Success Stories

Schumacher Auto Reaches Local Audience Through Hulu

An ad campaign is only as successful as its ability to get the attention of the right audience. Once you’ve gotten their attention, the next challenge is to intrigue them enough to take some sort of action. This intrigue is sometimes most effective when presented in a video, especially with products that elicit emotions to drive purchase, like a car.

Darren Thomas, a Digital Marketing Analyst with Schumacher Auto, had a hunch that Hulu would be the right medium for their next advertising campaign, especially since the introduction of the Hulu Ad Manager. He shares in this interview the marketing challenges they’ve previously faced and the positive experience they’ve had in advertising on Hulu.

Hulu: Please give us some background on Schumacher Auto and the audience you are trying to reach.

Darren: Schumacher Auto is an auto dealership group with locations throughout Palm Beach County, Florida, that offers a range of makes and models—from pre-owned to luxury. GMC recently launched a variety of new commercials for the new Hummer EV Electric, and we wanted to feature them in a new campaign aimed to drive reservations for the new vehicle.

Since the Hummer EV is a brand new vehicle, we knew that meant we needed to find the right audience to target for this campaign. We did a lot of work to identify the right market; we looked at keyword research on Google, affinity audience research, in-market research on YouTube, Facebook audience research to determine who would be most likely to secure reservations for the new Hummer, and more. Really we built a target customer profile for those who would be most likely to be interested in the Hummer EV Electric, and then looked for a way to effectively reach those specific individuals.

Hulu: Prior to advertising on Hulu, which channels/platforms were part of your media mix?

Darren: For this particular campaign, we ramped up our Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing efforts to maximize our ability to show up in search engines and we also ran ads on Facebook and Instagram, specifically using 15-second videos to promote the dealership and the new Hummer. All of these efforts were focused on driving traffic directly to our dealership’s websites, in addition, we ran remarketing ads to those who may not have submitted their information on the reservation form the first go round.

Hulu: What marketing or advertising challenges led you to try streaming TV advertising?

Darren: With Hulu, I knew you couldn’t just click through and skip the ad. That confidence, along with the audience engagement I knew that Hulu had with their viewers was really appealing for us because we knew that people in the local areas would see and hear about our brand. In addition, since Hulu’s platform allowed me to see how many impressions (or total views) we’d get based on my budget, I was confident that not only would my target audience see my ad, but would also remember it.

Hulu: Why did you choose Hulu to help tell your story?

Darren: There are a number of key factors that have been really important to us:

AUDIENCE & REPUTATION

First and foremost was the audience. As I mentioned before, we had already built a very specific audience profile, and we wanted a way to reach them on a large scale. The number of people who stream TV through Hulu spoke volumes—I’m a subscriber myself. After seeing how massive the customer base really is, we decided to give it a shot.

And along with that expansive audience, Hulu’s big name and reputation also really sold us on trying out the Hulu Ad Manager.

Everyone knows Hulu. And, especially during the pandemic when everyone is streaming at home, Hulu’s enormous audience demonstrates that they are well-loved.

LOCALIZATION

Another key factor that went along with the audience for us was the ability to localize. We wanted to make sure people who were seeing our ads were close enough to a dealership to want to come on down.

With Hulu, you can be very geographically targeted about who sees your ad, which was one of the biggest selling points for us. We were able to focus our targeting around the dealership locations in Northlake and West Palm. Our goal was for the locals in the area to reserve the Hummer EV and, because we were able to target by location, we could specifically target people who had a short trip to our dealership.

PRICING

Once we got into the tool, we were also surprised at just how affordable the ad campaign on Hulu was.

The number of impressions, or total views, our campaign would be able to reach based on our budget was more than other platforms.

This made it easy to feel comfortable and confident in knowing that we made the right decision by going with Hulu—for our financials and for our audience.

Hulu: What has it been like using the Hulu Ad Manager?

Darren: We did struggle a bit with the specifications of the video, but in the end it was worth it. I know the quality of the Hulu platform, so meeting the requirements meant an excellent presentation and video.

Ultimately, the customer experience has been great and the platform is self-explanatory. Our ads ended up being easy to create, they’re engaging, and they look incredibly professional. Creating a campaign is very straightforward—no complaints here!

Learn More About Hulu’s Self-Service Advertising Solution
Thanks so much for your time, Darren! Local target audiences can be hard to reach, so we’re happy to hear you’ve found success in using Hulu Ad Manager—businesses like yours are exactly why we started this self-service ad platform.

Looking to get your ad in front of your target audience? Learn how you can get started with Hulu Ad Manager, an affordable way to show our extensive viewer community what your company has to offer.