What TV's 'Upfront' Means For Radio

"TV Upfront" is a group of gatherings hosted at the start of important advertising sales periods by television network executives, attended by the press and major advertisers. It is so named because of its main purpose, to allow marketers to buy television commercial airtime "up front", or several months before the television season begins.

Pierre Bouvard

The first upfront presentation was made by ABC in 1962, in an attempt to find out how advertisers felt about the network's new shows.

In his latest blog post, Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer of Cumulus/Westwood One, writes this year's TV Upfront had five key themes and what it means for radio.

Here’s what radio can learn from this year’s upfront:

• Reach is still the new black. The bigger the reach, the greater your target. As America’s number one mass reach medium, AM/FM radio can reach more of the advertiser’s right audience.
• While TV wants to reduce ad loads, radio commercial time is significantly lower. TV runs 36% more commercial minutes than radio. AM/FM radio holds 93% of its lead-in audience through its commercials.
• AM/FM radio should be part of the 71% to 78% optimal allocation to traditional media. The Advertising Research Foundation’s new “How Advertising Works” study advises that most of the media plan be allocated to traditional media, even for campaigns targeting 18-34 Millennials.
• Both TV and radio have a halo effect on digital impact. Recent Nielsen studies for multiple advertisers reveal that those exposed to the radio campaign have a higher recall of all other elements of the media plan.
• TV and radio run their ads, and real people hear the ads. No fraud and bots here. Broadcast ads actually air. Real consumers are exposed.