Affiliate Innovation in Action: Rakuten Advertising & Hulu’s Audience-First Content Win

The Challenge

In a streaming landscape defined by rapid change and fierce competition, Hulu needed to grow through the affiliate channel in a way that went beyond transactional placements and delivered genuine brand growth. The challenge was to build a content partnership programme that could drive commercial performance while also developing the deeper publisher relationships and real-time insight needed to make editorial affiliate activity consistently effective.

The Strategy

Hulu and Rakuten Advertising built a programme that combined paid editorial with organic content, underpinned by a feedback loop in which Hulu's experience directly influenced the development of Rakuten Advertising's affiliate technology. The partnership was structured around audience-first content, with publisher relationships actively nurtured rather than simply transacted. This co-creation approach ensured the programme evolved continuously rather than operating on a fixed set of tactics.

The Work

The partnership developed a content tracker to provide real-time visibility into editorial performance, alongside a dedicated newsletter to keep publishers informed and inspired. Tailored placements were developed across publications to reach distinct audiences with content matched to their intent.

Results

The programme delivered strong year-on-year growth across content volume, engagement, and commercial performance.

The Judges' Verdict

Judges described this as a standout submission that sets a new benchmark for content partnerships, going beyond execution and performance to demonstrate true innovation, scalability, and industry impact. The co-development of platform technology through the partnership was highlighted as particularly impressive, and the audience-first approach to publisher engagement was praised as genuinely creative. An outstanding entry with lasting ripple effects well beyond the partnership itself.

"This is a standout submission that sets a new benchmark for content partnerships by going beyond execution and performance to demonstrate true innovation, scalability, and industry impact."