12 December 2023

What to look out for in 2024: publisher upfronts

In summary

• Publisher upfronts are now done and dusted, but exciting new features and partnerships await in the new year
• New data and analytics partnership announcements span across all major publishers
• Several new self-serve platforms were announced, including from Seven, Nine and SBS

What are publisher upfronts?

Each year, all the major broadcast publishers including Seven West Media, Nine, Yahoo and Network 10/Paramount, hold an upfront around October and November. They present a showcase highlighting the year’s performance, plans for the next year such as upcoming shows and any new product or partnership updates.

It is an exciting time as marketers flock to these events to get a glimpse of what’s to come in the new year. If you’ve missed out this year, don’t worry, we’ve got a quick summary for you!

Seven West Media

Phoenix

One of the most exciting announcements at Seven’s upfront was the launch of Phoenix. This is a self-service platform where advertisers can create, manage and report on campaigns without needing to set up deals and link to DSPs. Advertisers will have access to all available inventory on Seven and 7Plus.

streamer.com.au

streamer.com.au is the newly launched streaming site dedicated to sports in Western Australia. A large range of sports will be available including WA Premier Cricket, the Hockey WA Gryphon Cup and the WA State Basketball League.

Databricks partnership

With the rise of AI, it comes as no surprise Seven will be integrating intelligence to provide a better experience for advertisers. By partnering with Databricks, Seven has integrated AI to improve ad experience by predicting audiences and their behaviours up to 7 days in advance. And, it has a current accuracy of 91%!

This initiative will provide advertisers with a better understanding of the demographic and interests of Seven’s audiences for improved targeting and allow for ad lengths to dynamically change in line with the viewer’s demographic.

Nine

Nine Ad Manager

Nine have also launched their own version of a self-managed campaign management platform, called Nine Ad Manager. Advertisers can setup, manage and report on campaigns delivered on Nine in addition to other features that distinguish themselves from competitors. This includes using AI to generate ads by simply inputting a URL and leaving all the work to the platform. This involves taking elements from the URL page and combining them to build an ad for you.

VOZ Streaming

Nine announced it will be a part of OzTAM’s VOZ Streaming alongside various other publishers, which will allow advertisers to universally manage programmatic BVOD trading such as managing frequency across 7Plus, 9Now and 10 Play combined. A universal ID and common demographic will be used for programmatic campaigns that run across these streaming platforms.

Partnerships

To enhance access to data and provide a retail focused program for advertisers, various new partnerships were revealed. Some of these include:

• Stan and Domain: leveraging anonymised user data
• Nine’s Audience Match platform: integrating Snowflake and Tealium for seamless data transfers
• RTLX: offer retail advertisers a retail media partner program via their full funnel marketing platform

Foxtel

Hubbl

Hubbl is a new entertainment operating system, combining free and paid TV together to revolutionise the way users watch TV. The system will be launched in the coming months as a puck (like a set top box), transforming any TV by incorporating numerous broadcasters and streaming services such as Netflix, 7Plus, Kayo, Disney+ and SBS OnDemand into a single space. There are plans for the release of Hubbl Glass as a TV product with Hubbl already installed into the system, removing the need to purchase the puck.

Partnerships

Foxtel has formed several new partnerships across analytics, data, sustainability and measurement to create better advertising experiences pre and post campaigns. The following were announced at Foxtel’s upfront.

Partnership	Offering
INFOSUM	Advertisers can supply their own data and match it using INFOSUM, a data clean-room provider. This allows for the connection of internal and external silos and identification of audience overlap. INFOSUM also offer solutions across campaign planning using 1P data and measurement of implemented strategies.
Amplified Intelligence, Adgile & Nature	Provides measurement and attribution tools to advertisers such as attention measurement, benchmarks and insights across audiences, creatives and placements.
Kantar	Provides a measurement piece to Foxtel to process and analyse viewing data from set-top boxes. Ingesting data from the last 2 years for more accurate analysis and insights.
Scope3	Advertisers can measure their carbon impact and create quarterly reports divided by agency, client or campaign.
VideoAmp	New measurement system to capture streaming and linear viewing data and process large databases for analysis.

Extending character segments

Foxtel has extended the availability of their character (audience) segments which were initially launched in Kayo in May, to Binge and Foxtel IQ.

The following are now available:

Auto intenders	Tradie crew
Travel intenders	Grocery shoppers
Credit card demand	B2B
Health and wellness	Entertainment
Technology adopters	Lifestyle
Luxury lovers	Insurance
Pet owners	Multicultural
Beauty enthusiast

SBS

SBS Connect

SBS has launched a new platform for automated TV inventory trading and post campaign analysis with the intention of reducing response time with publishers and easier management for agencies.

SBS Ad Control

As part of SBS’ responsible advertising practices, SBS OnDemand viewers will be given the option to opt out of viewing ads relating to wagering, alcohol, and fast food. The initiative will be launched in the first quarter of 2024.

Network 10/Paramount

Paramount+

Paramount+ now offers an ad supported subscription plan with only sponsorships and partnerships available as advertising options at the moment. The platform will introduce a programmatic buying space in the future.

New measurement tools

• Paramount Interactive Attribution: Advertisers can track viewer engagement and custom journeys for CTV interactive advertising.
• Paramount Brand Lift Study: Brand lift studies can be conducted across 10 Play with up to 5 KPIs available for tracking, including awareness and consideration.
• Paramount Data Collection: With this attribution tool, advertisers can understand the role of Paramount within the media mix using first party data from 10 Play.

Shoppable TV

Australia will be the test market for the launch of shoppable ad formats which include new retail features for smart TV users. This involves displaying an ad when streaming is paused where on-sale products will be showcased.

Yahoo

Partnerships

With a focus on data interoperability in 2024, Yahoo has partnered with Tealium CDP and Conversion API, Adobe, Salesforce and MParticle to expand advertisers’ first party data deployment capability throughout the funnel.

They have also partnered with Amplified Intelligence and have made their attentionPROVE measurement solution available in Yahoo DSP. This allows for advertisers and agencies to quantify attention buys and optimise performance, cost effectiveness and ad impact in real time.

CTV

With a rising interest in CTV advertising, Yahoo has partnered with FreeWheel, Magnite and Publica by IAS for enhanced advertiser access to premium CTV inventory and greater transparency in CTV buying. In addition, CTV publishers are able to “seamlessly extend their premium inventory through Yahoo Backstage” (Yahoo, 2023). Yahoo Backstage is a part of Yahoo DSP that allow advertisers direct access to publisher premium supply offerings that focus on greater transparency, improved performance and MFA-free inventory.

Next steps

So what should you do with all this information? If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to Louder and we can put you in touch with the relevant publisher. These products and partnerships are designed to enhance your campaigns and we can help find the right fit for you.

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