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The upfront marketplace continues to move quickly, with Disney becoming the third media company to complete this year’s negotiations, the company said.
In what the company called its strongest upfront in history, Disney’s ad sales team secured double-digit CPM (cost per thousand viewers reached) increases across broadcast day parts, cable and its major sports franchises, including NFL, NBA and college football.
Overall revenue was also up double-digits, and “40% of our sales this year were actually in streaming and digital, which I think speaks to the nature of how this business is rapidly changing,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said Monday afternoon at the Credit Suisse investor conference. “We’re really happy with the upfront. Our sales team did an extraordinary job.”
Disney pushed for brands to make multicultural commitments in all of their upfront deals this year, as part of their efforts to showcase a variety of voices on all of the company’s networks and platforms.
The company said it secured significant DEI commitments from every major holding company, as well as top financial service and retail brands, which exceeded its year one goals.
“This is one of the things I’m most passionate about,” Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of advertising sales and partnerships, told Adweek last month of the multicultural commitments. “I thought our upfront [presentation] was the strongest upfront we’ve ever had, and it’s because we were authentic, committed and had purpose.”
Disney’s strongest upfront categories incuding CPG, financial services, media and entertainment, pharmaceutical, retail, technology, telecommunications and travel.
Following its first-ever tech showcase for marketers in March to spotlight the company’s new programmatic and addressable offerings, Disney’s upfront presentation last month leaned into inclusive entertainment and live events.
The company’s upfront portfolio included ABC (whose fall schedule includes a Wonder Years reboot), streamer Hulu and cable networks ESPN, FX, Freeform, National Geographic and Disney Channel.
The CW was the first media company to finish its upfront negotiations last Friday, followed by NBCUniversal, which—in an echo of Disney’s upfront wording—wrapped its “strongest” upfront in company history, CEO Jeff Shell said Monday morning.
Three upfront priorities
Ferro told Adweek in May that she had three upfront priorities this year: multicultural (“making sure that every partner understands the importance of that as part of their mix, and our partnership strategy”), their addressable footprint (“every partner should be taking advantage of that”) and “leaning into the unrivaled breadth and depth of our sports portfolio,” especially after new sports deals with the NHL, NFL and MLB.
The Oscars, which air on ABC, were sold in the upfront as a “premium live event,” despite this year’s ratings dip for the ceremony. While “we will have a bigger event” in 2022 after the pandemic, Ferro said that even with this year’s smaller audience, “we had multiple advertisers who came to us and said they saw tremendous brand lift, and in search results, as part of being in the Oscars.”
In this year’s upfront, “everyone is looking for incremental reach,” Ferro said. Yet even with the larger focus on streaming and digital, “there is still a tremendous desire and want for linear television. It still drives impact. Brands can quantify it every single time … linear television is still really important in every conversation we’re having.”
