With so many major media companies entering the streaming wars, what strategy would you use to succeed?
Well, one company decided to use an “unusual” lead magnet to enter the streaming wars. What was the result?
- They reached #13 on PCMag’s “The Best Video Streaming Services for 2021” list.
- They are ranked at the #4 spot on PCMag’s “The Best Free Video Streaming Services for 2021” list.
- They made the #7 spot on CNET’s “Best free TV streaming services: Peacock, Plex, Pluto TV, Roku, IMDb TV, Crackle and more.”
- They are ranked #17 on Consumer Report’s “Guide to Free Streaming Video Services” (beating out YouTube).
- They ended up getting purchased for $440 million.
Today, I’ll share with you the “unusual” lead magnet they used and show you the path they took to achieve success.
NOTE: If you’ve read my previous articles in this current series, you can skip the next section.
Haven’t Read Previous Articles? Read This – Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On
As I mentioned in my previous article, lead generation and lead magnets could change your business forever. Why do I say this?
Because the greatest tech companies around today have actually been built using lead magnets.
The key thing to understand is that they didn’t do that by using lead magnets in the usual way. They’ve used them in an unusual way.
In a previous article, I also shared with you my definition of a lead magnet.
My Definition of a Lead Magnet: A lead magnet is something valuable that you offer to your ideal prospects in exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable (usually information of some kind).
From Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On
- I told you that when you see this definition, you need to realize that a lead magnet can be much more than a PDF file.
- You need to realize that prospects possess something much more valuable than just an email address they can exchange with you.
In my previous two articles, I showed you how Facebook and Canva both built such successful businesses by using a very unusual way to think of and implement lead magnets.
Tubi: An “Unusual” Lead Magnet That Led to a $400 Million Acquisition
Today, I want to show you another company that has used lead magnets in an “unusual” way.
But, unlike the other two companies, this one achieved success by applying this “unusual” understanding of lead magnets to streaming TV.
By taking a look at this story, it will help you see that what I’m sharing with you can be applied to all sorts of businesses.
The company I want to talk to you about today is Tubi TV.
In case you haven’t heard of it, Tubi is a free video streaming service that enables users to watch over 20,000 movies and television shows from nearly every major Hollywood studio.
Users can watch this content in multiple ways:
- Through iOS and Android apps on your smartphone
- Through apps available on Roku, Samsung TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Sony, Vizio Smart TVs, Xbox, and PlayStation
- Or even through your web browser via your laptop or tablet
Now, let’s take a closer look at what their unusual lead magnet is…
Tubi’s Lead Generation Strategy That Led to Their Incredible Success
(IMPORTANT: Everything I’m about to share with you about their strategy is just from observations I’ve made as an outsider. I have no insider information.)
Stage 1: They offered a free video streaming service to anyone – no email required.
You can think of this first stage as the “free sample” stage. Because as you will notice, Tubi lets users access their content without offering anything valuable in exchange.
In other words, you don’t even need to create an account with them to view the TV shows and movies. One thing that Tubi does do at this stage, which makes them stand out, is they have some really unique categories that they list their content under.
Categories such as:
- “Something Completely Different”
- “Not on Netflix”
- “Leaving Soon”
- “Only Free on Tubi”
- “Highly Rated on Rotten Tomatoes”
- and more
The way they categorize their content makes it easier to sift through, so you can find what you like.
You might be wondering. Why would they let users view their content without asking for anything from those users? Because the main way Tubi makes money is from ad revenue. That means the larger audience they have, the more revenue they make.
If they would have just stopped at this stage, then they wouldn’t have qualified as a company that used an unusual lead magnet.
But they didn’t stop there.
Stage 2: In exchange for your email address, you can access the free content on all of your devices, sync your list, and continue watching anywhere.
They ask for your first and last name, an email address, a password, date of birth, and gender.
But actually, I hear that you can sign-up with only your first name and email address. The rest of the info is optional. You also have the option to sign-up via Facebook or Google sign-in.
Pay close attention because this is where their choice to let users have free access becomes an actual incentive for people to sign-up. You see, the more you use Tubi, the more an account becomes attractive to you.
Why? Here are three reasons:
1. You can create a watchlist.
The more you use Tubi, the more you will discover things you want to watch later. But if you don’t give them your email address, you will just have to remember these things.
In fact, when you try to add something to your list without an account, you get a prompt that encourages you to sign-up. (See image below.)
2. You get recommendations based on your viewing habits.
Once you create an account, you give Tubi a better way to make recommendations that actually match the things you like to watch. This saves you from having to manually find all the content you’d actually like.
3. You can access the free content on all of your devices, sync your list, and continue watching anywhere.
This might not seem like a very compelling reason, but it’s the reason I finally ended up signing up for an account.
The more that a person uses Tubi (the power of that first stage in action), the more this becomes a really valuable incentive for a user.
How Tubi’s Lead Generation Model Is Just a Variation of Facebook’s Model
If you remember in my previous post, Lead Magnets: The Fundamental Element Today’s Greatest Tech Companies Have Been Built On, I told you that Facebook offered “connection” as their lead magnet.
They did that until they gathered enough users to be able to sell other companies the chance to advertise to them. That’s how Facebook made so much money and became such a valuable company.
Now think about it.
Tubi had the same basic lead model: gather a bunch of users so that companies will pay you to advertise to them.
But Tubi implemented that lead generation model in two different ways:
- Instead of relying on users to create content, like Facebook did, Tubi relied on media companies to provide the content.
- Instead of making their content only available to people with accounts, like Facebook did, Tubi made the same content available to people with or without an account.
How Effective Has Tubi’s Variation of This Lead Magnet Model Been?
When I say that Tubi achieved success by using an “unusual” lead magnet, I don’t mean that other companies haven’t offered ad-supported TV streaming.
Other companies have used this model. Tubi has just been more successful:
- Pluto has 28.4 million users
- Vudu has 25 million users
- Crackle has 26 million users
- Roku has 27 million users
How many users does Tubi have? In August of 2020, Tubi announced that it had reached 33 million users – an increase of 65% year-over-year.
Why have they been so successful? I believe the reason they’ve been so successful is because of how well they’ve implemented this lead generation model.
The stats that I began this article with should prove that this isn’t just a personal opinion. But if you want more proof of how successful they’ve been at the implementation of this lead gen model, check this out…
Further Proof of Tubi’s Success
According to an article on TheVerge.com….
“Fox Corporation has acquired ad-supported streaming platform Tubi for $440 million, bringing more than 20,000 movies and shows to the platform.”
– From Fox buys Tubi for $440 million as it attempts to join the streaming wars
You read that right.
They’ve done such a great job at implementing their “unusual” lead magnet that Fox Corporation (no longer connected with 20th Century Fox) decided they were worth $400 million. That’s how valuable an “unusual” lead magnet, and the list of prospects it can attract, can be.
In Fox Corp’s press release, they revealed some of the reasoning behind their purchase…
“The acquisition of Tubi underscores FOX’s long-term strategic initiatives to broaden and enhance FOX’s direct-to-consumer digital reach and engagement.
“Tubi brings to FOX an expanded consumer offering with a sizable, younger-skewing and directly connected user base that spends over 160 million hours per month watching content on the service.
“Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Corporation, Lachlan Murdoch commented: ‘Tubi will immediately expand our direct-to-consumer audience and capabilities and will provide our advertising partners with more opportunities to reach audiences at scale. Importantly, coupled with the combined power of FOX’s existing networks, Tubi provides a substantial base from which we will drive long-term growth in the direct-to-consumer arena.'”
IMPORTANT INSIGHT:
I won’t get into this in this article, but I do want to point out something important that was repeated over and over in the quote above: “direct-to-consumer,” “directly connected user base,” and “direct-to-consumer arena.”
Fox Corporation, realizes the benefit of having direct access to a list or user base of consumers. That’s a benefit direct response marketers have known for at least 100 years.
In this disjointed and distracted world, more and more major corporations are coming to this realization. I’ll have to go deeper on this point in some other format in the future, but this is one of the most important reasons why you should focus on attracting leads in 2021. It allows you to speak directly to your leads.
Tubi’s Example Applied to My Lead Magnet Definition
Another reason I’m calling it an “unusual” magnet is because Tubi didn’t choose to go the way that many of the big-name streaming services have.
They didn’t decide to charge for their content. Instead, they decided to offer an “unusual lead magnet” in exchange for something valuable.
Let’s take my definition and plug in Tubi’s example. Then you’ll see their whole strategy at its simplest level:
- Something valuable that you offer your ideal prospects: Tubi offered free access to TV shows and movies. (Canva offered the ability to create great designs.)
- In exchange for something of theirs that you consider valuable: When a user creates an account, they are trading more than just their email. They’re also giving Tubi the ability to track their viewing habits. That made Tubi such a valuable asset, Fox Corp was willing to pay hundreds of millions for it.
Many More Successful Tech Companies Have Used an “Unusual” Lead Magnet
I’ve now shared three examples of extremely successful tech companies that have used “unusual” lead magnet.
You’ve now seen three different businesses built off of just two different lead generation models.
Have I finally proven to you that many successful companies really have built their business models off of the second marketing fundamental (aka attraction)?
I hope so.
Because, as I’ve said, when you understand lead magnets in this deeper way, the right lead magnet really could be worth millions, if not billions of dollars to you.
I still have 9 other very successful tech companies that I’ve documented that have used lead generation and lead magnets in an “unusual” way to build their company.
I need to decide what I will do with this information. Maybe I’ll offer another example via a lead magnet in my member’s resource area? 🙂
Then maybe I’ll later share the other examples through some paid option. I’ll let you know more once I decide.
I still need to get to my 10 other marketing fundamentals that you’ll need to succeed in 2021. So I’m going to move on to the next one next week.
Two Favors
- If you have gotten something out of this article, could you share it with others? That will help more people to benefit from it.
- If you have gotten something from this article, would you consider becoming a free member? You’ll get to see the next example I share only to members of this site. You can sign-up below.
Get Emailed Whenever a New Article Goes Live
Did you enjoy this article? Then don’t miss when the next one goes live.
Sign-up below and you will be emailed whenever a new article is posted.
(That means that you will usually be emailed multiple times a week.)
