Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Marketers Say Nets Missed Mark at Upfront Presentations

23/10/2019

At this year's upfront, brand safety was an important topic to media buyers and advertisers, but it wasn't emphasized by the networks, according to a new study by Advertiser Perceptions.

Andy Sippel

The study found other differences between what was important to buyers who attended this year's upfront and newfront presentations and what was said from the stages of Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and other venues.

Despite the disconnect, the networks had one of their best upfront market, with most network getting percentage price gains in the teens and volume increases at a time when viewership is shrinking.

The market operates on its own supply and demand dynamics, noted Andy Sippel, executive VP at research company Advertiser Perceptions. And of course everybody looks smart when the market is strong.

According to the Advertiser Perceptions study, the most important topics for advertisers attending the 2019 upfront were audience reach, composition and engagement, return on investment and return on spending, brand safety, integrated solutions and viewability and strategies to ensure ads are seen and cross platform measurement..

For the 2018 upfront, many of the same issues were top of mind among buyers, with ROI/ROS at the top of the list, followed by audience reach, cross-platform measurement, brand safety and better ways to measure advertising effectiveness.

Marketers still love TV. They believe it still moves the needle on brands and sells product. But they're really worried about declining reach, said Sippel. The need reassuring that they're making smart investments.

Sippel said that his marketer clients said what they wanted to hear was an eat your vegetables message.

Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for WarnerMedia

But what the buyers said they heard emphasized by networks executives speaking at their upfront presentations were integrated solution on TV, digital and mobile screens, technological innovations like apps and virtual reality, audience reach and composition, strategic partnerships and branded entertainment and other marketing capabilities.

They didn't provide a big enough signal to the marketers that they hear them and they understand them and they want to help solve their problems. That's what comes through for me in the research, Sippel said.

A year ago, the networks did a better job in addressing buyers concern. Topics emphasized at the upfronts, according to the 2018 survey were brand safety, data-enhanced TV buying, audience reach, composition and engagement, commercial loads and the power of TV as an ad medium.

Standing up on stage and talking about audiences and ROI is really not the kind of thing that dazzles, Sippel said. Those things are really best tackled in face-to-face meetings, and these guys do talk about it in the face-to-face meetings.

Sippel said that most buyers still seem to see value in the expensive upfront presentations, even if the speakers on stage don't always address their primary concerns. They get to network with their colleagues. They get out of the office. They go to a party or two. I creates some excitement around the industry, he said.

Advertisers do appear to be buying the media company strategy of getting bigger to be able to provide their customers with greater scale. In the survey, said that when it came to what influences media selection, the strength of a conglomerates portfolio was cited by 38% of those responding compared to 20% who said it was the power of individual media brands.

Sippel said that marketers like increasingly bigger media companies because those bigger media company can provide reassurance that they'll get the reach they need and be less risk.

When they're making investments in the television market, they're able to buy the portfolio and spread their chips around, he said.

For its study, Advertiser Perceptions interviewed 395 marketer or agency executives in May and June. The executives were responsible for spending at least $5 million on TV or $1 million in digital video.
LINK: https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/marketers-say-nets-missed-mark-...
See more stories from bandc

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

12/03/2026

Blue Lucy's 6 Key Tenets

Modern media operations demand a platform that unites automation, orchestration, and human oversight without compromise. In this post, we explore the six key te...

12/03/2026

Blue Lucy Technology

A deep dive into the platform Architecture The Blue Lucy platform follows a distributed microservices architecture, meaning the overall operational capability...

12/03/2026

Blue Lucy Brings Order to the AI Wild West at NAB 2026

Orchestration platform enables broadcasters to deploy multiple AI models safely with full auditability, rights protection, and regulatory oversight. LONDON, En...

12/03/2026

Australia's financial sector ad spend surged by 20% in 2025 according to Nielsen

Cost pressures, switching intent and demand for savings and credit products are ...

12/03/2026

Nielsen Launches 2026 Upfront Planning Series With New Data To Help Marketers and Agencies Unlock Growth, Innovation Opportunities

For the first time, Nielsen breaks out demographic information about FAST and AV...

12/03/2026

Disney+ Goes Vertical with Verts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

LTN and Appear Collaborate to Enable Scalable IP-Native L...

Appear's high-performance, ultra-low latency encoding platform augments LTN's fully managed global IP network and orchestration platform LTN, a leader ...

12/03/2026

Boland Communications to Showcase New OLED Displays and V...

2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Preview April 18-22 Las Vegas Booth C3519 Summary: At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Boland Communications will be showing the bro...

12/03/2026

Riedel Expands Managed Technology Division in the America...

Riedel Communications today announced the continued expansion of its Managed Technology Division in the Americas and the appointment of Jan Schaffner as Vice Pr...

12/03/2026

Grass Valley Powers Hybrid IP Game-Day Production Hub for...

Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a new broadcast production control room for the University of Illinois Division o...

12/03/2026

NAKIVO Expands Platform Support and Elevates Security in...

NAKIVO, a global provider of backup and ransomware recovery solutions, announces the general availability of NAKIVO Backup & Replication v11.2. This release exp...

12/03/2026

BIScience Adds Linear TV to its AdClarity Analysis Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

Gray Stresses Importance of DRM for NextGen TV in FCC Sports Probe

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

Nebraska's HuskerVision Deploy Lawo IP Tech for Studio Upgrade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

Comcast NBCU, Telemundo Station Group Announce $600,000 In Grants

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

EditShare To Highlight Analytical AI Capabilities At 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

FreeWheel Launches AI Agent Infrastructure

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/03/2026

COW Jobs: Editor de Vdeo - Direct Response, Performance Ads - Brazil, Remote

COW Jobs: Editor de V deo - Direct Response, Performance Ads - Brazil, Remote Brie Clayton March 11, 2026 0 Comments Editor(a) de V deo (Direct Respon...

12/03/2026

Avatar: Fire and Ash Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio

Avatar: Fire and Ash Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton March 11, 2026 0 Comments Colorist delivers premium cinematic color across 2D, 3D...

12/03/2026

Boston Conservatory to Timothe Chalamet: We Care About Ballet and Opera

Boston Conservatory to Timoth e Chalamet: We Care About Ballet and Opera Boston Conservatory at Berklee students and faculty respond to the actors recent comm...

12/03/2026

Into the Omniverse: How Industrial AI and Digital Twins Accelerate Design, Engineering and Manufacturing Across Industries

Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...

12/03/2026

Jam-packed weekend of Irish entertainment, sport and music across RT for St Patrick's Day

The Late Late Show Show St Patrick's Day special Dancing with the Stars f...

12/03/2026

GeForce NOW Raises the Game at the Game Developers Conference

GeForce NOW is bringing the game to the Game Developers Conference (GDC), running this week in San Francisco. While developers build the future of gaming, GeFor...

11/03/2026

Calrec To Unlock Hybrid Workflows At 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Matrox Video Enables the Next Era of Software-Defined Med...

Matrox Video will showcase its vision for the future of live production at NAB 2026 in Las Vegas, April 19-22, highlighting how broadcasters and media organizat...

11/03/2026

GlobalM Showcases Distributed Video Gateway Architecture...

Geneva-based technology company, GlobalM SA, is presenting its GMX Distributed Video Gateway, a software-defined IP media transport platform designed to replace...

11/03/2026

Video is King - 2026 Iconik Media Stats Report Finds Vide...

Backlight (booth #N2829), the company behind Iconik and Wildmoka, which power video workflows for large media and entertainment organizations, has released the ...

11/03/2026

QuickLinks Latest StudioEdge Models to Make North America...

QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, presents its latest StudioEdge models at The NAB Show ...

11/03/2026

Telestream Expands Its Cloud Services with the Introducti...

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced the expansion of Telestream Cloud Services with the introduction of UP, a new cloud-...

11/03/2026

Operative Launches AOS Configuration for Digital-First Mo...

Operative, the preferred advertising management provider for the world's leading media brands, today announced the launch of AOS for digital media, an AI-po...

11/03/2026

Calrec Redefines Broadcast Workflows at NAB 2026

Calrec will be located in Central Hall, on Booth C6907 Choice without compromise The broadcast industry is going through a rapid evolution that s signalling a...

11/03/2026

Worldstream and Cubbit launch sovereign S3 cloud storage...

The new service is hosted and operated entirely in the Netherlands, combining data sovereignty, resilience, scalability, and predictable costs without relying...

11/03/2026

Ease Live powers interactive Premier Padel experiences on...

Ease Live, an Evertz company and leader in interactive graphical overlays, today announced the successful deployment of its platform on Red Bull TV for Premier ...

11/03/2026

Mediagenix Title Management Accelerates Content Monetizat...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, is advancing its Semantic Intelligence cap...

11/03/2026

Emergent Launches Fusion- The Interactive Anything Platfo...

Emergent, a leading provider of AI-enhanced media production solutions, today announced the official launch of Fusion, a powerful, no-code application builder d...

11/03/2026

Techex Names Matt McKee as Senior Director of Sales, Americas

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

IAB Tech Lab Announces Content Monetization Protocol for AI LLMs

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Mondae Hott Joins Kokusai Denki as Northeast Sales Manager

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Gray Media to Air Cincinnati Reds' Games on WXIX FOX19

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Shure Audio Solutions Deliver Super Bowl Win

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

UK's First Live Broadcast Using New n40 Private 5G Spectrum

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/03/2026

Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With I...

Utah Scientific today announced the expansion of its Technology Partner Program with the addition of Audinate, Bitfocus, and Skaarhoj, three industry leaders wh...

11/03/2026

DigitalGlue Ends the Post Production Tax creativespace In...

DigitalGlue, creator of the creative.space on-premise managed storage platform, today revealed plans to launch creative.space Intelligence (CSI) at NAB 2026 (Bo...

11/03/2026

Maxon and Tencent Cloud Partner to Integrate HY 3D into C...

Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, gaming, and more, has annou...

11/03/2026

NUGEN Audio Halo Vision Plug In Serves as Spatial Compass...

Composer and Re-recording Mixer Michael Phillips Keeley has built his career around immersive storytelling. Working from his Dolby Atmos-equipped studio, Sound ...