Advertising Week NY 2022 - The Creativ Recap
Advertising Week NY hosted its annual tentpole in New York City last week.
It's a bit like Coachella for advertisers. Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, and P Diddy perform, but you also go to marketing panels. We have fun in adland.
Here’s four big trends we took away from advertising’s biggest conference.
Bundle Up, Media Consolidation Has Come
Consumers didn’t ask for them, but media bundles are coming back faster than recycled movie reboot. We predicted this back in 2019 as streaming TV platforms exploded onto the market throughout the 2010s. There were several panels that discussed this developing trend. The most interesting one was a conversation with Warner Bros Discovery CEO on how the company will organize their newly acquired holdings.
Hundreds of streaming platforms have come to market in recent years. Sadly, there weren't enough TV viewers for everyone. The market losers either shuttered and sold their libraries (RIP Quibi), were straight out acquired (congrats Crunchyroll), or merged (Warner Bros Discovery).
Further consolidations will narrow the market. Expect future consolidation and more layoffs due to restructuring. RIP CNN+.
Emerging Ad Tech: FAST, Streaming Audio, AI, Less Blockchain
Streaming audio, connected TV, and AI/data companies came to play this year with big spends and activations. Tech brand spending bigger this year included:
LOOP TV, an out of home TV network for businesses
Tubi, the free streaming platform out of FOX
Ampersand, a connected TV buying platform, allowing marketers to buy ads across different streaming services
Audacy, a radio conglomerate via a merging with CBS Radio that supports streaming audio
Panels that dabbled in blockchain and the metaverse felt muted. Brands are still working out the NFT and metaverse kinks. The big four were missing except for a Google/YouTube cafe pop-up.
FAST is the latest ad-cronym. Tubi, TelevisiaUnivision, and other ad-supported TV brands all referred to themselves as FAST in their panels. FAST (Free Advertising TV) has replaced ‘advertising video on demand’ (AVOD). Not sure where the S is coming from. We could have called it FAT TV. Feels like a missed opportunity.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Vogue
Mattel and Barbie talked about making the brand relevant for today’s multicultural consumer. Warner Bros. Discovery hosted a Future is Female Awards. Nutrogena spoke about products for various skin tones. Metagold talked about female inclusion in the metaverse. I hung out in the equity lounge by the Female Quotient.
Brands have finally realized that diversity in marketing leads to a wider customer base… sort of. As always, diversity led panels felt like a mixed bag of PR virtue signaling and authentic action. We won’t be naming names in this post, but at least corporate America is trying right?
Marketers Seek Long Term Partner(ships)
I personally moderated a panel with Disney and MOCEAN on executing marketing partnerships, utilizing iconic Disney characters and storylines. Disney and MOCEAN weren’t the only brands flirting at the conference.
Bushmills partnered with Peaky Blinders. Fanjoy brought fans joy via creator marketing. Molson Coors got celebrity shout outs from Cameo. Vita Coco is into hydrating gamers.
While these partnerships are more of a lift to execute, they generally drive higher engagement and return for marketers. Partnership value derives from shared audiences, providing awareness for both partners involved. Brands borrow a partner's audience or characters for their own use through a value or monetary exchange.
The right partner fit sells a lot of product. Don’t believe me? Go ask Baby Yoda.