Latest / Influencer Marketing with Fexingo: Creators, Sponsorships, and Modern Endorsement Deals / How Influencers Are Buying Their Own TV Spots During Live Sports
Transcript
- Lucas: So picture this: you're watching an NBA playoff game on cable — maybe Celtics versus Bucks — and during a commercial break, instead of a beer ad or a car ad, you get a 30-second spot featuring a fitness creator you follow on Instagram, telling you to use her app. Luna: I've actually seen that. It's jarring at first, but also kind of brilliant. Lucas: It's happening more than you'd think. And it's the subject of today's episode: influencers are increasingly buying their own TV ad spots — especially during live sports — rather than waiting for brands to pay them for sponsored content. Luna: Are we talking about a few creators with serious cash, or is this actually a scale-able play? Lucas: Let's start with a concrete case. Sarah Chen — she goes by FitBySarah online — has about 1.2 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. She built a following on home workout routines and meal-prep tips. In April of this year, she spent roughly $50,000 on a regional cable buy during an NBA playoff game. Luna: Fifty grand for a single game? That's a bet. Lucas: It was a 15-second spot that ran twice during the third quarter, and a 30-second spot during the fourth. She targeted her home DMA — Chicago — and used a programmatic ad platform to buy the inventory. Luna: So she didn't call up Comcast and negotiate a deal. She used something like The Trade Desk or Amobee. Lucas: Exactly. These platforms have opened up linear TV to basically anyone with a credit card. You set your budget, your audience demographics, the kind of programming you want to run against, and the system bids on available inventory in real time. Luna: Right, that's the programmatic TV model. I've seen it used by local car dealerships and law firms, but not by individual creators. Lucas: That's what makes this interesting. Historically, TV was out of reach for an individual creator because of minimum spends and the need for a media agency. But the minimums have dropped. Amobee, for instance, lets you run a campaign for as little as $10,000 — and some platforms go even lower. Luna: So Chen spent $50,000. What did she get for it? Lucas: She ran a direct-response ad — a QR code on screen, a call to action to download her app. According to numbers she shared in a recent creator-economy newsletter, she saw a 12% increase in followers in her target market over the following week, and her app saw an 8% coupon-redemption rate among viewers who saw the ad. Luna: 8% redemption is solid for a TV spot. Typical direct-response TV converts at maybe 1 to 3 percent. Lucas: Exactly. But there's a catch: the audience for an NBA playoff game skews older and more male than her typical follower base. She was essentially paying to reach people who might not be her core demographic, hoping some would convert. Luna: That's the big question — is the audience mismatch worth it? A 25-year-old woman watching a Celtics game might be rare, but when you factor in the scale of live sports, even a small percentage of a huge audience is a lot of people. Lucas: And that's exactly her logic. She said in an interview that she'd rather pay to reach a million people with a 2% conversion rate than pay for a targeted Instagram ad that reaches a hundred thousand with a 10% rate. The math works if the CPM is low enough. Luna: What was her CPM on the TV buy? Lucas: She didn't disclose the exact number, but based on a $50,000 budget and a typical NBA playoff game audience of about 4 million households in her DMA, we're looking at a CPM in the low teens — around $12 to $15. Compare that to Instagram's average CPM of $7 to $10 for targeted ads, but with far less targeting precision. Luna: So the TV CPM is higher, but the scale is orders of magnitude bigger. She's betting that the brand awareness from sitting inside a live event creates a halo effect that social ads can't match. Lucas: And there's another layer: the content itself. Her ad wasn't a polished TV commercial. It was shot on an iPhone, very much in her Instagram style — quick cuts, direct address to camera, her workout space in the background. It looked like a story post, but it was on a 60-inch screen during a timeout. Luna: That actually makes it feel more authentic. If it had been a glossy, produced spot, it might have clashed with the live sports energy. The lo-fi vibe probably helped it stand out. Lucas: She's not alone. There are at least a dozen creators I've tracked who have tried similar buys over the past six months — mostly in fitness, gaming, and personal finance. One personal finance creator, Mike the Money Guy, bought a 30-second spot during a Sunday afternoon NFL game in the New York market. He promoted his budgeting course. Luna: And that worked? Lucas: He said his course sales doubled during the week of the airing, but he also noted that many of the sign-ups came from people who had never heard of him before — which is exactly the goal. He spent $35,000 and generated about $80,000 in course revenue, so a positive ROI. Luna: That's a 2.3x return. Not bad for a first attempt. Lucas: But here's the thing — these are still pioneers. Most creators don't have $35,000 to $50,000 to gamble on a single TV spot. The real question is whether the unit economics will improve as more inventory becomes available and prices drop. Luna: If these conversations have sparked something you've actually used — maybe a new way of thinking about influencer strategy, or a tactic you've tried — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Lucas: Yeah, that's exactly the spirit. Small amounts from people who find value in the show — it makes a real difference. And it helps us keep the episodes ad-free and focused on the substance. Luna: So back to the economics — do you think programmatic TV will get cheap enough that a creator with 100,000 followers could afford a spot? Lucas: I think we're already seeing the beginning of that. Platforms like MNTN and Basis offer self-serve TV advertising that can run on streaming and linear. The minimums have dropped to around $1,000 to $5,000 for connected TV. Linear still has higher floors, but it's trending down. Luna: But there's a risk: if too many creators flood the market with low-production ads, viewers might tune them out the same way they tune out traditional commercials. Lucas: That's a real concern. The novelty factor is working right now because it's new. But if every break has a YouTuber telling you to use their VPN, the effectiveness will erode. The key is that the creator's personal brand carries trust that a generic ad doesn't. If that trust gets diluted, the whole model breaks down. Luna: So for now, it's a window of opportunity. First-movers in specific niches — especially those that align well with live sports audiences — could capture real value. Lucas: Exactly. If you're a fitness creator and you can buy a spot during the Olympics or a major marathon broadcast, the audience alignment is much tighter than a general NBA game. Chen chose the playoffs because of scale, not perfect targeting. Future creators might get smarter about which events they buy into. Luna: I'm also curious about the measurement side. How do these creators know their TV ad actually drove the app downloads? Lucas: They use attribution platforms like Kochava or Branch, which track QR code scans, unique promo codes, and device-level matching. Chen used a unique URL and a promo code that only aired on TV, so she could isolate the impact. That's critical — without proper attribution, you're flying blind. Luna: And on the brand side, some companies are watching this trend nervously. If influencers can go direct, they might rely less on brand sponsorships. Lucas: That's the bigger strategic shift. A creator who can generate their own demand through TV ads has more leverage in negotiations with brands. They can say, 'I can reach my audience without you — so your sponsorship needs to offer more than just exposure.' Luna: It's almost like a power move. 'I'm not just a distribution channel for your product; I'm my own media company.' Lucas: Exactly. And that's where I think this trend is heading — not necessarily every creator buying TV spots, but the mindset shift that goes with it. The ones who succeed will treat their audience as a media asset they can monetize through multiple channels, including traditional media. Luna: It also raises questions about regulation. The FTC requires clear disclosure when a creator is paid by a brand. But if a creator buys their own ad, that's just advertising — no disclosure needed. That's actually cleaner from a compliance standpoint. Lucas: Right. There's no endorsement to disclose because they're promoting their own product or service. It's the same as a company buying an ad for itself. That simplicity is another reason we'll likely see more of this. Luna: So what's the next step for a creator who wants to try this? What do they need? Lucas: First, a clear offer — app, course, merch, subscription — with a trackable conversion mechanism. Second, a budget they're willing to lose entirely, because TV is a gamble. Third, a platform like The Trade Desk or Amobee to execute the buy. And fourth, patience to analyze the data afterward. Luna: It's a lot more work than posting a sponsored Instagram story. But for those who can pull it off, it's a whole new revenue channel. Lucas: And one that might just redefine what it means to be an influencer — not just a content creator, but a media owner.