Peacock’s Newfront Pitch: New Ad Formats, and Movies Too
NBCUniversal has a blowout upfront presentation scheduled for May 15 (assuming the Writers Guild strike doesn’t get in the way), one that will feature all of its brands and networks, including the Peacock streaming service.
But that isn’t stopping the company from giving Peacock an event of its own, with the streamer hosting an event as part of the IAB Newfronts on Tuesday afternoon in New York.
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While the main upfront will paint a larger picture for the company’s efforts, the Newfront will lean into more granular details, including a handful of new advertising formats, and a focus on films, including Universal Pictures projects that will find their way to Peacock, and Peacock original films.
On the movies front, the company will highlight that two out of three Peacock subscribers have watched at least one Universal pay-one window film, with a positive response from users thanks to the limited ad formats used in the films.
Peacock has an extended pre-roll that mimics movie theater previews, and does not have commercial interruptions during the films themselves. The only exception is if a user pauses the movie (more on that later).
Th company will also highlight its Peacock original movies, starting with Shooting Stars, which chronicles LeBron James’ journey as a high school player, and includes Google, Capital One and State Farm as sponsors.
“Prior to the movie, we have a very compact, trailer-esque environment where brands can come in and be involved with that movie’s launch. We also, as part of that package, have the ability to target fans of that movie or that genre all over the ecosystem,” says Peter Blacker, executive VP of streaming and data products for NBCU ad sales, adding that even the Super Marios Bros. Movie, “when it comes to Peacock, will have sponsorship and advertising opportunities around it.”
“A lot of other streamers, when they have movies, advertising is not really part of the experience,” he adds. “And we’re actually bringing our sponsors into the mix from the beginning.”
On the ad format front, Peacock will highlight four new options at its newfront: Spotlight+, Marquee, Power Break, and Must Shop TV.
The Power Break (pictured above) is a new take on the “pause” ad, which is activated when a user pauses a movie or TV show. Blacker says the new product was inspired by feedback from Peacock advertisers that are on the company’s “streaming council.”
“We heard from our streaming council members that they loved the pause ad, but they wanted to see how we could combine it with the NBCUnified products,” Blacker says. “They said, ‘why do we have to offer the same pause out to everybody? Can you provide some data overlays and help us be able to enable different colors, creatives even language in our messaging, so that very powerful pause ad will be different for my house than it might be for your house?'”
The Spotlight+ ad allows for a full brand takeover of a show encompassing streaming, linear, and even some third-party platforms.
Blacker says it was “a direct response from one of our partners who challenged us and said, ‘I want to find a way to launch a new product and literally hit every single person that’s inside the NBCUniversal family at a given time,’ and we didn’t have that product at the time.”
And the Marquee ad puts a sponsor at the center of the action in streaming sports by integrating the sponsor into the scoreboard or other placement within matches.
The company also plans to announce an expansion of its Must ShopTV shoppable product, allowing viewers to buy directly from the programming.
Blacker also says the company will “lean into” the holidays, beginning with Halloween and continuing through New Year’s Eve.
“We’re going to really double down on our relationship with the holidays and these culture-defining moments we have, including the [Rockefeller Center] tree lighting ceremony, including the way that we really have come to own the Halloween season, both in virtual and digital manifestations but also with Halloween Horror Nights [at Universal theme parks],” he says. “So imagine this, you are a brand, and you actually physically are in our theme parks as your as we are launching the Halloween season there. And that is then amplified onto the Peacock streaming platform.”
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