HBO Max has bought the most paid social media advertising over the holiday season so far (November 23-December 22), according to BrandTotal, a social media competitive intelligence platform.
The social media ad tracker looked at paid campaigns for Disney Plus, HBO Max, Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV Plus, Peacock and Paramount Plus on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.
In an analysis of the total 3,164 paid social ads, HBO Max had 38% of sponsored impressions (referred to as share-of-voice or SOV) to second-play Disney Plus‘s 26%, together accounting for almost two-thirds of al paid social media ads for streaming services.
Disney Plus had been the leader in such sponsored impressions over the summer, the company pointed out, but BrandTotal CEO Alon Leibovich said both are aggressively courting new subs and trying to retain current ones. “This is a two-horse race ahead of Christmas,” he said.
Twitter drew the most dollars with 49% of social ad budgets, followed by YouTube with 31%, Facebook with 11% and Instagram with 8%.
Gen Z (18-24) was the biggest target of streamers' social media ad spend with 53% of ad impressions targeting that demo. Hulu and Peacock were most likely to target Gen Z, with Netflix and Paramount least likely.
