Let's All Slide Down the Streaming Rabbit Hole With Tubi
With help from Mischief @ No Fixed Address, Tubi—Fox's ad-supported VOD service—has found a brand persona worthy of the Super Bowl.
"While much of the streaming world still revolves around an obsession with the latest movie or series, we are on a mission to give all people access to all the world’s stories," says Tubi CMO Nicole Parlapiano. "That means having a deep and diverse library that allows people to dive into their own personal content journey. They can discover anything from Hollywood blockbusters and classics to sub-genres and subcultures that just might lead them down the perfect rabbit hole for them.”
The Big Game blitz introduces not only a brand positioning but a mascot of sorts—in this case a giant bunny. Now, let's hop down those "Rabbit Holes"...
There's more Donnie Darko energy to this than Alice in Wonderland—its outset feels comically sinister—but the work arrives at a compromise between the two. The giant rabbit, snatching people out of their lives seemingly at random, ultimately sends them down an endless hole, à la Alice, captivated by all the content that awaits.
"We wanted to take people by surprise by showing how Tubi's content takes people by surprise," says Kevin Mulroy, ECD and partner at Mischief. “There's a lot of joy in finding an immensely deep rabbit hole of shows and movies that quench our niche thirsts. We were inspired by how weirdly enchanting this journey can be."
According to the agency, every "rabbit hole" Tubi sends you down is unique to the user; your clicks and past views define what comes next. What's more, "Tubi has a vast library of content that allows viewers to go very deep on specific, interest-based content," explains Bianca Guimaraes, also an ECD and partner at Mischief.
It's hard for us to imagine how this differs from, say, Netflix, but we're open to the possibility that OTTs—which, with their fragmentation and swapping of desirable titles, have become too much like the cable networks we left behind—can still disrupt expectations. If you’ve got a rabbit hole that doesn’t merely leave us drifting helpless from one title to the next, that actually gets us somewhere, we’re happy to tip ourselves over its edge.
You can watch two more Tubi SB ads below. In one, the bunny encounters a gardener. Another, sans rabbit, goes the Big Game "interruption" route with commendable style.
