by Dan Pappalardo, Founder and CEO, Troika. 

Editor’s Note: Tomorrow Troika will publish a whitepaper “Upfronts: Maximizing Impact.” Here is an exclusive preview.

If it’s spring, it’s the Upfronts.

The Upfront process has been a staple of our industry since 1962, when ABC decided to premiere all of its shows during the course of one week in the fall and hold an event in the preceding spring to offer advertisers – specifically car manufacturers – the opportunity to buy ad time “up front.” For more than 50 years, this annual event has shaped the business of television, accounting for roughly 1/3 of annual TV ad spending – or $19 billion. 

From large scale, celebrity-filled extravaganzas to intimate, custom built events, Upfronts today live in different sizes and formats. But no matter how a network’s Upfronts are presented, one thing remains constant; the significant investment in time and resources put toward building the presentation.   

Why? Growing competition. Last year there were 44 Upfronts  and attendees, on average, went to 12 presentations.  On top of that, cable surpassed broadcast’s Upfronts revenue earnings, and this year 20 NewFront presentations, beginning on April 28, are slated for digital platforms to cut into advertisers’ TV budgets (this includes a 262% increase of traditional media companies presenting at NewFronts). As more business vie for slices of the ad dollar pie, optimizing Upfronts has become more important than ever to keep ad revenue flowing throughout the year.

You can get more out of your Upfronts. The massive effort you put into the event doesn’t have to stop with the conclusion of your presentation; it can act as a foundation for change to your brand’s strategy, creative and marketing.

This year Troika partnered with CNN to shift the brand’s trajectory, keeping the heritage of live coverage but expanding its sensibilities into original series and films. The deadline for this brand shift? Upfronts.  With CNN as an example, here are four ways to maximize your upfronts.  

1. Leverage Properties to Build Equity

Upfronts present the ideal time to communicate not just the value of singular properties, but the power of the portfolio. It’s never too late reassess your brand portfolio to surface new values, leverage your properties to feed – and be fed – by partner networks, and establish brand architecture. We worked with CNN President Jeff Zucker to build a brand campaign and identity in-line with his vision, at the same time, our plan was  to align this strategy and communication with the vision for all of Turner Broadcasting’s properties.  In addition we worked  with Time Warner to ensure that the new CNN aligned with the vision of the entire portfolio. Though the CNN Upfront was a single network presentation, it had input and strategic insights from all of its parent and partner companies.

2. Amplify Brand Messaging

Your Upfront message will travel far beyond your presentation through media coverage. Just look at CNN’s Upfront presentation from last week; within one day their presentation garnered coverage from the New York Times, Huffington Post, Mashable, Adweek, Ad Age and Hollywood Reporter.

Upfronts are the optimal time to proclaim your value in the marketplace. A clear brand message can go a long way in establishing a memorable position, led by a brandline or campaign line. For CNN, Upfronts were the driving force behind their new brand campaign, Go There. It was a strategic decision to have their message heard by the advertisers that keep them in business, while also using the power of the media’s coverage of the event to proliferate this message across the landscape in a much more efficient way than any other time in the year.

3. Refresh Your Brand Design

Upfronts provide the annual opportunity to represent yourself as a leading cultural brand in a time when cultural currency is of the greatest value to an entertainment media company. Many networks use their Upfront design package as the first phase of a brand refresh to help maintain relevance in the market.

An integral component of the CNN partnership was an updated identity system, including a refined corporate, franchise, and property logo system, and a modern, clean identity rooted in a new promotional toolkit. Ad sales, on-air, digital and OOH design elements were developed simultaneously to streamline the production process and make it easy for CNN to ripple updates across all platforms.

4. Tell Your Brand Story

A great Upfront sizzle reel can be a brand’s strongest marketing tool. The investment in custom live-action and graphics can be amortized by uses that live far beyond a single presentation. Capturing the essence of a brand’s value through a highly emotive piece of content extends the value of a sizzle beyond B2B and into the consumer world, including on-air and digital brand spots.  

CNN’s upfront kicked off with a :60 brand spot that served as an anthem for what Go There stands for. Just two hours later, this same spot was running on the network, on their website, and was making the rounds on YouTube. Seamlessly integrating these ad sales and marketing efforts brought unity to their messaging and saved significant dollars by turning two otherwise separate initiatives into one.

The ritual of preparing for Upfronts is a daunting task, but there’s no better time to invest in your brand.

The Upfronts are here again. Are you taking full advantage of them?

As Founder & CEO of entertainment and marketing innovations agency Troika, Dan Papparlodo has established the agency as a leader in branding and marketing for companies in the entertainment and sports media category. Pappalardo has been instrumental in crafting many of the most high profile brands in entertainment media, including ABC, The CW, AMC, FOX, A&E, NBC Sports, and SportsCenter.  He earned a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and previously served as Lead Creative Director at broadcast design studio Pittard Sullivan.

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