By Michael Bürgi | May 20, 2024
As the cable reporter for now-defunct Mediaweek from 1993 until 1998 when I became an editor, I learned about the TV ad marketplace down to a level of granularity I had no idea existed. It’s when I first heard the term “upfront” used in a way that had nothing to do with where I stood at a concert or in line.
In those days, hardly anyone knew what the Internet was, four broadcast networks dominated the upfront marketplace, and syndication (remember that?) and basic cable networks scratched out revenue totals that barely added to half a billion dollars — less than Google generates in less than two weeks today.
There was no programmatic selling — it was all about relationships between the ad sales chiefs and their teams, and the titans of the media agency world (when the likes of Irwin Gotlieb and Jon Mandel made or broke the business). And each of the sales teams had their own style — where the MTV Networks sales team in the late 1990s resembled a family straight out of “The Sopranos” central casting, the Turner sales team felt more akin to “Mad Men.”
CMOs didn’t have the high visibility or rock-star status that a Marc Pritchard possesses today — but of course they always had the clout, being the holders of the purse strings.
Today, tech rules
Last week, every single upfront presentation trotted out advances in technology that not only embrace programmatic buying in a relationship business, but emphasized the value of letting artificial intelligence scrape the content treasure chests of the programmers and find contextual relevance for advertisers.
Netflix, a relative newcomer to the ad-supported video landscape, impressed those attending its upfront with a bristling array of ad-tech tools and partners beyond its main back-office ally in Microsoft. It’s also introducing its own ad-tech, which will be tested in Canada at first.
Ironically, there’s so much inventory for media buyers to sift through that sellers now have to find ways to create scarcity — and YouTube sits at the forefront of those efforts.
The beginning of the end?
So, has the upfront finally reached a point where it’s no longer worth the effort? It’s a question that has kicked around this industry since I first started covering them 30 years ago.
The first part of the upfront — the presentation of content to throngs of media buyers, planners and clients — is likely to never go away. Everyone likes a show — and the parade of stars, celebrities, singers and athletes that graced all the upfront stages last week offer a rare opportunity to enjoy this business — which has become so much more of a complex business.
“It’s really important for not just the ad community but the investor community and our clients to understand what’s happening and where the big bets are being placed,” said Mike Law, CEO of Dentsu’s Carat. “We spend a lot of the year talking about data, connections, cultural relevance — all the business aspects. This is about a showcase of the star power and talent of what video and TV is today. It’s a PSA for the industry. It shows the excitement and scale that helps brands reach consumers.”
But the need to commit something in the neighborhood of $20 billion in ad dollars within a span of weeks that invests from Q4 this year through Q3 of 2025? That’s becoming far less important, as clients seek more flexibility, and the reality that, besides a few live sports events, no content is a must-buy anymore.
“The idea in the entertainment space that you need to book it all now — those days are gone,” declared Geoffrey Calabrese, chief investment officer at Omnicom Media Group. “It’s a lot to try and package together.”
Added Law: “Decades ago there was a really defined window of time. Now it’s about frameworks of partnerships and how we build to do some of the great stuff we’re seeing onscreen. All the upfronts highlighted a lot more of the client partnerships and the ways brands actually integrated. That doesn’t happen in two weeks or even four.”
And that’s not even taking into account another major headache that lingers over the video industry: measurement, or rather the lack of coherent measurement.
As OMG’s Calabrese put it, “You run into a space where you’re transacting on different currencies with different partners for the same campaign inside the same timeframe. So you can do it all. There’s just a heavier lift than people anticipated still having at this point.”
Law agreed that very important piece of the investment puzzle is far from solved. “We have to continue to focus on the best measurement, which has to be about business outcomes and consumer experience,” he said. “How can we ensure that we’re not just driving massive amounts of frequency but truly extending reach?”
