Verizon is promoting +play during the Oscars
Verizon will use Hollywood’s biggest night to plug its new streaming and content subscription aggregator, with some help from Netflix.
A 60-second ad that will run during Sunday’s Academy Awards on ABC promotes the service, called +play, which it began offering late last year. It is offered for free to customers of Verizon wireless, and its 5G Home and LTE Home internet products.
The spot, from R/GA, strings together dialogue from popular streaming and cable TV shows and app content to mimic verses from the Beatles song “All Together Now.” It features content from NFL+, Showtime, AMC+, Paramount+ as well as Peloton and Duolingo. But the majority of the shows featured come from Netflix, which has partnered with Verizon on a promotional offer that includes giving new Verizon customers a free 1-year Netflix Premium subscription.
On +play, users can manage and use a range of streaming and content subscriptions, some at discounted rates. The ad comes as Verizon adds 10 new subscription partners, including Paramount+ and Blue Apron.
Verizon declined to comment on ad spend for the campaign, which will air on linear TV as well as Hulu Live TV. This is the first time +play is being advertised on broadcast TV, according to a Verizon spokesperson.
Verizon isn’t alone in promoting Netflix with a TV commercial airing during a widely viewed national event. During this year’s Super Bowl, General Motors ran an ad showing its electric vehicles being added to Netflix shows as part of an effort to normalize EVs.
