Upfront 2019: It Better Be a Hell of a Show!

The pressure is on, more than it has ever been, for traditional players to convince executives, marketers and buyers that they are maintaining relevance for consumers across all demos; putting forth content that will truly be competitive to the non-ad supported streaming services of Netflix, Amazon and Disney+; continuing to supply rigorous data for audience targeting to the degree of companies like Xandr, and are willing to demonstrate innovation in both strategic communications and compensation.  It’s a tall order. The IAB’s recently released final report for 2018 Ad Spending shows that digital media revenue has passed the $100B mark.  The Myers Report estimates that total digital marketing investments in 2019 will surpass $210 billion, with $92 billion committed to digital media advertising. Further, The Myers Report projects 18% growth in 2020 -- $109.5 billion.  Those dollars are no longer just coming from print, newspaper or radio. The dollars from TV are starting to flow to digital and while many networks have upped their data game over the past couple of years, programmatic advertising and audience based targeting continue to be the trend among the larger media buying, holding company-owned agencies that represent billions of dollars of marketer spending.  In the recently released "2019 Marketplace Assessment: Survey on Media Company B2B Relationships, Services and Value" conducted by The Myers Report, the 745 respondents from both major Media Agencies and Advertisers are indicating a continued shift in ad dollars from television to digital, but there are some new twists this year that should have TV executives on alert. MyersBizNet members can scroll down to read more or access The Myers Report online.