Although Paramount Global, like other
major TV network companies, is seeing a weak scatter market -- from an iffy economy with supply-chain and inflation issues -- significant media dollars are still expected to land in TV networks'
coffers during the upcoming upfront ad market.
Jo Ann Ross, president and chief advertising revenue officer of U.S. advertising sales for Paramount Global, speaking with Television
News Daily, says recent history -- through the pandemic --- showed many brands what is important.
“What happened to those brands during COVID that went off the
air?” she asks. “And what happens to those brands that continued to advertise?”
The lessons learned are that the former lost brand awareness and engagement with
consumers, but the latter survived until the marketplace turned around. “Those brands are still top of mind.”
That said, Ross confirms that the near-term first- and
second-quarter scatter markets -- typically strong indicators of the health of TV’s upfront ad market -- are indeed "soft." She adds: "Is it slower than it was a year ago? Yeah, but
we’ll come out of it. The economy has a lot to do with it."
She adds: "Our clients are struggling with the same issues all consumers are struggling with and what we are struggling
with in terms of visibility." Of those advertisers that do spend, she says they "are being very careful because of the 'i'word -- inflation."
The good news, she says, is that some
categories are still going strong -- such as new digital-first advertisers that continue to move into big linear -- marketers that are needing more scale to add to their limited digital-only
campaigns.
For this upfront, a number of new potential TV network "currencies" are being touted among TV networks and their associated streaming platforms. But Ross, and other
executives, say adoption will be slow.
Most deals will be done on traditional Nielsen-based demographics, she says, "because you have to measure against something, and there is a
historical track there."
A number of media agencies are doing 'tests' with legacy TV network/platform selling companies through new efforts from measurement and research
companies. In mid-2021, then ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global) struck alternative measurement deals with VideoAmp and Comscore.
Paramount Global is also expected to make an
announcement at some point in the future with regard to another measurement deal -- with iSpot.tv.
But few, if any, currencies will get going this year -- possibly including
so-called "secondary" guarantees, where advertisers look to add additional metrics to that of traditional Nielsen-based measures.
“We would prefer to use a 'test and learn'
[approach] versus secondary guarantees,” says Ross. This also might be true for clients.
While some marketers might want a "hard" secondary guarantee, she says others might
want to observe a safer "test and learn" effort, perhaps unsure about what those currencies could deliver. They might want to just "take a look."
For its upfront presentation
later on Wednesday, Paramount Global and Ross will tout many of the company’s now established advanced advertising solutions and efforts.
One of the newer ad tools, "Super
Franchises," allows advertisers to access Paramount Global’s major program and movie franchises across the company's range of media platforms.
Two other more veteran
advertising efforts saw major growth over the last year or so, says Paramount -- EyeQ and Vantage.
EyeQ allows marketers to buy different programming genres to tie into media
campaigns. EyeQ has more than 80 million full-episode monthly users.
Paramount’s advanced advertising unit, Vantage, its audience-targeting platform, has a linear, digital
and an addressable TV footprint of more than 50 million households.