March 13-15
Disney Media

Disney Media held its kids and family Upfront in Orlando. In an interview Rita Ferro, president of sales for Disney-ABC, gave Cynopsis the playbook for how the company aims to top its 2016 Upfront, which yielded a 20 percent spike in ad commitment volume across Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD and Radio Disney, among other properties. With content including live-action series Andi Mack set to bow on Disney Channel, a new Guardians of the Galaxy season on tap for Disney XD and a new Muppet Babies headed to Disney Junior, “The importance of multiple screens and how we think about the ecosystem from linear to OTT to apps to our games has never been more important” in a continuing measurement-challenged environment, Ferro says. “Advertisers are challenged to figure out how to measure kids. The common currency isn’t keeping up with kids’ move to different platforms. We know kids are the earliest adopters of those platforms so bringing to bear all of the possible touch points across an execution of a media commitment from a company is going to be the focus for us from a television and video perspective.”

To help fill the gaps, Disney is showcasing for clients a suite of tools to gauge accountability across screens, social media and live events, including the April 29 Radio Disney Music Awards. “We’ve built multiplatform tools, we also have very rich third-party data from our data management platform, and we’ve done some qualitative studies around that show the impact and halo effect and intent to purchase on programs and partnerships that have been done across Disney.” The toy and studio categories point to another robust market, Ferro says. “Toy Fair was really strong, there’s a lot of growth in that area, and the studio slate next year across all studios is really strong. So when you think about the anchors that move the kids and family marketplace, those two categories take such a big share of the market that when they are robust it tends to be a robust year.” Additionally, co-viewing engagement and the impact kids have on purchasing decisions, especially in millennial families, is opening new doors. “There are a lot of brands that want to do things in the space to drive incremental revenue that are different than their traditional media buys in the past,” she says.

Ferro in February was promoted to her role overseeing sales operations across all Disney-ABC broadcast, cable and digital teams except for ESPN from her post as EVP of Disney Media Sales and Marketing for Disney Channels Worldwide. The complete integration of company ad sales won’t happen until after this year’s Upfront, she tells CynKids, but conversations with clients are under way. “This Upfront will likely be very flexible. The broad and across [the portfolio] conversations are more at the agency level, and to an extent across some of our key strategic clients,” she says. “And then there are others… if you think about some of the toy brands, they are driven by our kids and family portfolio however there will likely be an opportunity given the integrated structure to bring other pieces into that conversation as well.”

March 2
Nickelodeon

The Nickelodeon Upfront, held at NY’s Jazz at Lincoln Center and featuring an appearance by Gwen Stefani (see below) and performance by Pitbull, revealed a pipeline filled with nearly 700 eps of new and returning shows. Highlights include: 
* A new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2D-animated series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (working title), launching fall 2018. 
* A green light for The Adventures of Kid Danger and Captain Man (working title), a new animated series based on Nick’s top series, the live-action Henry Danger. 
* A 10-episode series commitment to Lip Sync Battle Shorties, a spinoff of Spike’s Emmy-nominated global phenom. A quarter of kids who watched a special in December did so with their parents.
* A season 2 greenlight for Stefani’s Kuu Kuu Harajuku 
* TV special and consumer products line based on performer, actress and social media influencer JoJo Siwa, of Dance Moms fame. 
* A first look at Amusement Park, Paramount Pictures’ animated feature set for release in 2018 that will be followed by a Nickelodeon-produced TV series the next year. 
* The second leg of the PAW Patrol Live tour
* The launch of SlimeFest, a multiday family festival of music and activities to debut in 2018.
The Kids Are Alright: With all the changes afoot at Viacom, CEO Bob Backish has made it clear Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. remain core components of the company’s brand DNA. “Flattering as it is, it’s a really smart business decision because Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. really do make up a large portion of the Viacom business, and allowing the rest of the organization to understand that that’s important is really great,” a visibly happy Nickelodeon Group president Cyma Zarghami told Cynopsis in a conversation before last night’s event, the most upbeat Upfront in several years.
Citing as a key strength the different demographics Nick serves, Zarghami said to expect deeper synergies within the Viacom family: “The connection of the brands to the movie studio will allow us to differentiate ourselves by creating a bunch of different labels that hopefully will produce great films that can move back and forth from television to the big screen to shortform on the digital platform and around the globe.”
Viacom is sitting with 63 percent of the available viewing in the kids market, Sean Moran, head of Viacom sales, told Cynopsis, which is translating into more opportunities for brands to engage across screens and events. Case in point, Moran says, the March 11 Kids’ Choice Awards are sold out in the studio category for the first time. The network is also deepening its relationships with nontraditional kids brands, including the petcare division of Mars Brands, a partner on PAW Patrol, KCAs sponsor Toyota, Walmart and P&G. “We now have CMOs from nontraditional companies that are looking to us to guide them as to where our consumer best digests their IP,” said Moran.
Zarghami said Nick is also drawing more apparent lines among its assets and partners. “Toyota has been at the Kids’ Choice Awards for a couple years now, and one of the things they love that we do with them is a live sliming in the middle of town. The whole organization either comes to it or tweets about it. And we just signed a deal with JoJo Siwa, from Dance Moms and a big social influencer, and she is part of the Toyota campaign at the moment,” she said. “So this idea that kids have influence in picking the car for the family, YouTube stars are their new role models, and Nick is home base for kids… put it all together and you have JoJo Siwa at a Toyota event as a sponsor of the Kids’ Choice Awards. It makes a lot of sense.”
Shari Redstone, vice chairwoman at Viacom and daughter of chairman emeritus Sumner Redstone, is pleased with Backish’s performance as CEO. “I said to my father, Bob Bakish is exactly the executive you want running the company,” she told Cynopsis, noting the energy level at the company is “way up, even for the talent and on the creative side where they may have felt stifled before.” And that enthusiasm spilled into the Upfront event. “The energy in the room was fantastic,” Redstone continued. “I’m so excited about the direction the company’s going in.” Redstone apparently is pleased with Nick’s content, too – that morning she’d watched a Paw Patrol marathon with her grandkids.