulu has live sports.”

Most importantly, the campaign resulted in twice the year over year growth in subscribers who enrolled to watch the NBA. Furthermore, 30% of all Live TV subscribers during the time frame enrolled for the NBA; a 15.4% year over year lift.

While behemoths like Netflix and Amazon are expanding globally, Hulu became a legitimate streaming challenger in America by positioning itself as the future of TV.

As more Americans get rid of cable in favor of streaming, educating them that Hulu has live TV is crucial to convincing them Hulu is truly a viable TV alternative.

Our campaign approach hinged on the idea that honesty would resonate with NBA Twitter: the organic community of fans, journalists, and personalities that drive basketball culture online. It thrives on the authentic dialogue with the players that can only happen on Twitter. So we dove deep into our athletes:

ATHLETE: CULTURAL CONTEXT > WHAT THEY DID

Joel: Famously nicknamed “The Process” > Changed nickname to “Hulu Has Live Sports”

Damian: Tattoo trend-setter > Got a Hulu Has Live Sports Tattoo

Giannis: Everyone waiting for his first signature Nikes > Dropped Hulu Has Live Slippers