That the traditional upfront commitments has changed, it a gross understatement. Some huge companies, like Johnson & Johnson didn't even participate this year.
The major reason is that there are so many opportunities around the year now, and from other outlets besides mainstream media, that companies are extremely cautious about how much they want to commit anymore.
Jeff Zucker, head of NBC Universal's (GE) television group said: "Customers are looking for different ways to buy, and we have to be open to that. If that means 
less upfront and more deals in a different kind of marketplace, then we're OK with that."
While the media companies are trying to put a positive spin the situation, in truth it does have some major implications. The most important and disruptive one is that when companies commit less to the upfront, the money left is up for grabs. Major companies aren't guaranteed that the money taken off of the upfront table will be spent later on in the year on them.
Jeff Zucker
Just because they put some Web sites up that simply copy their offline programming, doesn't mean that advertisers and marketers are going to throw their money that way. A growing number are advertising through a number of growing outlets that have nothing to do with traditional media.
It seems the problem that the big companies continue to have is they are continuing to find something that will maintain the types of profits they're used to in the past, when that world no longer exists. The reason that it's a problem is that it's keeping them in a "wishful" thinking mode while the world steadily changes around them.
That's why I use The Walt Disney Company (DIS) as a model they need to follow. Instead of waiting around, they've plunged into the new realities, and cut back on some of their focus from the past. While there has been some short-term pain from it, they have positioned themselves, and continue to do so, to take off when the road is clearer ahead.
The majority of other media companies are still talking about a lot of things, while things are dramatically moving ahead. The upfront is one of those measuring rods that show they are still focusing on the wrong things.
Comment Preview