NBCUniversal gathered its top advertising clients and leaders from different industries for its fourth annual Innovation Day, aimed at exploring disruptive technologies that might be applied to the media business. After Will & Grace’s Sean Hayes welcomed the crowd – noting, “I’m NBC’s answer to Young Sheldon!” – topics ranged from AI, to the evolving shopping experience to the future of storytelling. “We as storytellers need to rethink how we are interacting with customers, and advertisers need to do the same,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg. Measurement also needs rethinking, offered John Swift, CEO of investment at Omnicom Media Group North America. “We need to move past the idea of ‘matching luggage’ for measurement,” said Swift. “The more we try to force TV measurement across platforms, the more we miss platforms’ value.” Then there’s Facebook. “Facebook’s business model is based on capturing data that many times people don’t know they’re giving, and then selling that data, very often electronically, to a buyer where Facebook doesn’t even know the buyer,” said NBCUni CEO Steve Burke. “So there’s a whole series of things going on in their business model that are very different from our business model.”
Related Stories
Whoopi Goldberg and cast mates will take The Stand on CBS All Access Dec. 17
The Stand, CBS All Access’ television adaptation of the storied 1978 Stephen King novel, will debut December 17. Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard, James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo and Amber Heard, the limited series unfolds around King’s apocalyptic struggle between good and evil after a plague destroys most of the country. Ben Cavell serves […]
McKinnon lands unprecedented Exotic deal
Get ready cats and kittens. Joe Exotic (working title), UCP’s limited series starring and exec-produced by Kate McKinnon, scored a straight-to-series order by both the NBCU television and streaming divisions. In an unprecedented move, project will roll out across broadcast net NBC, streamer Peacock, and a basic cable net USA. Series is based on the […]
Cat’s meow: Quaid will star in his own animal rescue story
Dennis Quaid is the cat’s meow. He’s partnering with ITV America’s Leftfield Pictures for unscripted TV project Saving Dennis Quaid, which he’ll star in and exec produce. Project documents the animal lover’s recent headline-making pet rescue where he and partner Jimmy Jellinek set out on a mission to adopt a 6-year-old black cat from Lynchburg, […]
Turner Sports Shaq’s up
Big news at Turner Sports, as the company lands a multiyear extension of its partnership with Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq’s expanded role gains the Basketball Hall of Famer more airtime, including on TNT’s Inside the NBA and NBA on TNT, as well as contributions to NBA.com. He also will develop projects throughout the WarnerMedia portfolio including […]
The Tonys go digital
The 74th Annual Tony Awards ceremony will go on, presented digitally sometime in the fall. Date and platform are TBA. The event had originally been scheduled for June 7, but was replaced by plans for a streaming special on the same date due to COVID-19. That special was postponed amid unrest over the George Floyd […]
CynCity
Cynsiders
Raising the Bar: Redefining Inclusion and Authenticity in Unscripted Storytelling
As audiences grow more discerning, the expectations for inclusive storytelling are evolving beyond representation alone....From Small-Town Story to Global Hit: Inside Sullivan’s Crossing’s Winning Formula
What turns a series into a global hit? “Sullivan’s Crossing” returns for Season 4 on...The Measurement Maturity Playbook: What CMOs Need at Every Stage of Growth
By Chelsea Cramer, Founder of Base Note Data Nearly every CMO has walked into...
