USA Network Gives Mysterious ‘Mr. Robot’ Promo Major Push

B&C has partnered with iSpot.tv to bring you a weekly chart we call Promo Mojo with exclusive data showing the top five TV show promos ranked by impressions. These are the shows networks have been promoting most heavily to drive tune-in (our data covers the 7-day period through July 17).

Emmy-nominated hacker drama Mr. Robot is getting a big push from USA Network with an unconventional nine-second promo that shows a dark silhouette of a character from the show (Elliot) shown from behind. There’s no dialogue and no action—just a question, “Who is Mr. Robot?,” shown on-screen followed by whoismrrobot.com. With nearly 163.5 million impressions, the Mr. Robot spot is second only to a general TLC promo (172.5 million impressions) that plugs that network's summer programming. The USA and TLC promos, both new entrants in our chart, are also notable for getting heavy out-of-network play, along with a Cooks vs. Cons spot from Food Network that slips from No. 2 from No. 5 in our ranking.

1) TLC Summer, TLC Network

Impressions: 172,568,505

Imp. Types: National 80%, Local 15%, VOD/OTT 5%

Avg. View Rate: 93.88%

In-network Value: $575,302

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $684,269

2) Mr. Robot, USA Network

Impressions: 163,498,357

Imp. Types: National 76%, Local 12%, VOD/OTT 12%

Avg. View Rate: 87.02%

In-network Value: $2,001,890

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $480,559

3) The Coroner: I Speak for the Dead, Investigation Discovery

Impressions: 143,694,847

Imp. Types: National 95%, Local 3%, VOD/OTT 2%

Avg. View Rate: 95.32%

In-network Value: $699,987

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0

4) 2016 ESPYS, ABC

Impressions: 124,904,841

Imp. Types: National 82%, Local 15%, VOD/OTT 3%

Avg. View Rate: 86.70%

In-network Value: $1,458,959

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0

5) Cooks vs. Cons, Food Network

Impressions: 115,252,588

Imp. Types: National 89%, Local 8%, VOD/OTT 3%

Avg. View Rate: 86.56%

In-network Value: $1,131,672

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $377,915

Data provided by iSpot.tv, Real-time Advertising Metrics

Impressions - The total impresions within all US households including National Linear (Live & Time-shifted, VOD+OTT, and Local.

Imp. Types - Impression types tracked include National (Live + Time-shifted), Local, VOD & OTT. See below for further details.

Avg. View Rate - The average view rate across all views of a promo. The average view rate is only calulated on impressions that are viewed from the beginning of the promo.

In-network Value - Estimated media vlaue of in-network promos.

Out-of-network Spend - The estimated amount spent on TV airing time for this promo's spots during a given date range.

National: Live - A national promo which was viewed during lve linear television broadcast or same day, via DVR or on-demand.

National: 3 Day Time-shifted - A national promo which was viewed on delay, via DVR or on demand up to 3-days after the original braodcast.

National: 4-7 Day Time-shifted - A national promo which was viewed via DVR between 4 & 7 days after the original broadcast.

National: 8+ Day Time-shifted - A national promo which was viewed via DVR 8 days or more after the original broadcast.

Local - A promo that was aired during a local ad break slot.

VOD - This includes promos that run in ond-demand content past three days (i.e. do not contain the linear promo load)

OTT - On-demand steraming content (i.e. Hulu, Roku, Fire TV Stick, Chromecast).