Catherine Sullivan on Omnicom's Upcoming "Reverse Upfront"

quotThe sales season has become very unwieldyquot Sullivan asserts and she should knowamp160amp160For 25 yearsamp160she was one of the executives pitching advertisers at Upfront events as Senior Vice President of Ad Sales for ABC News and at NBC Universal before thatamp160 But when she moved to the agency side Sullivan immediately saw how untenable the combined Upfront and NewFront process had become for buyers and clients alike amp160amp160So in 2017 she started something new at OMG inviting the TV networks to a March summit with clients where they would give a preview of their Upfront offersamp160 The response to that relatively lowkey start inspired Sullivan to significantly expand the scale and scope of the event in 2018 resulting in a threeday Partner Summit aka Omnicom39s quotReverse Upfrontquot amp160For three days last March amp160in the calm before the NewFrontUpfront storm amp160media companies from Google and CBS to Condamp233 Nast and Discovery made the trek to lower Manhattan to pitch OMG clients on their biggest bets and their overall video strategy from distribution to measurement amp160for the upcoming season quotWe just had one rulequotamp160Sullivan saidamp160 quotNo elevator pitchesamp160 We wanted to see customized content and solutionsquotWith the 2019 Summit just days away Sullivan amp160now the Chief Investment Officer of OMG North America gave MediaVillage a preview of what clients can expect from the 12 digital publishers and 11 traditional media companies that will give their presentations from March 2022amp160 quotThis year we39re focusing on the consumer journey and path to purchase and we39re adding daily discussions around the issues that are critical to our clientsquot she revealed quotincluding how to define premium content outside the context of a specific screen the value of live programmingamp160and the state of crossplatform measurementquotAlso new this yearamp160 the Partner Summit will go mobile with an app that allows clients and buyers to stream presentations and ask questions of the presentersSullivan who oversees approximately 30 billion in ad spend amp160wants to make one thing very clearamp160 She isn39t trying to get her teams to abstain from heading to Upfront or NewFront eventsamp160 The network vet believes that there is still a place for that kind of big show at least for nowamp160 quotThe Partner Summit isn39t meant to replace the Upfrontsquot she saidamp160 quotIt39s more about giving our teams and clients a head startamp160 I don39t want them to see something they like in May and expect us to do a deal by JunequotProper strategy in the ad world takes time and Sullivan and her teams devote January through March to what she calls quothomeworkquotamp160meeting with clients and ascertaining their needs and prioritiesamp160 Those priorities can shift from year to year and from client to client but there are some overall constants namely the desire for quotqualityquot contentamp160 quotWe39ve seen this time and again being around negative or bad content has a negative impact on the brandquot Sullivan saidamp160 These discussions inform the RFP sent to media owners and publishers hoping to participate in the SummitquotMaking the cut depends on how well their proposal addresses what matters most to our clientsquot Sullivan notedLooking beyond the OMG event Sullivan foresees a few themes that will assert themselves during this year39s Upfront season the first of which is the shift of focus away from pure demographic buys at traditional media companiesamp160 quotI ask clients this all the time do you care if the person buying your product is 21 or 60quot she said They generally don39tAnother will be traditional media companies trying to reaggregate their audiencesamp160 The fragmentation of these audiences these days maybe half the viewers of an episode of TV come from linear TV another quarter from DVR 15 percent from Hulu the rest from a network39s website is perhaps the biggest problem these companies faceamp160 quotProbably half of their audience isn39t being monetizedquot Sullivan saidIt may seem like the easy fix is to just add all these disparate audiences back togetheramp160 But that doesn39t work when the measurement of these audiences is still not the same from platform to platform and most importantly when the ads shown are different on each platform as is usually the caseWhile she understands the challenges this fragmentation poses for traditional media companies and even some digital publishers who distribute on their own platforms in addition to others Sullivan39s patience is wearing a bit thinamp160 The cost of ads on linear TV has risen quite a bit while audiences have shrunk thanks to the law of supply and demandamp160 quotWhat we39re really struggling with is paying more for lessquot sheamp160said pointing out the quotinsanityquot of paying higher prices for fewer eyeballsSullivan does see a light at the end of this particular tunnel thoughamp160 quotI think we39re finally getting therequot she notedamp160 While the kinks are still being worked out Sullivan has one guiding principleamp160 quotWe39ve got to go back to common sensequotWhat39s common sense in this caseamp160 quotConsumer behaviorquot Sullivan concludedamp160 quotWe know people are spending more time with premium content than ever beforeamp160 We39re just following the audiencequotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Catherine Sullivan on Omnicom's Upcoming "Reverse Upfront"

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Catherine Sullivan on Omnicom's Upcoming "Reverse Upfront"

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