Commentary

How Can TV Advertising Help Quibi's Uphill Battle?

Mobile-centric video platform Quibi continues to face an uphill battle for survival -- and now more competition for where to place its ad spend.

Quibi, which launched this past April, will need to be spending even more on national TV ads -- including on sports like the NBA -- to break through the clutter.

Marketer competition for sports programming to advertise against may be stiffer than usual, since there's a smaller range of choices like original, scripted TV network programming  this fall. 

Still Quibi has its work cut out for it, as a video service looking for an audience and new subscribers who are still not all that mobile because of the continuing pandemic.

Since its launch, Quibi has spent $58.5 million in national TV advertising, including Super Bowl and Oscar TV commercials, according to iSpot.tv. Overall it has tallied 2.8 billion impressions for those efforts.

It ramped up national TV advertising spend through April but diminished it from mid-May through June. Then from mid-July through the first week in September, it spent $17.7 million.

Big positions overall have been bought on NBA Basketball (ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBA TV); AMC’s “The Walking Dead”; Fox’s “Friday Night Smackdown” and Fox’s “The Masked Singer.”

In addition to traditional national TV spending, Quibi has been using YouTube as a major promotional tool where new Quibi content can be seen.  

What has been the results of the activity? The Verge, quoting a Quibi representative, said the app has been downloaded 5.6 million times. 

But this isn’t a clear indication of revenue-producing performance, since Quibi has been offering free promotional trials since its launch. As more of these initial promotions end, Quibi -- and the rest of the industry -- will get a clearer picture.

Maybe more ad spend on sports programming will be a key tool -- not just for Quibi but other video marketers as well. That means more competition than ever.

3 comments about "How Can TV Advertising Help Quibi's Uphill Battle?".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 10, 2020 at 7:48 a.m.

    Wayne, I doubt at this point whether other AVOD sellers are much concerned about Quibi as a rival for advertiser dollars as it has fallen on its face in terms of audience attainment. Also, adevertising heavily on TV sports means paying a very hefty CPM when other forms of TV will reach the same people at half the cost and provide greater reach as well. Also, the TV sports audience---team sports, in particular---is predominantly male. Going strongly in that direction would underweight females. Is such an approach consistent with Quibi's current programming strategy? I tend to doubt that.

    Quibi's real problem is that it assumed that it could dominate the mobile platform and that mobile users would go for the concept of watching serialized content in short form bursts on a continuing basis. Couple that with the high risk of starting with a lineup of totally "original" fare---with many of the high cost shows being quite routine or sub par in generating interest---and you have a very big subscription and audience delivery problem on your hands.

    I hope that Quibi figures it all out and comes up with a workable "Plan B". But pouring in lots of bucks to promote "Plan A" may be a big waste of time---and investor money. Just my two cents, of

  2. Larry steven Londre from Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC and USC, September 10, 2020 at 12:36 p.m.

    In this year';s Super Bowl, Quibi's first TV spot was poorly received and communicated.  Bad planning, creative and execution.

    Paid $5.5 Million not including expensive production and casting in the Super Bowl. Didn't communicate what the product was. New products can't spend that kind of money on bad advertising.

    Every year I present the Super Bowl spots at a couple of schools. I present the spots and my 9P's of marketing.

    I and the classes rated the Quibi spot as one of the worst this year in Super Bowl and this introduction set in motion a terrible, unimpressive launch of a product that many are not aware of or understood. I have more than 45 years of teaching at law schools, graduate schoola nd undergrads.  

    Right out of the starting gate they didn't know how to promote and advertise this product and with the lack of audeince it may never be a source of client advertising dollars. 

    One of the ratings services showed that Quibi's “Bank Heist” being the fourth-worst-rated out of the game's total 62 ads, with a rating of 4.4. 

    Awful new product introduction and launch to both potential advertisers and users. 

  3. Tom Tyler from GCTVTexas, September 10, 2020 at 6 p.m.

    Quibi is like a Youtube page. And there are hundreds of millions of Youtube pages.

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