Canadian Ad Insider

Profectio - What should brands watch out for at this year's upfronts?

Jill - Watching the US Upfronts, notably, there was a lack of talent and celebrity star power due to the Writers Guild of America strike

• Brands should watch for how Canadian networks address this in the coming upfront and the impacts it could have on our marketplace and content
• Feedback from the US upfronts was that the presentations were more ‘low key’ than usual and shorter
• Will be interesting to see how Corus, Bell, Rogers etc present and the format of the presentations 
• In terms of programming and schedules, another notable absence from the US presentations was committed schedules due to the strike
  • Will be interesting to see if Canadian networks mention strike proof schedules and what flexibility of programming is built into the strategy 
  • Will reality and unscripted shows help fill any gaps?
• What impact does the writer's strike have on Canada?

Profectio - What impact does the writer's strike have on Canada?

Jill - 

• The writer’s strike in the US could provide an opportunity to open the door for local and Canadian produced content to be brought to the forefront 
• As we saw in 2007, if there is a prolonged strike, networks could look for content written and produced in places outside of the US
• Canadian content and writing / productions that are already in the pipeline could benefit as networks look for fresh content after their stockpiled content runs dry in the next year or so
• We also experienced a similar situation in 2020 / 2021 when production was shut down due to Covid and there was a lag in fresh content in both the US and Canada
• Will this strike further cripple conventional linear TV and result in even faster audience erosion?
  • If so, will this mean less audiences, less GRP’s available and higher CPMs?

Profectio - To bundle or not to unbundle, what is the right model?

Jill - 

• Subscription stacking in Canada is coming to a tipping point - consumers are starting to notice and question/analyze their spending each month and need options
• Our sense is that the bundling model that the US has adopted, will start to creep into Canada as Canadians continue to question their monthly streaming service bills and shop around for deals
• Streamers will start to hunt and find, even expect, bundling deals in the future for a few reasons stated below. But this will take time and won’t materialize at a consumer level for a few years
  • Cost savings on a month to month basis
  • Easier billing paying process - one bill for multiple services
  • Customization of bundles and plans to align with consumers/families/household streaming, programming and content needs

Profectio - What are you excited to see at this year’s upfronts?

Jill - 

• How Canadian networks will take advantage or find opportunities for Canadian content as a result of the current writers strike
• How will they address current unknowns within the schedules presented
• Predictions/comments from the networks of how robust the Canadian marketplace will be in 2023/2024 - the US is predicting: TV ad spending will fall during the 2023–2024 season on a YoY basis and relative to our previous forecast, as the industry continues to veer toward digital programming.
  • Source: https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/upfront-tv-digital-video-forecasts-trends-2023
  • Mention/support for a need to focus on local news trusted news sources in Canada 
    • A big focus of the recent CMDC’s Media Summit was local news and the value of trusted news and increasing number of Canadians concerned with fake news
    • I am excited to see how this is addressed in the presentations and which networks mention this
    • Role of sports and local news within the presentations
  • CTV /Streaming positioning in the market as the lines get even more blurry - how will they build CTV into the upfronts
    • Impacts of the launch of Netflix ad supported business in Canada in late 2022 and increase in CPM’s we have seen from Canadian broadcasters recently

Profectio - Twitter has a new CEO - will Linda be successful in charming advertisers back to the platform?

Jill - 

• This will be interesting to watch and experience the narrative presented to advertisers as right now, it appears there is a large hole to climb out of for a lot of Canadian advertisers
• Coming from NBCUniversal as a seasoned media executive, we can see that Linda’s creds will make agencies and advertisers take notice, or at least pause, in this new leadership position
• However, we anticipate continued questions around a variety of issues that we have experienced and watched unfold over the last year or so including:
  • Lack of human employees/staff in Canada specifically and also all around the world
  • Coming back from a lot of instability, platform changes, brand safety concerns and unknowns. It’s worth noting here that trust and stability does not happen overnight. This will take time and an always on PR team!
  • Competitive platforms - we are keeping an eye on Meta’s new text based platform that apparently is already being tested with key users
    • Twitter is currently making light of the potential rival and joking about IG’s outages
      • https://www.businessinsider.com/new-twitter-ceo-says-game-on-as-instagram-competitor-comes-closer-2023-5
  • Worth noting as well, recent ban in US state of TikTok and how this will affect/if it will affect paid social ad spending across platforms