Netflix Ad Sales Chief Jeremi Gorman on 2023 Ad Tiers

There's hitting the ground running, and then there's what Jeremi Gorman had to do when she started last fall as Netflix's president of worldwide advertising. The former Snap chief business officer was hired last August but didn't start until much closer to when the streaming service rolled out its new ad-supported tier on Nov. 4. Gorman talked with Adweek for our Outlook 2023 story about how advertising is shifting TV's streaming focus in 2023, but here's what else she had to say about the ad-supported tier's early rollout, her top priority this year and how her pitch to marketers will evolve in the coming months. Adweek: You came to Netflix and quickly launched the streamer’s ad-supported tier. How are you navigating things, and what are your thoughts on the launch?Jeremi Gorman: A huge amount of credit goes to the teams at Netflix and Microsoft. It was only six months from our announcement of an ads plan to when the service launched, and the hardworking teams at both companies made it happen. While it is still early days, I am very excited about the launch, both from a product perspective as well as from the eagerness of our advertising partners to participate at the outset. I’ve been spending my time listening to our partners, learning about their needs around the world and getting feedback on our road map so that we can continuously improve the service. What we launched with isn’t indicative of our long-term ambition. For 25 years, Netflix has been known for inventing new ways to provide the best shows to our members in the most creative ways possible, and you can expect the same for advertising over time. Consumers are making increasingly tougher choices in today’s uncertain economy, especially when it comes to streaming services. What’s the value of an ad-supported tier, and how does that fit into Netflix's future?Netflix has always been about consumer choice, and we offer a range of plans so members can pick the one that works best for them, and a new, lower-priced ad-supported plan is one of those options. For those who don’t want ads and are willing to pay a bit more per month, that choice remains. It’s unmissable entertainment at unbeatable value: Basic With Ads costs $6.99 a month in the U.S. to access all the must-watch shows and films like Wednesday, The Crown, Dead to Me, Stranger Things, Lupin, Emily in Paris, Slumberland and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. This gives people everything they love about Netflix: a wide variety of quality TV shows, movies and games on any device at a lower price, with ads. At the core, it helps with customer satisfaction. By offering a lower-priced plan, we can provide more choices to members, something [Netflix CEO] Reed Hastings has spoken about. And that is a wonderful thing to do, as it will help us to continue to grow our member base. By Adding Ads, Disney+ and Netflix Are Disrupting the Streaming Industry—Again What’s your top priority heading into 2023?We are focused on building a small but mighty team of senior leaders to work alongside Microsoft with people from both TV and digital to make sure we are pushing ourselves to be the best of both worlds. [Vice president of advertising sales] Peter Naylor joined the same day I did, and recent hires include Julie DeTraglia as vice president, advertising measurement; Adam Gerber as senior director of business development; and senior talent from TikTok, Hulu/Disney and Snap. We know apples-to-apples measurement is critically important to brands and advertisers, and the team led by Julie will help accelerate our adoption of third-party measurement tools, such as Nielsen, IAS and DoubleVerify in the U.S., all of which we are onboarding at this time. Personally, my top priority for 2023 (aside from maybe squeezing in a nap) is to lay the foundation for a “forever business.” It’s tempting to move immediately to replicate existing models in the space. But we have the opportunity to build something different, more engaging and more creative for our advertisers and our members, which will take time. Maintaining that patience to build for the future is of paramount importance. Netflix rolled this out at a time where economic uncertainty is starting to impact ad spend. What is your pitch to marketers to bring their money to Netflix, and how do you expect that to evolve as we continue into the new year?It is two-fold. First, as hard as it is, periods of economic uncertainty are when brands can really grow their market share. Whether you serve more value-oriented consumers or need to defend why consumers should spend a premium on your product, the last thing brands should do right now is let their competition dominate that conversation by going silent. In addition, it’s been difficult to reach some of the cord-cutters in long-form TV/film-quality environments, and that secular trend is only continuing. Helping advertisers reach potential new customers in a period of economic challenges is something we are proud to help accomplish. Second, Netflix is a great place to tell your story. You have the ability to tell your story on a big screen with ads that are not skippable to an audience that you increasingly can’t reach through traditional channels. We serve our ads locally, the same way we treat our shows, so advertisers can be assured that this is an excellent place to tell their stories.

Outlook

Netflix's New Ad Sales Chief's Pitch to Marketers and How the Ad Tier Will Evolve in 2023

'What we launched with isn’t indicative of our long-term ambition,' said Jeremi Gorman

Bill Bradley

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