DirecTV & Disney leverage football season

Welcome to football season. Brands are taking advantage—let’s dive in.

DirecTV & Sunday Football Tie-in

DirecTV has teamed with Travis Kelce and Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs for an audio series on Spotify called “Sack the Sunday Scaries.” Listeners can also enter a sweepstakes to win a Travis Kelce “pajersey” or body pillow.

Roku Cuts Shows and Workforce to Cut Costs

The Roku Channel has decided to remove around 37 shows as a cost-cutting measure. The move may cost Roku a content-impairment charge of $55 million to $65 million for “removing select existing licensed and produced content.” This also comes as Roku lays off 10% of its staff.

Hulu + Live Announces Discount During Disney-Spectrum Faceoff

Not only has Disney already encouraged Spectrum customers to switch to Hulu’s pay-TV package for access to ESPN and Disney’s other networks, Hulu + Live is now offering a nearly 29% discount to do so. Notably, the discount is for the ad-tier version of Hulu, ensuring Disney can still sell ad spots.

X Possibly Under FTC Scrutiny for Missing Ad Labels

X users are noticing in-stream ads appearing without their required “Ad” labels. At present, no one is sure if it’s a glitch or intentional and the executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy, Jeffrey Chester, told TechCrunch he believes the FTC should investigate.

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Around the Web

• Boss and a Roblox game are yet another pair teaming up for an NFL integration.

• Users report YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket only has a minimal delay.

• Streamer Ro Ramdin discusses TikTok’s “ad apocalypse.”

• Product searches on TikTok and Instagram are up by 54% and 20% respectively, while Google’s have dropped by over 14%. Join this live webinar this Thursday for advanced social SEO strategies to help your brand rank against competitors.*

• Smirnoff’s new hyper local “We Do Game Days” campaign highlights football teams and their fans.

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Just Can’t Get Enough

Football—but make it animated.

• Which is exactly what Disney is doing.

• Their Toy Story Funday Football will “transform every player and play into an animated recreation” in the style of Pixar’s Toy Story.

Is your brand gearing up for football season? Have you figured out a sports-centric strategy? Or are your target customers not fans of football? Reply and let us know!

Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you Thursday!