Amp spotlight: Key takeaways from TV upfronts 2024

Once upon a time linear and digital media lived in separate kingdoms, vying for separate opportunities and budgets. But during this year’s upfronts—which featured both Amazon and Netflix making their first in-person upfront presentations—the gates were thrown wide open to bidders across platforms. 

Whether we’re in an era of never-ending fragmentation or on the verge of a golden age of convergence, this year’s upfront presentations ignored the still foggy measurement picture and instead focused on star power and fan-favorite content—a stark contrast to last year’s events amid the writers strike. 

Here are the top upfront 2024 takeaways from Amp community leaders.

Content is king (again)

“There are more media partners seeking deals than ever before,” said Jennifer Kohl, chief media officer at VML. She noted one key trend of media outlets trying to “do it all” for brands, citing NBC’s One Platform and Google’s DV360. 

“Media companies want to be the one-stop shop for brands,” she said. “They are also offering hybrid buying models to prove they can morph linear, digital and on-demand into one opportunity.” 

Kohl also highlighted the importance of live sports in an Olympic year, plus the momentum continuing for women’s sports. But she felt most notable at the upfront was the level of talent and entertainment on display. 

“What writers strike?” she said. “We had top-tier talent from Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon to Jimmy Kimmel and Kurt Russell smiling for the audience, with so many high-quality movies, series, documentaries and even game shows to look forward to.”

Where some might have expected to see a heavy focus on innovation and futuristic advancements, this year’s presentations were all about the content. 

“Contrary to the anticipated full-court press on streaming, the 2024 upfront presentations seemed to have embraced an old-school approach, leaving us with a sense of familiarity amid the change,” said Guy Rancourt, VP of video investment at Amp Agency. “There was an eerie 2015 vibe about them. Also, the presentations have shifted their focus from ad tech to talent. Hollywood was abuzz with projects, and it felt like everyone had a role to play, ticking off ‘producer’ on their career checklists. The pendulum swing from last year was obvious.” 

For advertisers, the amount of quality offerings being churned out means a multitude of marketing opportunities to capitalize on, with in-person meetings still being unmatched for brands. 

“Undoubtedly, the face-to-face meetings with senior sales executives during upfront week are of immense value,” Rancourt said. “These interactions allow us to brainstorm with our client partners and sales management in intimate settings, fostering stronger relationships and benefiting our clients.”

Connelly Partners Chief Media Officer Michelle Capasso found this year’s presentations similarly encouraging from an agency standpoint. 

“It’s great to see the upfront return to programming and premium content after the strikes from last year, bringing back the excitement and celebrity factor that has always made the upfronts something special,” she said. While the programming harkened back to simpler times, the complex challenges facing streaming networks and traditional networks alike were equally on display, she noted. 

“Where that content lives—particularly on nonlinear platforms—is the biggest topic,” Capasso said. “It’s a challenging space for buyers, and the leading players—broadcast nets and Netflix, Hulu and others—need to find better ways to target and more streamlined ways to access inventory with confidence. Netflix’s presence and focus on quality programming and in-house ad tech should hopefully spur better visibility into ad-supported opportunities.”

Optimizing for the right reach

With seemingly boundless options for advertisers to choose from, agency leaders say brands should stay focused on reaching the right kinds of viewers. 

“We strongly advocate for brands to prioritize a media channel that allows them to tell their story,” said John Sampogna, co-founder and CEO of Wondersauce. “Over the last five years, brands have been so focused on direct response and lower-funnel conversion tactics that their marketing lacks a brand story, making it nearly impossible for them to stand out in such competitive and saturated platforms like Meta and Google.” 

Opting for streaming platforms continues to offer an in for brands that may not have pockets deep enough for major network spots. 

“Whether it’s a direct-to-network deal or going through a programmatic partner like MNTN or Tatari, we believe streaming and connected TV is undervalued media and a great way to reach a wide range of audiences,” Sampogna said.

Nevertheless, with so much market saturation and a multitude of channels and platforms to choose from, the challenge for advertisers lies, as always, in zeroing in on the right audience segments.

“Media companies didn’t hype this as much as I thought, but behind the curtain it’s clear they are selling their ability to find the right audience,” said VML’s Kohl. “Most presentations did have a ‘head of audience and data’ person read from the teleprompter, and there is a really good reason. Audience data is what all brands are chasing, even if Google did delay the cookieless future again.”

Dave Weiss, senior VP of integrated investment at UM Worldwide, had a similar takeaway. 

“Discussions at the 2024 upfront centered on media partners’ ability to achieve optimization, particularly through ad innovation surrounding relevant content and leveraging first-party data for deeper consumer insights,” he said. He added that media partners encouraged brands to look beyond traditional advertising and forge partnerships with marquee tentpoles and streaming originals that reach consumers across multiple touchpoints.

“One trend was clear: Live sports and sports-themed original content continue to fuel steady viewership across the board,” he said. “Brands navigating budget constraints will have some tough decisions to make, given the abundance of choices in this space, to deliver maximum scale to those sports eyeballs across all platforms.”

Another feature of this year’s presentations was the importance placed on the smart TV home screen, allowing brands an avenue through which to access increasingly fragmented audiences. 

“The home screen provides brands the opportunity to reach audiences as soon as they turn on the TV and deliver data-driven content recommendations that enhance the entertainment experience,” said Adam Bergman, group VP of advertising and data sales at Vizio. “All home-screen executions can be measured to showcase incremental reach on top of linear campaigns.”

Bergman also noted the importance of validating true business outcome analysis. 

“What matters to brands is the impact on customers: Did someone walk into a store and buy a product, or drive through at a quick service restaurant?” he said. “The connectivity between the smart TV home screen and outcomes is a major focus for us and brand partners this year.”

A fragmented audience landscape

With this year’s upfront presentations offering an embarrassment of riches in the way of programming—from Prime’s much-hyped “Legally Blonde” prequel series to Jason Kelce’s “Monday Night Football” at Disney—there were plenty of shiny objects to win brands over. But for some agency leaders, the challenge this year will be to look past the flash and stay focused on the direction audiences are heading. 

“Agencies need to focus on the right kind of opportunities,” said Sam Zises, CEO at [L]earned Media. “To forecast this in the advertising space, you shouldn’t just look at the upfront inventory, but instead look at changes in consumer attention. And, over the past several years, Gen Z and millennials have spent an increasing amount of time watching live streams and social videos at the expense of streaming services and traditional TV. That’s the future of media buying—and consumer attention.” 

Media.Monks Head of Brand Investment Matthew Kramer shared a similar perspective, underscoring the challenges brands face in reaching audiences across networks amid an increasingly fragmented premium viewership audience. 

“The inflection point of connected TV adoption is well past us, and the titans of legacy linear will continue to lose share of audiences to the dominators of digital video,” he said. “YouTube, Netflix and the latest ad-supported colossus Amazon Prime Video all announced impressive new content releases presented by their star actors like Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell.”

Kramer also noted that sports coverage continues to splinter, with Netflix and Prime Video announcing their airings of NFL games for this coming football season. And while the presence of CTV players at this year’s upfront is not new, their growth in audience share brings a fiercer fight for ad dollars. 

“The 2024 upfront felt different because it was different,” Kramer said. “It may be true the streaming war has yet to be won, but it is also true that linear dominance of viewership is in the rearview mirror, and continued fragmentation of audiences for premium video is ahead.”

Kramer’s message to brands is to stay flexible through this period of uncertainty. 

“It is imperative to be the hammer and not the nail when it comes to upfront commitments,” he noted. “Choose only the media you know to achieve your goals, or risk being stuck in places where your audience no longer exists.” 

At the end of the day, and certainly at the end of this year’s upfront, the key question for advertisers and brands alike was how to navigate through the current media playing field—one that over the course of a few years went from clear-cut, with distinct paths between traditional and digital media, to more or less leveled. 

“Media is rapidly consolidating around digital distribution regardless of the parent company’s origins, tech, entertainment legacies or other traditional structures,” said Erica Coates, president of Mocean. “It’s time we drop irrelevant media demarcations to deliver a more holistic view of the landscape for our clients and simplify access to potential advertisers.”