Paramount today (Jan. 22) confirmed that it won’t be returning for upfront week in 2024. Instead, the New York owner of Nickelodeon, CBS and the Paramount movie studio will once again host a series of “high-impact, intimate upfront gatherings” for each of its agency partners and their clients across New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, a Paramount spokesperson told Adweek. The events are set to begin in late April.
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| John Halley presided over several New York upfront dinners in late April 2023. Photo credit: Paramount |
Paramount shocked the TV industry in 2023 by skipping its decades-long formal, glitzy upfront week presentation event at Carnegie Hall, but this announcement doesn’t come as a surprise.
The company feels clients responded well to the technique introduced last year and expects to build upon the practice with a new experience for those who attend.
“The feedback from last year’s approach was incredibly positive,” the spokesperson said. “And we’ll be building on the success of the format with a fresh new experience that deepens our connection with the advertisers we serve.”
The company also had a successful upfront season without its single lavish event, closing talks up low to mid-single digits in dollar commitments.
In a different era, Paramount was a backer of what was perhaps the most symbolic presentation of the upfront, when TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory ahead of their next programming cycle. In its time, CBS’ Carnegie Hall event grew to symbolize the networks’ efforts during their annual week of publicity aimed at wooing Madison Avenue and has featured everything from live songs by The Who to a farewell from David Letterman.
But John Halley, who was named head of Paramount Global’s ad sales outreach last year, believes bespoke meetings carry the potential for more benefit, especially in an era when advertisers are seeking more precise placement of their pitches alongside narrower audiences defined by better data mining techniques. “We are not going to go back to the old way of doing things,” Halley told news outlets last year.
For Paramount’s 2023 upfront dinners, the company transformed Chelsea Factory in New York to showcase its “Popular Is Paramount” brand positioning. In addition to the immersive displays showcasing Paramount’s IP, the gatherings featured Paramount talent as well as musical entertainment.
The announcement comes as news of the TV upfront revs up. Recently, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it would return to upfront week, ending any speculation that the company could also exit. In addition, upfront week presenters YouTube and Disney have also already announced 2024 plans.
Thus far, Paramount remains the only major publisher to stay out of upfront week.
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Additional source: Variety; Special thanks to @KeydalisColo, @NickSchedules, @MtthwClmn for the news!
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