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.
advertisement
advertisement
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.