27% of Marketers Are Upping Their TV and Streaming Upfront Spend

ABSTRACT

• 27% of marketers are planning to invest more than last year in upfront deals for TV and streaming.
• The majority (54%) plan to spend about the same as they spent at last year’s upfronts, indicating a cautious wait-and-see approach.
• Measurement across the diverse streaming landscape remains the top concern for marketers (over 54%), a sign that gauging campaign effectiveness is still difficult for many.
• Despite challenges, streaming holds promise, as 30% of marketers plan to allocate at least 20% of their upfront budgets to these platforms.

The upfronts are here, and what once was a straightforward event has become a lot more complicated. Spend is stretched across a number of channels, including streaming. But how are marketers thinking about the upfronts in general? One survey from iSpot found that advertisers are feeling cautiously optimistic, and a quarter of them saying they’ll bump up their spending compared to last year. Still, enthusiasm isn’t at a high: those who plan to spend “much more” at the upfronts have dipped slightly since last year.

Speaking of fragmentation — that’s the number-one problem that over half of marketers face when it comes to coverall streaming measurement. They also said that it can be tough to know if their ads are hitting the right eyeballs, and sometimes struggle to know that they are reaching viewers across different platforms. But those problems aren’t keeping marketers away from streaming at this year’s upfronts. A decent chunk (30%) are planning to dedicate a good portion of their budgets to streaming, and with almost half dedicating 15% or less, there’s room for that number to grow. Ultimately, while streaming a growing player in the ad game, there are still some kinks to iron out —? especially when it comes to measurement.

And speaking of marketer’s thoughts on the upfronts, if you have your own opinions you can always share them with our latest Peeks Poll here.

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