Media Buying Briefing: Buyers to weigh the flexibility of digital with the Upfront’s legacy scale

Several major publishers and the IAB last week presented their content wares and new ad units, while playing up brand safety as well. According to two of four media buyers Digiday spoke with, LinkedIn, of all Newfronts players, surprised the most with its presentation. 

First-time NewFronts presenter LinkedIn “went more tactile and opportunistic, and data- and AI-focused vs. ‘here’s our big, splashy new content program,’” said Angela Dahir, vp of strategy & media planning at Jellyfish. “It was more tactile functionality for us that we could then take to our clients who are in that B2B space, which we have a lot of … There’s a lot of unearthed opportunity in LinkedIn.”

Another media buyer who spoke on condition of anonymity agreed that LinkedIn stood out, but even for reasons beyond B2B opportunities. “What was impressive about what they shared was just the narrative on how video on their platform is something that really impacts business decision makers,” said the buyer, who was also impressed by LinkedIn’s ability to offer data both on- and off-platform. “Business influencers, are really aiding in that, now that brands can kind of get involved with those business creators in a new way.”

But it’s the more flexible investment opportunities that could sway some marketers and their media agencies to spend among NewFronts publishers rather than the classic TV providers — certainly at a time of great economic uncertainty (tariffs, interest rates, flagging consumer sentiment stats, unpredictable government policies, etc). 

“I think the benefits of cost efficiencies outweigh some of that upfront commitment and the pricing — the larger monetary commitment,” said Lindsey Freed, svp of media investment at Basis Technologies. “With more CTV streaming [and] programmatic buying, we’re seeing the rate efficiencies and the ability to target in very similar ways — it’s what the buzz is all about … The flexibility of being able to execute across that media, rather than committing a large dollar amount upfront is really where we’re going to see the shift.”

“There’s a lot of evaluation going on of media spend,” said Tucker Matheson, CEO of Markacy, who said none of his clients are actually cutting budgets — yet. “Brands in a budget pinch are … really just trying to figure out where’s my biggest bang for my buck.” To Matheson, the answer lies in applying incrementality testing to guide them to the right investment. 

But there are also a number of new ad-unit opportunities being rolled out by some of the NewFronts presenters, as a means of attracting more ad dollars from brands of all size — some of which caught the eye of buyers. Some of the OEM providers like LG and Vizio showed off units including: 

• Home screen ads (available on smart TVs and streaming platforms);
• Pause ads (which pops up when you pause content);
• Screen saver ads (when the TV set or app goes idle); 
• Contextual overlay on content (if you’re watching a cooking show on pizza and a Pizza Hut ad pops up);
• Squeeze back ads (content is made smaller, allowing the ad to run next to it);
• Shoppable ads with QR codes.

“As media buyers, we’re really going to have to think about these new [habits], thinking of the consumer, what they’re doing, and tying our buys together to allow for that ease of shopping on our phone or shopping while we’re watching TV,” Basis Technologies’ Freed said.

“CTV, for sure, offers a lot more of that potential to do more complex or interactive ad formats, whether it’s shoppable or just general formats than what you can do on linear,” said Chris Rigas, vp of media at Markacy. “There’s definitely an appeal to that. It’s obviously clear that CTV is going to continue gaining market share.”

Of course, the linear companies also offer some of these innovations too, which can’t be forgotten — just like they offer the lion’s share of sports content. But again, the buyers Digiday spoke with said sports is clearly no longer the exclusive territory of the linear giants like NBC U or Disney. With Amazon, Tubi, Hulu and others now offering professional league sports content, it’s a more even playing field than ever.

“This one has live sports and that one has live sports, and everyone’s getting connected through the pipeline,” said Jellyfish’s Dahir. “The digital marketplace is becoming now the crux of opportunity, because we have so much more access and more clients that are able to play in this video space that maybe we’re not able to in the past.”

For better or worse, that diaspora of sports content raises its own set of problems for media buyers and planners. “If I’m watching [sports] on Peacock, but through my Chromecast, I get a different ad,” noted Dahir. “This creates a very fragmented landscape for live sports … I’m curious to see if there will eventually be a step backward. Because, yes, it gives us more opportunity of getting more efficient and effective buys in live sports, especially for smaller clients and that need for efficiency. But from a rating standpoint, I wonder if there will eventually be a pushback … because there’s too many touch points that you can tag it.”

And that’s where programmatic steps in with both the offer of promise and potential for confusion. Much like three years ago, when CTV content became more available through programmatic investment, it ushered in the chance for smaller advertisers to get into TV advertising. But it also made a mess of not knowing who repped what inventory. That could happen with sports content today. 

Because the fact is, there’s a bottom-line shift that is taking place across the entire video landscape: the continued increase of programmatic investment vs. direct buying. 

“One theme that hit for me at the NewFronts was that personalized is premium and it’s more about the curation of content and context,” said the buyer on background. “It’s making sure that your ads are appearing within the content you wanted to appear with the audience targeting that you need. Programmatic makes that more easily possible and the workflow is way easier — when done right.”

Added Basis Technologies’ Freed: “For buyers, it’s easier because we have more control — we are able to shift budgets between deal IDs easier than we can direct buys.”

Color by numbers

Amazon may be one the fastest growing powerhouses in major media, rivaling Google and Meta for supremacy — but it does have one problem. It seems more consumers are looking into how to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions than any other streamer, according to a study by Sparrow, which helps consumers get money from class-action suits. Here’s the data (although it must be noted, the below stats are of people searching for how to cancel, not actual cancellations):

• Amazon Prime 587,000 searches
• Disney Plus 397,700 searches
• Hulu 143,600 searches
• Paramount Plus 139,400 searches
• Peacock 106,700 searches
• Netflix 93,100 searches

Takeoff & landing

• WPP last week renamed its media network WPP Media from GroupM, and implemented layoffs across the three media agency names that still exist really in name only: Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom. The agencies will operate under one P&L. 
• Stagwell’s Q1 2025 results showed net revenue grew 6% over Q1 2024m while EBITDA dropped 11% on margins of 14%. But the challenger holdco also chalked up what it said is a record $130 million in new business in the quarter. 
• System1, a creative effectiveness platform, has joined agency collective Dawn. 
• Account moves: Dentsu U.K. won the NFL’s global social media business … Havas Media Network landed Olive Garden’s U.S. media business, taking over from Starcom. … Bayer reportedly put the media and creative accounts of its consumer health unit up for review. The media incumbent is EssenceMediacom, which won brewer Lion’s media business in Australia and New Zealand … MSQ and several of its agencies landed global media agency of record duties for Turtle Wax. 
• Personnel moves: Justin Thomas-Copeland officially took over as the new CEO of industry association 4As, replacing Marla Kaplowitz … Stagwell’s Assembly tapped Jason Lim to be its chief media officer for North America, coming over from EssenceMediacom where he was chief planning officer … Horizon Media hired Crystal Park to be its new CMO, coming over from The Weather Co., where she was vp of advertising & enterprise data marketing … Dentsu Media Americas CEO Sean Reardon is out after less than 18 months, replaced by Will Swayne … Goodway Group tapped Paul Frampton-Calero as its new CEO, moving him over from oversight of Goodway’s Overline consultancy, and replacing Jay Friedman who will stay on as an advisor … Barkley OKRP named chief creative officer Katy Hornaday to replace Jeff King as CEO, as King transitions into a founding partner role. 

Direct quote

“It’s just changing the logo on the slide and saying, ‘I’m going to aggregate, and centralize all my media spend.’ And they’re going to lean heavier into principal media buying, and this allows them to make it easier for them to do that.”

— An independent media agency CEO talking about WPP’s moves around reshaping GroupM into WPP Media. 

Speed reading

• Marty Swant cataloged Uber Advertising’s impressive growth (60%) as it hired its first head of measurement science. 
• Seb Joseph looked into how Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital is adapting its economic model based on the impact of AI on how agencies work for clients. 
• I was lucky enough to join Tim Peterson and Kimeko McCoy on the latest Digiday podcast, talking about the upfront TV and streaming marketplace, which is in the process of kicking off now. 

https://digiday.com/?p=578237