How HBO Max is bringing ads to ‘Succession’ and other HBO originals
Vital Farms and Mercedes-Benz are the only two sponsors of the final season of the drama.
MikeTyes
HBO Max has started bringing ads to HBO originals that have previously been running on the cable network sans commercials, and that model is starting to take shape with the final season of “Succession.”
While HBO Max started running ads midway through the first season of “The Last Of Us” earlier this year, this is the first time it will be doing so through an entire season of an HBO original show.
Inventory is extremely limited, with just two advertisers—Mercedes-Benz and Vital Farms—purchasing what is being called “HBO Original Title Sponsorships.” The sponsors appear before each episode of the show’s fourth season, with eight-second and 15-second pre-roll ads that rotate between multiple pieces of creative.
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The sponsorships, which Warner Bros. Discovery is also shopping for upcoming seasons of “The Gilded Age” and “The Righteous Gemstones,” are also being added to the HBO Originals catalog on HBO Max.
The addition of advertising to HBO Originals makes previously-elusive premium cable content available to marketers, even as as similar cable programmers, including Showtime and AMC, don’t yet offer advertising in their streaming channels. But with the advent of streaming ad tiers now spanning most premium platforms, including Netflix and Disney+, the addition may stand out less than it would have before the rise of the streaming wars.
“The audience is now so fragmented and easier to find in other streaming channels, like Netflix or HBO Max [Originals],” said one buyer. “It’s good to give us more supply, I just don’t think it’s as coveted as it probably was a few years ago when we were really trying to chase some of those audiences.”
A second buyer argued that the new inventory “matters in that you’ve got a show that has a lot of social currency—that still matters. [‘Succession’] is also a show that garners a lot of response, not just in audience size, but in the fact that they’re actually paying attention and looking forward to it.”
