Upfronts Season Is Back, but How Does Its Future Look? We Asked, You Answered.

TV’s biggest moment is back: no, not the Emmys, the upfronts. If you’ve been keeping up to date with the headlines — like this latest one from the Hollywood Reporter — this year’s upfronts are all about Disruption with a capital “D,” and ad execs are looking for flexibility and transparency in their media buys. But will the upfronts continue to deliver? And what impact will this have on Connected TV advertising? Who better to answer that question than those who are immersed in branding and marketing every day?

Advertisers See Connected TV as a Full-Funnel Solution

According to eMarketer, programmatic CTV ad spend is set to increase by 23% this year. We dug into this a little more in our poll to see exactly which ad strategies marketers were investing in the most on Connected TV — whether that be purely upper-funnel efforts, lower-funnel, or both. Turns out, almost three-quarters of respondents viewed CTV as a full-funnel solution.

Incrementality Matters Most to Marketers

But what would really help marketers measure the true impact of their full-funnel efforts? We identified a few top contenders that make up a performance marketer’s wishlist, and asked them to prioritize what was most important to them: in-store foot traffic visits, brick-and-mortar sales, incremental lift, and / or performance influence on other ad channels. We weren’t surprised to see the majority (51%) voted for incremental lift, because at the end of the day, performance marketers want to know their investment is being used in the most efficient way — to drive actual revenue sales or growth.

The Future of the Upfronts?

But what of the upfronts themselves? We captured advertisers’ sentiment, which revealed that almost half of marketers see the upfronts being less relevant, while equal numbers of respondents were either on the fence or certain that it would continue to have its place.

The upfronts’ resilience is still TBD, but as we’ve seen the state of streaming and programmatic evolve, one thing is for sure: performance marketing will continue to be the one to watch as a year-round solution that can further bolster your brand awareness efforts, complement (and amplify) your other marketing channels, with the proof points to match.