Tubi is getting more tailored.
No it’s not a new recommendations or personalization engine – instead the Fox-owned free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service is looking to boost its ads sales strategy and cater more specifically to clients in key advertiser industry verticals with the addition of two new senior leaders from Snap.
Tubi on Monday announced that Sharon Silverstein has joined the free streamer as SVP and Head of US Industry Verticals. At Tubi, Silverstein will oversee all category leads across industry verticals and partner closely with regional leadership to drive continued momentum. Based in Los Angeles, Silverstein most recently served as VP of North America Sales at Snap, playing a key role to scale the business and deepen partnerships with major advertisers. Prior to her eight years at Snap, Silverstein spent nearly a decade at Viacom, including as SVP of linear and digital sales for MTV, Comedy Central and Nick.
In particular, Tubi called out Silverstein's chops at client relationships and cross-platform expertise, including leading teams across digital, linear and social media platforms.
Also joining Tubi from Snap is former Head of Verticals at the digital platform, Katelyn Kroneman, who will serve as VP of Finance and QSR Verticals at Tubi. The AVOD player emphasized Kroneman’s experience leading strategic and revenue growth across platforms, with earlier work during her more than 9-years at Snap spanning multiple verticals including CPG, Restaurants, Financial Services, Telecommunications, Entertainment, Travel, Automotive, and Government & Politics.
Like Silverstein, before Snap Kroneman worked at Viacom, serving at the company for more than 11 years, including as VP.
Tubi, meanwhile, has seen notable momentum as a free streamer, consistently ranking near or atop other leading FASTs (and often outpacing major SVODs) for share of monthly US TV time on Nielsen’s The Gauge tracker – including a 2.2% share in May’s monthly snapshot.
Just last month it disclosed reaching 100 million monthly active users, up from the 97 million it had in January and growing from the 51 million MAUs Tubi counted in 2021.
And as viewership grows, Tubi’s been particularly focused and done well with catering to and engaging a younger audience, stating that the platform over-indexes with young, multicultural viewers who “represent billions in purchasing power.”
Simultaneously it’s been building up advertising capabilities as it aims to deliver relevant ads that connect brands with those audiences at scale.
As One Touch Intelligence’s Michael Grebb noted in a recent column on StreamTV Insider, the FAST industry is shifting towards more direct selling relationships with advertisers “through private exchanges that emulate the first-party buying experience on traditional platforms,” as opposed to buying through automated, open programmatic exchanges that helped build the FAST industry. For Tubi that includes the debut of a new self-serve offering announced at IAB NewFronts in May that allows brands of any size to buy directly through the free streamer via the Comcast-led Universal Ads platform.
And its strategy to better cater to specific advertising verticals “is a key pillar” of Tubi’s approach, “ensuring that ad solutions and measurement partnerships are tailored to each industry’s unique needs,” the company said in announcing the new ad sales hires.
“We know the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work,” said Jeff Lucas, chief revenue officer at Tubi, in a statement. “Sharon and Katelyn bring strategic vision and deep client expertise that will help us collaborate more closely with partners, creating bespoke solutions that drive results.”
Some of Tubi’s earlier partnerships and offerings for custom and vertical integrations include work with Polk from S&P Global Mobility for automotive insights, teaming with Innovid for real-time incremental reach measurement and online attribution, and NCS for measurement on e-commerce and in-store incremental sales lift, as well as offerings for pharma, finance, and QSR, among others.
According to Tubi, over 95% of viewing on its free ad-supported platform is done in the on-demand environment (versus linear FAST channels), across a content catalog that includes 275,000 movies and TV episodes and more than 300 exclusive originals.