Paramount Ad Sales Chief John Halley on Upfront Changes

Staying ahead of the changing TV landscape is paramount for John Halley. Halley, previously Paramount's chief operating officer of advertising revenue, assumed the role of president of advertising in September 2022, following Jo Ann Ross' shift to an advisory role after 30 years at the company. In the new position, he oversees the company’s domestic multiplatform sales efforts across its portfolio of broadcast, cable, digital and streaming assets spanning CBS, BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount+ and Pluto TV, among others. Now six months into the job, the experience has been a "whirlwind," Halley told Adweek. Paramount Global Launches ‘Popular Is Paramount’ Trade Marketing Campaign "There have been a lot of changes since that happened," Halley said. "So the leadership transition was announced, we fast got to work on reorganizing the sales team into a convergent structure." The advertising department's reorganization, which Halley rolled out after just two months in the role, focused on three key pillars, including an agency holding company model, a dedicated digital infrastructure and specialty sales organizations. Halley explained that the idea was to create a simplified structure that would allow buyers to access the company's scale as simply as possible, eliminating broadcast and cable silos and creating a unified representation of all the company's assets. And despite the reorg, the team retained its top executives. "The architecture of this was in the works for a long time," Halley said. "I think it was an endpoint that we knew was an eventuality even at the time of the [CBS and Viacom] merger, but we needed to time it in a way that ensured its success." Of course, the sales team reorganization was just the start of the changes under Halley's watch. Upfront week exit Last December, the company announced it would skip its decades-long Carnegie Hall upfront week event, passing on the lavish May gathering to host smaller events with clients and partners in April. Thus far, Paramount is the only major publisher to vacate the annual advertising showcase. For Halley, it all came down to how the marketplace actually works. "By the middle of May, the majority of our upfront deals have been completed. That timing does not facilitate the upfront discussion. It has another purpose. It's a PR event," Halley said. "I think that's fine, but everyone needs to recognize that that's what it is." The move away from upfront week feeds into another of Halley's points, which is that the annual advertising event acts like a "parade" and results in a "share of voice issue." Following Paramount vacating its Wednesday evening slot, both YouTube and Netflix quickly announced they'd be joining upfront week with their own Wednesday evening presentations. "I'm pretty sure that would have happened to us if we'd stayed there," Halley said of Netflix's and YouTube's events. "For us, this is about being able to spend quality time in an expanded format, and having a more in-depth discussion about the things that I just mentioned." Halley is well aware that leaving upfront week presentations could've been seen as a negative, but he reiterated that continuing with traditional Carnegie Hall event wasn't in the company's best interest. According to Halley, the exit wasn't made to save money, but instead was for better formatting and timing during the upfront season. The view on upfront week is broadly shared internally at Paramount, and the company didn't take the symbolism of its Carengie Hall exit "lightly," Halley said. "At the end of the day, the upfront represents a lot of business, and we have to do the right thing." And though he's not ruling out a return to upfront week in the future, don't expect the company to change its mind anytime soon. "You never make decisions forever, but I don't think that we're looking at this as a one-year-only kind of thing. All of the rationale, all of the industrial logic around the decision is going to be in place next year, too," Halley said. "I think, frankly, what we're going to see is potentially the week becoming more crowded. We'll see." Paramount+ Adds 9.9 Million Subscribers, Hikes Prices for Showtime Integration A mountain of digital content for the upfront As for the 2023-2024 upfront, Halley told Adweek about the company's OTT story, which includes managing a growing digital base that's approaching $3 billion. "Our business is in a state of constant evolution and is becoming increasingly digital. Remember, as big as we are—as I said before, we're as big a premium video player domestically as there is—our business, if you take sports out, is 40% digital," Halley said. Among the other priorities, he cited the company's sophistication in the areas of programmatic, identity and cross-platform optimization. "Those are the things that create a lot of differentiation for us. These are areas that you hear a lot of others talk about," Halley said. "We do them better than anyone, and we're going to be telling that story." The company is also one of the major publishers pushing for a multicurrency future. Halley is the chairman of OpenAP, which along with Paramount, Fox, NBCUniversal, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery and the VAB, announced the formation of the first U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) to enable multiple currencies in January. Thus far, the JIC has already set the criteria for premium cross-platform video, looking to establish the suitability of measurement solutions ahead of the 2024 upfront. "We're heavily invested in new currency, and we've done a lot of operational work to ensure that advertisers can seamlessly transact in these new modes and take advantage of the superior efficacy and conversion associated with those currencies," Halley said. But with a soft ad market, it's anyone's guess what advertisers can expect from upfront negotiations. "I'll know when I read it in your publication," Halley joked. "It's a really interesting time. There's been a lot of market disequilibrium, which started with Covid-19. It's wobbly in different ways, and it affects different categories differently. We'll see how all this shakes out. I don't think there is a clear picture from anyone about how this is going to go." However, Halley is "confident" with where the company is in the marketplace and noted there's already recovery in several categories. It's a sentiment buyers reiterated to Adweek in March, with several expecting the market to turn around in the second half of the year. Looking ahead When Ross announced she'd be transitioning to chairman, the former ad sales chief also noted that Halley was set to take the ad sales team to "new heights." And it appears things are well on their way. Paramount+ and Pluto TV are rapidly expanding the company's digital footprint. The latter added 6.5 million new monthly active users in the fourth quarter, and though Showtime integrating into Paramount+'s premium tier won't add to the ad inventory, it will continue to grow the service's subscriber base, which recently reached 56 million. And Paramount's advertising platform EyeQ, which funnels its massive content portfolio through a simple and scaled solution, is on a rapid growth path. Halley said EyeQ had 50 million full-episode monthly unique viewers three years ago. Now, the number has grown to 90 million. The ad sales chief also noted that Paramount is investing in programmatic, convergent optimization, audience insights and DEI, bringing technology and data into the mix to ensure that advertiser dollars go farther. And Paramount isn't being shy about its scale, even unveiling a trade marketing campaign titled "Popular is Paramount" to showcase its content investments and library of engaging IP such as Top Gun: Maverick and Yellowstone. "There are few companies that possess the combination of what we have. There are multiple activation lanes. We're the most flexible of any publisher, and we have the scale to deliver against anyone's need at any size of campaign," Halley said. Paramount+’s Stallone Super Bowl Ad Is Anything But Rocky That's why Halley is "excited" about where things go in the upfront and the company's future. "The evolution of this business and the change of this business is accelerating, and the elements of the upfront are expanding and the opportunities are growing," Halley said. "I think our opportunity, particularly under the new structure, to deliver value to our agency partners, to deliver value to clients, to expand partnership, to be more flexible, to trade more creatively and to drive better outcomes. It's better than it ever has been."

TV Upfronts

Paramount Ad Sales Chief John Halley on Upfront Changes, the Reorg and What's Next

Plus, why the company's surprise upfront week exit isn't 'a one-year-only kind of thing'

Bill Bradley

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Bill Bradley