• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 9, 2008

MTV Networks returned to its parade-of-stars approach in a festive upfront presentation Thursday, calling on acts that included a Jon Stewart-Stephen Colbert stand-up and Justin Timberlake to help interest media buyers.

The event echoed the upfront of two years ago, when MTVN offered a similar star-studded spectacle with luminaries from its fleet of some 13 domestic networks.

Many of the stars Thursday offered spoofs of various aspects of the industry--from pleading for the media buyers in attendance to experiment with multi-platform, cross-channel opportunities (the cast of Broadway's "Legally Blonde") to Colbert riffing on Doritos' high-profile involvement with his Presidential aspirations.

Then there was the tongue-in-cheek fawning over top media buyers such as OMD's Chris Geraci by Stewart and a song dedicated to Group M's Rino Scanzoni by Sarah Silverman. The paeans to the media heavyweights called to mind NBC's send-up of then-Magna Global's Bill Cella by "Saturday Night Live's" Tina Fey and Amy Poehler during an upfront presentation several years ago.

Stewart, Colbert and Silverman are all headliners on Comedy Central. Timberlake has a project coming to MTV in the fall. Also appearing was Chris Rock, whose "Everybody Hates Chris" comedy comes to Nick at Nite in syndication next year.

MTVN also tried a non-traditional gambit. As it looks to increasingly link with marketers on branded entertainment initiatives, top executives from Unilever and Pepsi touted the impact of campaigns they ran on MTVN outlets. MTVN's CEO Judy McGrath called it "reinventing commercial time as content time." (The Colbert-Doritos link also received significant play as an example.)

Looking for new ways to innovate in "partnership" with brands was an overarching theme, highlighted by Philippe Dauman, CEO of MTVN parent Viacom, who told media executives the company "shares the mission of finding new ways to connect with your customers." In that vein, MTVN offered up a play on advertisers' quest for ROI by re-branding the acronym as "Return on Innovation" and encouraging marketers to look for creative ways to use the MTVN brands across multiple platforms to break through the clutter.

MTVN ad sales chief Hank Close cited a "Multi-Screen Engagement Case Study," which focused on MTV's "The Hills" and concluded that audience engagement accelerates when consumers have a relationship with the show on more than one platform. Close said the research showed "that television is still the biggest driver of brand awareness," but "multi-platform media campaigns perform at double to triple the effectiveness" of a one-screen buy.

The study showed that some 90% of consumers who watch "The Hills" and interact with its online extensions, including participating in a related virtual world, say they are "strongly connected to the franchise."