• Ad Age, Tuesday, May 15, 2007 10:30 AM

Following companies like Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola, both of which pulled out of the TV upfront, packaged-goods giant Unilever may take its half-billion-dollar-plus budget out of the market, too. "We're discussing our upfront strategy," says Laura Klauberg, vice president-media for Unilever Americas. "We're weighing all our options in the upfront. The process has existed forever, and may have been very appropriate for business as it was conducted 10 years ago."

Unilever is also talking about the difficulty of making upfront buys so far in advance of its calendar fiscal year. Plus, its marketing approach that has become less TV-focused. Its media deals have grown increasingly complex of late, and now include things like branded content and integration with other media.

"And to know this far in advance what those things will be -- because we're really just planning for 2008 as we speak," says Klauberg. "It's difficult to know what I'm going to want to do from a programming standpoint, regardless of the channel, whether it's digital, traditional network, cable or even print."

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