Once again, Tom Brady is starring in the Super Bowl—this time, without playing in the actual game.
Hulu enlisted the veteran New England Patriots quarterback for a commercial it hopes will generate buzz and help distinguish it in a crowded streaming-video marketplace where Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and a raft of new entrants are also competing for subscribers.
The somber black-and-white spot shows Mr. Brady, who at 42 years old has been the subject of speculation about whether he will retire or even move on to another team, walking onto an empty field at his home stadium. “They say all good things must come to an end,” the quarterback intones, seemingly about to announce he is hanging it up after nearly two decades in the league.
In a classic misdirect, Mr. Brady then pivots and launches into a pitch about Hulu + Live TV, listing its offerings including live sports, cable channels and originals. At the end of the spot, Mr. Brady talks about how it is time to say goodbye to TV as we know it. His final words: “But me? I’m not going anywhere.”
Mr. Brady, a six-time Super Bowl champion who has been in the National Football League for two decades, officially becomes a free agent in March for the first time in his career. His line in the commercial was intentionally ambiguous and created specifically to help Hulu generate buzz, said Ryan Crosby, Hulu’s vice president of brand marketing.
The streaming marketplace is getting more competitive as new players enter the arena, including Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+ and Apple Inc.’s AAPL -4.43% Apple TV+, which launched last fall, and services from AT&T Inc.’s T 0.51% WarnerMedia and Comcast Corp. CMCSA -2.15% prepare to launch this spring.
Hulu, which is also controlled by Disney, was long-known as a destination to watch shows from major broadcast networks, but it has transformed into a bigger player in original programming. Its Hulu + Live TV service, which carries live channels, competes with so-called skinny bundles such as AT&T TV Now, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -1.48% YouTubeTV and Dish Network Corp. DISH -0.92% ’s Sling TV.
“The streaming TV landscape is hot, to put it mildly,” said Kelly Campbell, Hulu’s chief marketing officer. “For Hulu, this means we not only need to drive people to subscribe but we need them to stay with Hulu.”
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For the past year, Hulu + Live TV had focused heavily on promoting sports in its commercials, with a campaign that featured basketball stars such as the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo. But the company now wants to emphasize its broader catalog of content.
Started in 2008, Hulu has amassed 28.5 million subscribers in the U.S. while Netflix has 167 million subscribers world-wide, including 60.4 million in the U.S. Disney+ said it lured in 10 million subscribers the day of its November debut, while Apple TV+ hasn’t disclosed subscriber numbers.
Hulu was valued at $15 billion last year and is still unprofitable, although Disney has said Hulu’s domestic operations would become profitable in either fiscal 2023 or 2024.
Hulu bought its Super Bowl ad time in July and began brainstorming. It came up with several ideas, including promoting FX Networks’ library, which is coming to Hulu. Disney acquired FX parent 21st Century Fox last year.
Entertainment companies often use Super Bowl ads to promote individual programs and films. An Amazon Prime Video ad this year was to promote the original series “Hunters,” which stars Al Pacino as a Nazi hunter.
Hulu took that approach last year with a spot for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” one of its benchmark original shows, and considered doing the same thing this year by promoting its hotly anticipated Kerry Washington-Reese Witherspoon drama “Little Fires Everywhere,” which is set to debut in March.
But this year, Hulu wanted to stand out and try something new. Discussions with Mr. Brady’s team started in November.
With roughly 100 million people expected to tune in, the company wanted something that would be culturally relevant. “There has to be a hook that sparks additional conversations,” Hulu’s Mr. Crosby said.
Marketing has become a major battlefront in the streaming wars. Disney, Comcast and AT&T are expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising over the next year to attract streaming customers.
Hulu spent roughly $7.5 million on its 30-second Super Bowl spot, including airtime, talent and production, according to a person close to Hulu. Fox Corp., the broadcaster of this year’s game, said it sold 30 seconds of ad time during the game for as much as $5.6 million this year.
Fox and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.
Ad-tracker Kantar estimates that Hulu spent $113 million on U.S. ads for the first nine months of 2019. Kantar’s estimates exclude spending on social media.
“We have been investing more across the board in marketing,” said Hulu’s Ms. Campbell, who declined to provide Hulu’s ad-spending figures.
The ad was filmed in four hours in December at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Hulu shot two endings. The one on the cutting-room floor ended with Mr. Brady saying: “See you next season.”
Although both endings basically said the same thing, the “I am not going anywhere” line potentially had a broader range of meanings, Hulu’s Mr. Crosby said.
“What does that mean? Does it mean that Tom’s not retiring from football?” Mr. Crosby said. “Does it mean that he’s not leaving New England? Ultimately, we don’t know, but we think that makes it more fun.”
“Given the witty tone of the campaign, we thought this was a fun opportunity to play off all the speculation about my future,” Mr. Brady said in a statement provided by Hulu.
Write to Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com
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