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Marketing and Sponsorship

NBCUniversal Shifting Toward Total Audience For Ad Sales Process

NBCUniversal ahead of the '20 Tokyo Games has made several changes to its ad sales process "to ensure revenue even as advertisers have become wary of eroding ratings for primetime events," according to Brian Steinberg of VARIETY. NBC is basing its ad guarantees "on the number of people its content reaches, as opposed to a household rating that has often been the norm for TV discussions." NBC Exec VP/Advertising Sales Dan Lovinger said that NBCU for Tokyo also is "offering to make new guarantees based on a particular audience demographic, including viewers between 18 and 49 and viewers between 25 and 54" (VARIETY.com, 7/23). ADWEEK's Kelsey Sutton noted the Tokyo Games will be the "second Olympics overall and the first Summer Games in which NBCUniversal is guaranteeing audiences to advertisers using its Total Audience Delivery metric, or TAD, which measures audiences across linear, out-of-home, digital and streaming." The broadcaster switched to TAD during the '18 Pyeongchang Games after its "record Rio year" in '16. Nonetheless, this "caused some headaches for the company after ratings" fell to a 14.5, "below the 'high-teens' household ratings" that advertisers were guaranteed. Lovinger said that total ad load for Tokyo -- which has "previously attracted some criticism -- would be about the same as years past" (ADWEEK.com, 7/23).

TALE OF TWO CITIES: AD AGE's Anthony Crupi noted while the '16 Rio Games "delivered massive ratings for NBC, the linear TV numbers were down significantly" compared to the record-setting '12 London Games, which were the "highest-rated Olympics staged outside of the U.S." NBC's primetime deliveries "dipped to 26 million viewers and a 14.9 rating, leaving the network on the hook for a sizable chunk of audience-deficiency units." NBC met its Rio ratings guarantees on "just three of the 17 nights, a result that provided a stark contrast to how it fared in London." The net in '12 "exceeded its ratings targets 14 nights out of 17." After the Rio Games wrapped, NBC said that it had made all of its Olympics advertisers "whole within the Games themselves, although some buyers claimed that their clients had been offered makegoods in the upcoming season of 'Sunday Night Football'" (ADAGE.com, 7/23).

BIG EXPECTATIONS: NBC expects to set an Olympic ad sales record in Tokyo. NBC brought in $1.2B in ad sales for Rio, and Lovinger said, "We expect to exceed that number in Tokyo." He added that sales were "pacing significantly ahead" of Rio and likely would blow past NBC's ad sales goal. He would not put a number to NBC's goal. "It goes to show the Olympic movement is alive and well." Lovinger singled out the automotive, travel, beverage, tech and financial services categories as being the healthiest. In the last two Olympic cycles, NBC officials noticed that some IOC or USOPC sponsors were less interested in media to support their rights. However, Lovinger said there has not been further erosion in interest from official Olympic sponsors. In this cycle, the sponsors that are buying ads are buying more. "The deals we've done have actually been stronger volume on a per-deal basis than prior," Lovinger said. NBC and LA28 created a joint sales team in hopes of tying together sponsorship and media buys in the future, but that mostly revolves around future Games (Ourand & Fischer, THE DAILY).

STILL UNDECIDED: The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Marisa Guthrie reported NBCUniversal is "planning to carry more than 7,000 hours of coverage across broadcast, cable, digital and social." It is "unclear what, if any, programming will go to NBCUniversal's still-gestating over-the-top service, which is set to launch" in '20. But Lovinger yesterday said that those "internal discussions are ongoing" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 7/23).

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