January 25, 2023
Quibi's Pre-Launch Ad Commitments Already At $100 Million
- by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, June 20, 2019
Quibi — the designed-for-mobile, short-form video platform that’s not set to launch until April 2020 — has already secured $100 million in advertising commitments, its co-founders said in a Variety interview at the Cannes Lions International festival.
The commitments are from six advertisers, reported Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman: Google, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Walmart, Progressive and Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Hollywood studios that have invested in the platform will also be advertisers. Quibi has attracted $1 billion in funding to date and is looking to secure another $500 million to cover most of its production and other costs.
Quibi’s total ad inventory for its first year is $150 million. The executives said that they’ll likely go after two or three more deals, all of which are category-exclusive.
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They also said that they’re negotiating an exclusive distribution deal with a U.S. wireless provider.
The startup has promised makegoods if it fails to deliver on audience guarantees made for its first year of operations.
It’s also promising an “uncluttered” ad environment, amid premium scripted and unscripted content — much of which will be produced by known directors and feature established stars.
Content pieces are limited to 10 minutes or fewer in length.
Users Quibi’s ad-supported version ($4.99 per month) will see unskippable preroll ads that are six-, 10- or 15-seconds long.
The ad-free version costs $7.99 per month.
Katzenberg also promised a big event to celebrate the platform’s launch.
A number of cable channels heralded big advertiser ad buys when they were first launched as a way to promote others into signing up. But most of the buyers who negotiated these "upfront" deals built strict audience guarantee protections into their pacts and many didn't accept make goods if the audience levels were to low to make this a worthwhile remedy---they simply opted out. I wonder what the terms of the Quibi ad sales commitments cited in this article are like? Color me curious.