Hulu’s extended advertisements

In one of the last info sessions I attended while a student at Waterloo, I had the opportunity to ask some Hulu engineers about their "watch an extended commercial and we’ll show your show without commercials" advertising scheme. They said that it was a very popular option for Hulu users (well duh, people don’t like commercials) and that focus group testing showed a more favourable connection with the companies that chose to advertise with this model.

I was stumped at that fact then and am still stumped by that fact now that I am again an avid Hulu user again. I blank out during normal commercial breaks and just mute my sound and go do something else for 1 to 1.5 minutes while the extended commercial is playing. I don’t establish a connection with the company; in fact, I don’t even know who the company is.

Then again, advertising does work on a subconscious level. I never really noticed it until I fell into that target demographic companies were after. When I started to look for a car to buy, I was actively watching car commercials, and now that I’m shopping for insurance, I find myself remembering insurance commercials I’ve seen in the past. There’s the Progressive shopping cart one, the Geico gecko, the President Palmer from 24 company (American Mutual or something?), and the list goes on. But I’m also the type of shopper that these companies hate – the ones smart enough to still do research even though the brand is familiar to me. Geico may have the best commercials (it’s a tie between them and Afflak) but if they don’t have the best rates (they seem to…) then they won’t get my business.

And now that my extended commercial is finished and my show is fully buffered, back to my regularly scheduled Hulu programming.