What you need to know:

• Warner Bros. Discovery says its Max platform is powering ahead of forecast weeks into its Australian launch. ANZ senior revenue director James Hole touting strong advertiser and subscriber uptake, despite keeping audience numbers under wraps.
• Agencies suggest a "textbook" launch, per one investment chief, with buyers praising the outsourced sales model via Nine. 
• The streamer eschewed traditional audience guarantees in favour of impression-based ad packages, selling out all 10 launch packages (priced at $100–150k each) in under two weeks, per Nine digital commercial director, Nick Young. 
• Despite entering a crowded streaming market, WBD senior revenue director for ANZ James Hole attributes the platforms success with subscribers to its premium content offering, bolstered by a “powerful” deal that gave Foxtel set-top box subscribers free access to the Max ad-tier, and a significant launch campaign.
• While Max won't report on total reach, Hole says buyers can work backwards using frequency caps for a “better steer” on what’s being delivered. Young says his team is working out how to provide advertisers with a total reach figure across their Max and Nine buys.
• Now entering the second launch phase, Young says the plan is to move bring in sponsorships and integrated content. 

Six weeks into its Australian launch and Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) Max platform is outperforming its targets on all fronts, claims local revenue director, James Hole. 

Soon to be rebranded as HBO Max, the streamer has diverged from the pack with an impression-based sell that swerves the usual audience and subscriber reporting.

Hence Hole “can’t talk about numbers”. But he reckons the market is buying regardless.

“We had sold out our initial ad packs, but because it's gone so well, we've been able to find additional inventory to sell – and I think the guys at Nine have done a really good job on doing that,” Hole told Mi3.

Nine won the sales rep contract earlier this year. Foxtel Media was also reportedly in the running.

“We were expecting and hoping for a good market reaction, but it has exceeded that,” said Nine’s digital commercial director Nick Young. “You worry that it is a crowded space, yet when an entrant like this came in, it's really stood out.”

Senior media buyers have long underlined the challenge facing global streamers entering the local market with ad propositions.

"Netflix, even with all the support of Microsoft [which locally was then selling ads through Xandr], is finding out just how hard it is to run a really sophisticated sales team and move into the space,” said then OMG investment chief, Kristiaan Kroon after Netflix had underwhelmed and under-delivered on its ads launch.

“I think other providers will also find that as well."

Warner Bros Discovery appears to have heeded that lesson. One investment chief described its subsequent rollout as "textbook" while media buyers were unusually glowing about their experience with Max, welcoming the new streamer's decision to outsource.

Young says it took less than two weeks to sell out the 10 impression-based launch packages Max had on offer – each costing between $100-150k and guaranteeing 2.2 million ad impressions at a CPM of $55, according to agency intel. Those impressions were burned through “quicker than expected”, per Young, with Nine’s sales teams subsequently pitching Max nationally.

“We're now in that second phase where, as those packages are delivering out, we're talking to the market about more consistent trading of campaigns, especially when we focus around the core agency groups and having that conversation around what the next two to three to four months look like from a product and capability perspective,” says Young.

Demand drivers

Hole says Max’s early success with subscribers can be drawn to a few factors – the launch partnership with former Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO broadcast rights holder Foxtel being one.

The deal automatically gave network’s 1.4 million set-top box subscribers an ad-lite subscription to Max free of charge, of which Mi3 understands 30-40 per cent were expected to rollover – which would equate to a 400-500k audience at launch, similar to that touted by Foxtel when it launched ads on Binge.

Hole wouldn't confirm numbers, instead stating the deal has been “pretty powerful” so far.

He also pointed to strength of the product and its content. Post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us is making the running, the show’s second season premiering just two weeks into Max’s Australia launch – and Max's marketing campaign threw a few barbs at rivals with a tagline promising "all killer, no filler" as it bids to lure subscribers from rivals.

“One of the things that we looked at before we launched Max was, does Australia need another streaming service? The answer was, no, they don't need another streaming service, but there's space for a better one – and that's the space that Max is targeting.”

Young reckons the same pitch is landing with advertisers.

“It’s a great product in a space – long-form, premium video – that is increasingly desirable for clients. It always has been, but I think clients are really seeing the benefit of a 30 second spot in a premium, highly engaged environment.”

He reckons the backing of a sales team of Nine’s scale is a competitive advantage for the global streamer too. 

“I’m not in any way throwing shade on any other competitors, but Nine has a sales team in the hundreds. To have those voices in market talking about the premium nature of [Max] and also having a programmatic and tech division that is working with the agencies consistently – that combination has been really, really successful.”

Invisible audience

Young says the decision to go with impression-based packages at launch was one made with the benefit of hindsight gleaned from other’s missteps.

“Our strategy was – because we'd heard so much of other launches in market – very much to frame the packages around impression-based buys that would deliver and be a good experience for those advertisers coming on board. We didn't set sort of arbitrary timing around it.”

Young says the launch strategy gives the sales team flexibility to deliver depending on how the audience fluctuates, but the plan is to evolve beyond a “purely impression-based sell”.

“It's a combination of impression-based buying and sponsorships that we want to focus on.”

The approach means Max won’t be reporting on total reach, but Hole argues the buy side can still work back to that figure to get a “better steer” on what’s being delivered.

“If you can get $100,000 campaign away and you know you've got a frequency cap of X, you can work out what reach becomes,” he suggests.

Young notes the two firms are “working through the process” to give advertisers a view of total reach across Max and Nine for blended buys across both publishers – and he expects more of those combined buys to come.

“There is a difference in how it's being planned and bought at the moment, [but] I think that that will evolve, because at the end of the day, it's all premium video content brought together now.”

“Rather than these free-to-air, SVOD, BVOD, AVOD titles, I think it'll split into premium video, premium video on demand, and then sort of live big cultural moments.”

Plus, with Nine planning to launch ads on Stan, the network will likely have further hindsight benefits of its own.