The Launch of HBO Max

STRATEGY

Our launch plan was designed to make the launch of HBO Max an unmissable event where anywhere you went online, you were sure to see HBO Max creative. We accomplished this with a massive, coordinated effort across Brand, Mid-funnel and Growth media buys that drove high impact reach through premium partnerships with top digital publishers and frequency of message with targeted paid social and programmatic placements. Creatively we built on the “HBO plus so much more” messaging by highlighting the strength of content and playing to the familiar and timeless characters.

EXECUTION

Leading into launch, the Brand team served to do a lot of the heavy lifting using hard-working media channels to drive awareness against our core audiences. On launch day, our goal was to light up Max across the most premium, highest visited sites across the web. We had over 70 high impact placements including 12 HPTOs across YouTube, Twitter, WSJ, NY Times and Twitch. With the absence of cultural moments around launch, we looked to own the day in linear with 21 spots across morning news and late shows. Additionally, we wanted to make sure we went big against our OTT Streamer audience so we partnered with Samsung and Vizio, who account for 57% of the Smart TV market (Source: Statista), to own their most coveted ad inventory on launch day. To further make our impact felt, we amplified our presence in audio and streaming with 10 podcast sponsorships and high impact placements on Spotify. Lastly, we wanted to make sure both business and trade audiences felt our launch so we took over major entertainment pubs such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

After months of planning and re-planning with clients, launch day went surprisingly smooth with some stellar performance on the digital side. We drove over 775M impressions and drove 3.2M clicks to the Max site. Due to increased digital consumption, we saw over-delivery (added value) across almost every partner with over 300M extra impressions delivered day of launch. We owned the largest sites on 5/27 with a YouTube Masthead (600M impressions), Twitter Spotlight Takeover (68M impressions), TikTok Top View (17M impressions) and NYTimes Mobile HPTO

Heading out of launch day, we wanted to ensure we had a strong presence over the weekend to reach our audience when they are more inclined to binge and engage with entertainment content. We designed our media strategy to align with the channels they are engaging with most during weekend hours including heavy presence in CTV (Samsung/Vizio Takeovers), audio streaming (Spotify Today’s Top Hits Sponsorship) and Apple New’s “What to Watch” Weekend Spotlight.

With launches across 14 Mid-funnel direct partners, 5 Social auction platforms, 2 mobile app networks, programmatically within DV 360 & YouTube, as well as on Google, Bing, & Apple Search, within the first five days, Growth drove 194K+ trialists at an overall Cost per Trial Add of $55.

RESULTS

Drove over 775M impressions and 3.2M clicks to the HBO Max site
In the first month, Social generated over 300K+ trialists at an overall cost per trial add of $30
Generated 4 millions subscribers within the first month of launch, despite the lack of presence on Roku and Fire TV

Sources

BACKGROUND

On May 27th, 2020 came the birth of the next biggest streaming platform, HBO Max. As a product of WarnerMedia, HBO Max looked to join the ranks of top video services such as Disney+ and Netflix, providing consumers a variety of exclusive TV shows and movies available only on its platform. The service would house over 10,000 hours of video, including everything on HBO like "Game of Thrones" and "Westworld", as well as non-HBO TV shows like "Friends" and "South Park". With high expectations being part of the HBO family, it was imperative that HBO Max collaborated closely with Hearts & Science to ensure a successful launch.