This morning I had the pleasure of meeting Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, who speaks elegantly about balancing his company’s three key customers: viewers, content producers and advertisers. His focus on convenience and simplicity of video content is unmatched, and is quickly turning Hulu into more than a website (Hulu recently jumped to #3 in online video, surprisingly beating Yahoo Video but not surprisingly beating “wheezing” AOL Video according to comScore).
Kilar agreed to be in one of my goofball videos, but was not surprisingly swept away mid-morning as news broke of the Disney/Hulu deal. Catch ya next time, Kilar. We’re not offended that WVFF didn’t get an exclusive on the Disney deal before the networks.
A few notables from his talk private presentation (which I had the sad task of following). And, no, Nalts will not be appearing on Hulu. It’s focused on “professional” content, so I need not apply.
- Awareness, message association, brand favor-ability and audience intent increase from 4-20% after Hulu ads.
- He’s got a great new feature that allows consumers to select the ad, and an even cooler one that lets the advertiser survey the viewer (which gives the viewer fewer interuptions).
- Still struggling with distribution beyond computers, because television can put him at odds with cable and networks. He doesn’t appear to be soon helping me watch Hulu on AppleTV. đ
- A lot has changed since Hitchcock Presents (his mom’s favorite show- Kilar’s is Speed Racer, and he used to run home from school, only to catch it 9 minutes late). Hitchcock ran 4 minutes of ad times (with 26 minutes of show). But The Office runs 8 minutes of ads (with about 22 minutes of show). Hulu strives to keep ads to about 1/15th of program time, which seems more than fair. Consumers can choose to watch a 3-minute movie preview, then enjoy uninterrupted full episodes of shows.
- Brand recall on Hulu is nearly twice what broadcast or cable provides (58% to 34% and 28% respectively). Same as message recall.
- I expected to hear from an old-media junky, desperately pitching prerolls. Instead met an incredibly humble Pittsburgh dude who has a vision for how consumers can enjoy ad-supported content with higher convenience than television. He was at Amazon before Amazon was Amazon, and launched Hulu while launching his 3rd kid. He seemed mildly receptive to me renting his kids for videos.
- Kilar likened Hulu to Starbucks, where consumption grows because of convenience. So watch for Hulu ubiquity via mobile, web and other mediums. Kilar reminded us of The Onion’s article: Starbucks Puts a New Starbucks Inside a Starbucks Restroom.”
It’s about time they opened a Starbucks in the bathroom of Starbucks. With wifi, a toilet and a supply of Starbucks in the shitter I will never have a reason to leave my favorite spot.
I’ve finally found the happiest place on earth. Disney is full of shit about being the “happiest place on earth”… have you seen the toilets at Disneyland?
I’ll say this about Hulu – they have Customer Service.
I sent them a note that a couple of their videos were chopped up and they actually replied, thanked me for alerting them and stated they would fix the problem ASAP. I even received a follow up that the videos were now repaired, up and running and they hoped I would enjoy them – something to that effect.
THIS is the secret sauce to happy online video viewing and what will win, at least me, over.
Good old fashion Reliable Customer Support and Service.
If You Tube didn’t have the position in time and space they would be bankrupt because there is next to no customer support and service.
Another fail and bad call on my part (see old post here somewhere) in this same area is Skype – again their Wal-Mart prices and space in time is the only reason why this company still floats. Even e-bay is dumping them and they’re planning on going public next year, yeah right, buy bullion and sterling instead. I don’t know if Friis and Zennstrom still own Skype, but because Skype Customer Service sucks so bad, winning the worlds 1st major internet Customer Service award for SUCK, I avoid Joost now – talk about bad brand carry over. After Piratesbay got socked in Sweden for copyright violations, and if that sticks, I hope they sock it to tit that nourished their fortunes, Kazza.
The day is coming when Customer Service and Support will once again be valued and important to a company’s future and survival. Comes with a tight wallet; a natural progression of free market forces, if there are any left after the major house cleaning in DC.
Off the top!
Here’s my short, but growing list of on-line Customer Service Support FAILS – add yours please
DELL
Sony Computers
Microsoft
Go Daddy
Skype and consequently Joost
You Tube
U.S. Government
My short, but growing online list of Good Customer Service
Blue Host
Hulu
Up Next! – The rating of online and e-mail replies by You Tubers and Internet Celebs.
Oh, you don’t think that’s coming?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6vkmsQdkVQ
I’ve only checked out hulu a couple of times and didn’t really find anything I wanted to watch, but I like the idea of having old shows available for viewing. This could be particularly good for sociology students who want to be able to document social changes through changes in media presentations. I look at it as much a way of documenting the past as something of value for entertainment purposes. Do they have a good collection of old commercials?
I love seeing Kevin get all jazzed like this.
That was a great comment by you, too, Nutcheese.
Too man words to read.
But….
I love Hulu.
Is he hung like a mule?
Oh wait. That comment was supposed to go to your Adage article.