Vevo’s NewFronts Pitch Is All About Massive Reach

The music video platform boasted its wide distribution as a key selling point during today’s virtual IAB NewFronts show, saying its videos reach 148 million viewers in the U.S. every month and hit 26 billion monthly views globally.

Most of that viewing is anchored in YouTube, said Kevin McGurn, Vevo’s president of sales and distribution. The next biggest viewing environments are on Samsung, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices and then free ad-supported services like Pluto TV and Xumo, he said.

“The mass majority of subscription and ad-supported services right now are trying to drag you into their application. We’re more about ubiquitous distribution. We look more like a network—and we’re syndicating to these services for distribution—than we look like a content owner that’s trying to draw you into our owned and operated environment,” McGurn told Adweek prior to Vevo’s NewFronts presentation.

Like many other media owners, Vevo is seeing a surge in viewership on connected TVs during the pandemic. CTV viewing as increased by 24% since March, with 61 million U.S. viewers watching exclusively on the big screen.

Overall, Vevo has seen 40% increase in CTV viewership each of the last two years. McGurn said the company’s biggest growth channel is YouTube’s CTV app.

Since Vevo is so widely distributed, advertisers could buy Vevo’s inventory directly from its platform partners or through programmatic partners. However, McGurn said buyers should work with Vevo upfront given inventory constraints and a need for brand safety.

Vevo pushes sponsorship of music video premieres in its upfront pitch, guaranteeing that advertisers reach a global audience of 23 million viewers in the video’s first seven days. Vevo also provides zip code-level targeting and TV content ratings for its videos.

“You have this ability for us to approach the marketplace with a finite amount of inventory on a desirable screen with a brand safety and transparency element, and they realize that is the transaction they need to make directly on IO basis and upfront,” McGurn said.

Vevo’s 20-minute long prerecorded presentation wasn’t as flashy as a live show likely would’ve been, but it did feature a guest appearance from musician Katy Perry, Vevo’s most-watched woman artist at over 19 billion views.

Perry said the feat feels good, but she still has some everyday concerns to work on.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh you could do this, you could do that, the world’s biggest stages, No. 1 on Vevo,’ but I literally can’t make three nourishing meals a day for myself, and I don’t know how to do dishes,” Perry said. “So there’s that.”