Alongside the well-dressed execs who appeared onstage at the Tubi NewFront presentation in New York on Tuesday was TikTok star Noah Beck.
Beck joined Tubi to hype up the upcoming original movie he’s starring in for the streamer, Sidelined 2: Intercepted, the sequel to Sidelined: The QB and Me, which premiered on the streamer in November, and is part of the Fox-owned streamer’s growing slate of original content. Tubi also held a panel featuring young creators creating long-form content for the streamer through its Stubios program.
As it highlighted several new ad products tailored to specific advertising verticals, Tubi execs doubled down on the message that it’s a platform for reaching younger audiences.
“Whether they’re tuning into a shoppable red carpet at the Super Bowl or flocking to a Wattpad-inspired original, we get the next generation,” Tubi CEO Anjali Sud said onstage.
Tubi many options? The free streamer, which counted over 97 million monthly active users in January, has been intent on bringing new users into the fold. In February, it streamed the Super Bowl for free, with the caveat that viewers had to sign up for accounts on the service in order to watch.
It’s also working on growing its appeal to advertisers. To that end, Tubi debuted several new ad formats at its NewFronts presentation, including:
Wrappers: Studios can promote their content through homepage-takeover ads that feature animated backgrounds and trailers that play automatically.
Carousels: Brands can now leverage carousels to create “immersive virtual showrooms or product showcases” on Tubi’s homepage. Carousels can also be configured to include QR codes or other CTAs. The format is geared toward CPG, auto, and tech brands.
Get marketing news you'll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
Moments: The streamer is tagging specific scenes in its programming based on tone, sentiment, and visual cues, and brands can opt to align their content alongside scenes that contextually make sense with their offerings.
Storefronts: Tubi is offering a dedicated Tubi Shop product that allows brands to build storefronts. Tubi Shop comes on the heels of Tubi and Shopsense AI’s second-screen storefront feature, which rolled out in February.
Prime: For more risk-averse advertisers, Tubi Prime guarantees ad placement next to the streamer’s “most popular, brand-safe content,” including programming that’s popular with Gen Z or part of Tubi’s top 50 shows and movies.
“Relevance is what keeps young audiences engaged,” Mike Bidgoli, Tubi’s chief product and technology officer, said onstage.
New pause ads: Tubi is also rolling out the ability for advertisers to make animated, silent, looping video pause ads.
Like other streamers, Tubi also touted partnerships that are designed to make ad buying and measurement easier. At the presentation, the company detailed several new ad-tech partnerships, including with Amazon’s DSP, where Tubi’s inventory is now available to buy. The streamer also inked a deal with Moloco, a CTV ad-tech platform designed to grow app installs and engagement.
One the measurement side, Tubi is partnering with Kochava for Publishers. It also inked deals with other measurement platforms aimed at specific industries: NCS will support e-commerce, pharma, finance, and QSR, and S&P’s Global Mobility Polk will support auto.
These announcements, too, are aimed at being attractive to different industries, whose advertisers have specific needs.
“We know that the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work,” Jeff Lucas, Tubi’s CRO, said.