Telly
Industry Overview
Telly is a free 55-inch 4K smart TV funded entirely by advertising and user data. Founded by Pluto TV's CEO Ilya Pozin, the dual-screen design puts brands in front of Gen Z and Millennials—a notoriously ad-resistant demographic. The radical proposition ("the smartest TV at the revolutionary price of free") required a website that made the audacious business model feel logical, not predatory. And the "Telly bar" (the second screen) needed marketing graphics that felt premium enough to justify the data exchange.
The Challenge
Telly's challenge was credibility and clarity. A free TV sounds too good to be true—because it is. The website had to explain the exchange transparently: you get world-class hardware in exchange for viewing data and ad exposure. The Telly bar ads themselves had to feel elegant and non-intrusive—matching Nielsen data showing 60% better recall on Telly placements than industry average.
Transparent business models disarm skepticism. Telly's job was to make the exchange feel like a win-win, not a compromise.
The Approach
The website centered on clarity and boldness. The hero said "The biggest thing to happen to TV since color"—positioning this as innovation, not gimmick. We explained the dual-screen system visually: the main 55" display for entertainment, the Telly bar for non-intrusive, beautifully-designed brand messages. For the Telly bar ad designs, we created a library of premium brand graphics—clean, respectful of viewer attention, designed to feel like part of the interface rather than an interruption.
The Results
Oxy is continuing to support Telly in their mission to deliver the future of television. That partnership spans the full stack — from the interface layer that shapes how viewers navigate content, to the programmatic advertising infrastructure that makes the model work, to the marketing that brings it all to market. Each piece reinforces the others: better UI makes advertising placements more valuable, and stronger advertising economics fund the next generation of the product. As Telly scales, Oxy remains a partner across every one of those fronts.
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