Women's World Cup kicks off ad frenzy

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023: unveiling squeezeback ads, sold-out ad space, and Optus Sport’s broadcasting strategy

By Emma Shepherd

As the advertising potential for women’s sports?gains momentum, the industry finds itself perfectly positioned to score big during the highly anticipated FIFA Women’s World Cup.?

With an estimated viewership of 2 billion, according to the tournament’s CEO David Beech, predominantly comprising women with significant (and growing)?purchasing power, this global event has ignited an advertising frenzy akin to the Super Bowl in the U.S., with slots?selling out rapidly. Against this backdrop, broadcasters are enhancing the viewer experience by embracing new ad formats and on-demand recaps.?

The convergence of these factors signals a definitive shift in the state of advertising, with the Women’s World Cup emerging as a powerful platform for advertisers to make a lasting impact in front of a massive audience.?

“The interest from advertisers is unprecedented,” Clive Dickens, VP of TV, audio, content, and product development at Optus, tells?The Current. “For advertisers, as much as sport is a way to reach mass audiences, it’s about brands now wanting to align themselves with a cultural moment.”

Continue reading

________________________________________________________________

Just briefly?

Snap’s Doug Frisbie joins?The Current Podcast?to talk about how the company is leaning into AI and how social media’s move to mobile changed advertising forever.

TikTok’s global head of Creative Lab, Kinney Edwards, dishes on creativity in advertising on a recent edition of?Asking for a Friend, citing the need for ads to be authentic to cultivate “brandships” with consumers.

________________________________________________________________

Streaming wars no more: Media companies play nice with content to compete

By Travis Clark?

A few years ago, as the streaming boom emerged, media companies were making an effort to build new platforms with their own legacy content in order to attract subscribers and distinguish themselves from competition.?

Today, that’s starting to change.?The Hollywood writers’ strike?has gone on for two months, halting major productions for original content. Furthermore, the economics of streaming have simply shifted rapidly. To boost revenue, companies with streaming components are not only building?advertising businesses, but also engaging again with the licensing deals they started to move away from just a few short years ago. Sounds a lot like the licensing and syndication model of linear TV’s past, doesn’t it? Consider it a reboot of some of the original traditional TV business models.?

“This strategy is merely a continued recreation of the traditional economic television model via the internet,” Brandon Katz, an entertainment industry strategist at data firm Parrot Analytics, told?The Current. “At a time when every parent company is attempting to claw out profits from its direct-to-consumer division, particularly as linear TV’s value evaporates more rapidly, licensing select titles to other services is a logical and financially fruitful move.”

Continue reading

________________________________________________________________

This content was originally produced in The Current’s weekly newsletter.?Sign up?to get the latest?in modern marketing delivered to your inbox.