Hulu’s Latest Marketing Campaign With Quinta Brunson ‘Makes Sense’

Though not everything in the world may make sense, Hulu’s newest campaign says its live TV offering does.

The full 30-second spot features Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson, who explains to potential subscribers why Hulu + Live TV “makes sense.”

A 15-second teaser launched during Brunson’s Saturday Night Live hosting appearance earlier this month, and the full spot will run during tonight’s NBA play-in game on ESPN.

The ad features Brunson questioning how humans still know so little about the ocean while watching TV, as fish in a tank behind her wonder why Brunson still has cable when Hulu + Live TV has more than 85 live channels, Disney+ and ESPN+.

“I was so excited when Hulu asked me to be a part of their spring campaign and had such a great time collaborating with their team,” Brunson said in a statement.

For Hulu, partnering with Brunson was a natural fit, as Abbott Elementary is one of the streamer’s top-performing shows.

The spring campaign, “Hulu + Live TV Makes Sense,” extends Hulu’s marketing push around its virtual MVPD offering, which also comes bundled with Disney+ and ESPN+. It’s also an evolution of the “Sellouts” campaign with LaMelo Ball, which primarily focused on Hulu’s sports offerings.

“The business opportunity was to increase the familiarity for this product,” Paloma Azulay, vp of brand marketing at Hulu, told Adweek. “We did a great job creating awareness for the fact that Hulu has live sports, but a lot of people who are still cable subscribers, they’re not very familiar with our product.”

This marks the first campaign for Hulu + Live TV that revolves around a general entertainment approach, based on internal research from Hulu showing that the brand needs to increase awareness beyond sports and also allow the company to feature celebrities as well as athletes in creative.

Done in partnership with agency Translation, seven additional 15-second spots will run on paid social, debuting April 17. And though the first spot claims the ocean doesn’t make sense, future spots will focus on everything from busy traffic to trips to Las Vegas.

Alongside Translation, Brunson also produced the campaign.

“We gave her total freedom to improvise and grow the script; for us, it was a luxury not only to count on Translation as a creative partner but also with Quinta on the production side,” Azulay said.

Besides the spots, the rollout includes digital ads, banners and influencer promotions, with social media spots coming from both Hulu and Brunson. Digital OOH placements go live on April 24 in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The campaign will run through June of this year.