NBCUniversal said Monday that Capital One, L’Oreal, Molson Coors, Subaru and Verizon have signed up as launch sponsors for the new streaming service Peacock when it debuts this week.
Peacock hits nationwide on Wednesday, April 15, free for customers of parent company Comcast, and three months later for everyone else with a price range from free to $10 a month. It’s the latest entrant in the streaming wars following Quibi’s launch April 6 and ahead of HBO Max, set to unspool in May. Together with previously announced sponsors including Apartments.com, State Farm, Target, and Unilever, the group of companies “will help define the Peacock advertising experience,” NBCUniversal said in a statement.
NBC Universal said Peacock will have five minutes of ad loads per hour or less. New options pioneered for Peacock include Trending, Solo, Curator, Explore and On-Command ads. They will join previously available features like Shoppable TV and Prime Pods. It said Peacock also reps the next phase of NBCUniversal’s ‘One Platform’ offering that lets marketers reach audiences across the NBCUniversal ecosystem as broadly or narrowly as they want.
New opportunities for marketers are crucial, the company said, as the coronavirus pandemic has people sheltering at home watching more television than ever even as much of the economy grinds to a halt.
As Deadline reported, Peacock’s launch slate is heavily impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Besides the ambitious saga Brave New World, originally set up at USA, production on virtually all other original series from Peacock’s inaugural slate was paused by the pandemic. Coverage of the Tokyo Olympics was supposed to be a main driver of viewership and subscriptions for the new platform but that will no longer be on the menu after the 2020 Summer Games were pushed to 2021. Peacock will rely heavily on its library content, including The Office and the vast Dick Wolf series portfolio.
Still, as the streaming home for some of NBCUniversal’s most iconic shows, Comcast will be able to boast a fair-sized streaming platform that can also promote its other assets, including driving broadband growth.
As it does, Laura Molen, President, Advertising Sales and Partnerships, NBCUniversal, said Peacock’s goal is to “redefine the industry’s conception of what is possible for ad-supported streaming relationship with advertisers.”
“At a time when people all over the world are turning to our content for comfort, entertainment, and connection, a consumer-first platform has never been more vital,” she said in a statement. NBCUniversal will give launch partners “a seat at the table alongside [its own] engineers and creators to pilot new commercial innovations and learn what resonates most with audiences.”
Partners quoted in the release focused on streaming, innovation and a desire to experiment beyond traditional commercials.
“As viewers continue to migrate to streaming platforms, partnering with Peacock is an opportunity for L’Oréal to test and learn with a company that shares our vision for consumer-centric marketing,” said Gretchen Saegh-Fleming, Chief Marketing Officer at L’Oreal USA in the announcement.. “Peacock’s dynamic platform will enable us to look beyond traditional 15 and 30 second video formats and collaborate with an industry leader who is committed to building a best-in-class content experience.”
Brad Feinberg, Vice President of Media and Consumer Engagement, Molson Coors Beverage Company North America said, “Our primary goal is to meet consumers in the right places, at the right times, with the right message. It is therefore imperative that we continue to invest in emerging platforms like Peacock that have some of best original content and are well positioned to support shifting consumer media behaviors.”
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