Linda Yaccarino on Pulling Off a 'Giant Reunion' at Upfront

Now that the upfront week presentations are over, the real work begins: negotiations as the marketplace kicks off. But before talks begin, Adweek is sitting down with each of the ad sales chiefs who presented this week to talk about their respective events and their strategies for navigating this year’s marketplace. First up is Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal chairman of global advertising and partnerships, who oversaw the first in-person upfront week event since 2019. On the morning of May 16, Yaccarino welcomed marketers back to Radio City Music Hall for a star-studded event that included a showstopping dance number in honor of fan event BravoCon, featuring dozens of "Bravolebrities." Yaccarino talked with Adweek about why she didn't consider changing upfront venues like some of her peers, her top upfront priorities this year and why the presentation couldn't be "too big." This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Adweek: This is the first upfront week since 2019 that's in-person, and NBCUniversal started it off.Yaccarino: Isn't it so exciting? Especially the way we're treating it at NBCU, it is so much bigger than a return to upfront week. It's just a giant reunion. Some of your peers went to different venues. NBCU stayed at Radio City Music Hall. Why was that important?I was a little surprised by that—by changing historical venues to maybe communicate evolution or change, or maybe the need to tighten the belt a little bit, I don't know. When we had our first creative meeting, it was probably five or six months ago, and we started planning, back then it was the hope that we were definitely going to be back live. The direction that I gave my creative team was, and this is a real quote, "This show cannot be too big." We wanted to make sure that we returned to the iconic place that really defines such a big part of New York. This company that has celebrated nearly a century of being at the forefront of content and innovation was going to celebrate there in the biggest of ways and welcome everybody to our reunion, yes, but additionally to the biggest turning point our industry has ever had. When we had our last upfront at Radio City, Peacock was just a twinkle in our eye. Peacock is barely two years old. But to imagine that now we get to talk about the fastest-growing ad-supported brand out there. And the last time we were all together, Peacock was just an idea or product we planned to roll out. So hell yeah: We [were] back at Radio City celebrating. NBCU Kicks Off In-Person Upfront Week With Showstopping, Star-Studded Spectacle So what were your priorities for the upfront and how did you decide what to focus on?Three things: content, technology and partnerships. We know that we are a gigantic content company. We're the biggest content company in the United States. But that content now stands on the shoulders of a technology giant in Comcast. We're talking a lot about all of those capabilities that we have developed and rolled out, that are unparalleled. And then we talk about when you sit at the intersection of those two things, content and technology, then partnerships become really important, distribution partnerships with great partners like TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. When we take all that together and can offer it to advertisers, that's where the magic happens. Because at that last upfront, we also talked about other companies pushing marketers' business away, because back then it was very much in vogue to talk about your "+" [streaming] businesses that didn't involve advertising. And we were actually inviting businesses in with what was back then a provocative strategy of a premium AVOD player. So what's so exciting is that that business case is rock solid and has taken off like a rocket ship. And there's no other better demonstration of full industry convergence than there is with Peacock. There's so much content at NBCU, Peacock, sports and broadcast. How did you decide how to structure the event?The structure of the event is one of the hardest tasks we [had] because the company is so big. When you think about it, we have two broadcast networks, one English language and Spanish language is Telemundo. We have eight iconic cable channels, then we have all of our digital businesses. And the shiniest jewel in our toy chest right now being Peacock, but there are so many businesses in between like Fandango that we're able to invite advertisers into. When you think about it in that way, developing a structure is a great and exciting but complicated test, because we want to present it all in a way that advertisers can digest it. Right now our content strategy is by genre. Because if you want to think about it all in legacy distribution platforms—like broadcast cable, digital—we don't really think about it that way. It is best to look at it by genre. So you have unscripted, you have scripted drama and comedy, you have news, you have sports—and I could go on and on because it is just a massive amount of content. NBCUniversal revealed nine new ad formats, and Peacock unveiled another two. What are some of the ones you're most excited about? What do you think will generate the most demand among advertisers?These ad innovations really prove emphatically the full-funnel impact of an advertiser's message with premium content, and there is no surrogate for that. But what I'm most excited about is bringing a massive amount of commerce-enabled innovations to this marketplace. We've been very focused for the last couple of years on the growing commerce business across the world, but mostly in Asia. If you look at that commerce-enabled business in what we would call the premium content business in the United States, it's over a $500 billion a year business, and I have full intentions of having NBCU continue to lead the way to get a piece of that pie in the United States. So I'm most excited about how sophisticated we've become with commerce-enabled activity because you invest your commercials and your ads with us, and then I help you sell stuff. That's a pretty good proposition to have, especially when I can prove it now. How is NBCU approaching sports for the upcoming TV season?Sports is one of the greatest investments that Comcast and NBCUniversal have made and continue to make. Think about the good fortune that me and my team have in representing the best brands on Earth. And I couldn't understate the power of a brand like the Olympics. So there's so much excitement already because we're heading to the Paris Olympics for the next Summer Games, which is super exciting. And obviously, we have Sunday Night Football, and we have English Premier League, and we have horse racing. How exciting were those last few seconds of the Kentucky Derby? This year, we're so excited about the biggest sporting event in the world, the 2022 World Cup, and to have Telemundo be the Spanish language host for the World Cup is an incredible good fortune. And then when you add to that WrestleMania and wrestling that you have over a weekend, which is most weekends every year. It's an embarrassment of riches, and we will continue investing in the sports brands that bring people, that bring communities together. And when you have the ability to do that, marketers want to partner with you. What I'm most excited about is bringing a massive amount of commerce-enabled innovations to this marketplace.Linda Yaccarino, chairman of global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal NBCU seems to be putting some emphasis on getting paid Peacock subscribers versus the free tier. How do you think that will impact demand for Peacock and upfront negotiations regarding the service?The emphasis on Peacock is really a singular thing. Invest in a brand. Think about this: Peacock is barely two years old, and it has taken off so fast. I continue to say we might have probably thought about naming it Rocket Ship instead. But it's already surpassed 60 million monthly active users, and you will see a continuation of incredible content investment. I've been reading about some other streaming platforms that have started to tighten the belts or pull back. I'm happy to report that the exact opposite is happening at Comcast and NBCUniversal, and I think what's proving to be so important is the diversity of our content. It's a unique streamer with the access to use the giant content tentacles that Comcast NBCU has and bring sports to Peacock users, bring news to Peacock users, English [and] Spanish language, and then the tremendous vault that we have of content, whether it's movies, scripted, unscripted. Then to look at how we're playing with the windowing strategy for our Universal movies. That's that perfect demonstration of content, tech and partnerships all coming together uniquely at Peacock. During the presentation, there were big moments, including a giant BravoCon dance number. Can you talk about the importance of BravoCon?I don't know how familiar you are with BravoCon, but it is a coming together over a long weekend in October. It was so much in demand. We had to move it from the Hammerstein Ballroom to the Javits Center. And you have to come and experience the exuberance, the insatiable fans of Bravo. And it's another example of how our company is working together seamlessly to make sure consumers get the content they love, wherever and whenever they want it. What can you tell us about early upfront negotiations?I can't really talk about any early negotiations, but what I can tell you is that what I'm most excited about is the offering that NBCUniversal has this year is unprecedented, from content to the growth story of Peacock. But one thing you have to think about is the upfront marketplace. The upfront is a futures market. And advertisers are buying anywhere from nine months to a year in advance. So it goes far beyond the stock market story of today, or the estimates of where the market has been for the last week. And it's a bear market. Because who can predict? Yesterday the markets were down, today it's up. But it really is advertisers' opportunity to choose their partners very carefully and who they want to invest in this time next year. That they are on a trajectory of content and technology that convinces them to sell their products best. What you have to think about for next year's market, and I'll just use many data points I'm sure you may be aware of, but if you think about the auto category that has been unfortunately compromised this year because of the chip shortage and product delays. Scheduled for 2023, if it doesn't start sooner, there are over 40 new car models scheduled to launch. Can you imagine the pressure to sell their product and the pressure to capture inventory? That's where partnerships come into place. And that's where we're really proud to work with our advertisers to say, "Let us know your strategic priorities in advance, and we will work with you to make sure that you are ahead of the game and become a category leader yourself." So as far as negotiations go, we are always open for business, but happy to be talking to our key customers in anticipation of market conditions that are unlike any other. Lastly, with Nielsen losing accreditation, what are the alternative currencies you're transacting on this year?What I'm excited about is finally a multi-currency marketplace is here. So it actually liberates us in our negotiations, and we're able to focus on real KPIs that can improve product activity across our whole portfolio. And when you combine a multi-currency future with everything that NBCUnified is doing, that's our first-party data product, and you'll combine all of that across our whole portfolio, you're actually able to have business partner negotiation as opposed to buyer-seller negotiations based off a monolithic one currency strategy. It liberates all of us to deliver guarantees: It could be reach, it could be sales. There are many, many different KPIs advertisers are looking for, and those KPIs or guarantees used to be the exclusive domain of the social additional platforms. Finally, that sophistication has come to television or premium content, and that's what we're really excited about.

TV Upfronts

Linda Yaccarino on Pulling Off a 'Giant Reunion' in NBCU's Upfront Week Return

Plus, why she didn't consider changing upfront venues like some of her peers

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