Peacock's New Ad Formats Make Marketers the Star of the Show

NBCUniversal and Peacock want to make marketers the star of the show. In March, at One22, NBCU's ad tech-focused event, the company committed to enhancing the ad experience for consumers and marketers. Then, on Monday, at the first in-person Peacock NewFronts presentation, held at New York's Highline Stages, the company took a significant step toward fulfilling that promise. The company is rolling out two ad formats for the streaming service: the Peacock Frame Ad, which lets a brand frame a user’s experience with relevant messaging and purchase offers, and the Peacock In-Scene Ad, which integrates advertisers' brands directly into targeted content moments through natural visual effects. The Peacock Frame Ad experience was born out of feedback for more ecommerce opportunities from Peacock’s Streaming Council partners, a group of advertisers dedicated to building, testing and learning what resonates most with audiences. It’s about creating "dynamic, contextual targeting for advertisers," according to Laura Molen, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. The experience is similar to a squeeze back ad, reducing the main video size to provide an advertiser’s messaging. But unlike a typical squeeze back ad, the Peacock Frame Ad is highly targeted, airing during quieter moments in live programming or around end credits to provide custom experiences, leveraging live data and even sports statistics. “The recommendation to our clients is to leverage the canvas to create a customized experience aligned to their individual brand. And so we create a customized experience using all of these different aspects to bring a marketers message to life,” Molen told Adweek. Molen said advertisers could create custom experiences using contextual relevancy, targeting down to location or sentiment. As an example, Molen explained that marketers could create shoppable moments with a scannable code around the red carpet during awards programming, allowing viewers to engage live with a brand. Or, an awards show host could mention a beauty product, and then a relevant purchasing opportunity could appear on the screen. “You're reaching audiences in moments of peak relevance. So what we see are a lot of these live moments go on to live in the cultural sphere. And when they are live in the moment, we're giving marketers an opportunity to bring their brand to life and no other," Molen said. Targeting down to the individual Peacock is also exploring an In-Scene Ad format with the Peacock Streaming Council, which takes dynamic product placement to an entirely new level, integrating a brand’s messaging during post-production. The prototype product aims to integrate advertisers' brands directly into targeted content moments through natural visual effects. “Think of a scene in the show Bel-Air for example, when the main character Will is driving around Los Angeles, and there are billboards that we can actually place a marketer's ad in those billboards as they're driving around, and do it in such a way that that brings it to life," Molen explained. The goal is to create an organic, seamless experience. "When a user plays episodic content, a marketer's brand or product is dynamically placed in the frame of targeted scenes. And it really creates a non-interruptive ad experience and aligns the programming to the marketer's campaign and their goals," Molen said. "So brands should use this to build brand awareness through content alignment and integrating their products and messages in post-production." The product offers flexibility, not requiring marketers to adhere to film and TV production schedules, instead being added after the fact and targeted down to individual consumers. "It could be geo-located for brands that are looking to highlight certain areas or, again, around a consumer that you're targeting to go see a movie, or a beauty enthusiast or someone looking to buy a new car. It's really giving marketers a new way to create customer experiences and align their products and messages while targeting individual consumers," Molen said. Bravo episodes come to Peacock The new ad formats come following Peacock's biggest subscriber growth ever. During last week's earnings call, NBCUniversal said that Peacock now has 13 million paid subscribers—adding 4 million last quarter thanks to Super Bowl 56 and the Winter Olympics—and now reaches 28 million active accounts overall. In other NewFronts announcements, NBCUniversal said Peacock will now be the streaming home of cable network Bravo, with new episodes of all Bravo shows —including The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Top Chef and Below Deck—available to stream the next day on the platform for Peacock Premium subscribers . Peacock has set three original films from Universal Pictures that will debut exclusively on the service in 2023: Shooting Stars (produced by LeBron James, it follows his origin story as a high-school basketball star), Praise This (starring Chloe Bailey as a woman who shakes up her church choir) and The Killer (director John Woo reimagines his 1989 classic film). Bel-Air is now Peacock's most-streamed original series, with 8 million accounts watching the show so far. In addition to Monday's NewFronts presentation, NBCUniversal will also tout Peacock as part of its upfront week event, set for Monday, May 16 at Radio City Music Hall.

NewFronts

How Peacock's New Ad Formats Make Marketers the Star of the Show

At NewFronts event, NBCUniversal also brings all original Bravo episodes to the streaming service

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