From its roots as a critical television advertising commitment exercise to, now, a showcase of new and returning series across linear and streaming platforms designed to dazzle advertisers’ media-buy strategies, the Upfronts today are a competitive landscape. For many brands, it’s an opportunity (or an imperative) to break away from a traditional presentation format and lean into something experiential.
Take Adobe, which took to the New York City streets during the Upfronts period in mid-May with a Mobile Design Studio that drove to Upfronts “hotspots”—like 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Javits Center, and Madison Square Garden—with an activation for its Adobe Express app. Inside the glass truck product experts led demos on creating brand kits and ads using the app. Meanwhile, consumers had the chance to create custom stickers in Adobe Express which were printed and emailed as a takeaway. It was all designed to position Adobe Express as the “go-to tool for fast, powerful creativity.”
“Activating at the Upfronts gave us a strategic opportunity to connect with three key audiences—marketers, business decision-makers, and everyday consumers—during one of New York City’s most high-profile events for brands,” says Parimal Deshpande, marketing executive-Adobe Express & Creative Cloud. “We saw meaningful engagement on the ground and on social.”
For influencer engagement, the brand partnered with author, podcast host and academic Scott Galloway and writer and analyst Ed Elson, co-hosts of the Prof G Podcast, who stopped by the mobile studio and competed head-to-head to create content with Adobe Express, which were shared across their social media channels later that week. (Agencies: GroupM; Wavemaker)
Here, four more ideas for experiential Upfronts, and NewFronts for digital media:
Festival Vibes
When new media conglomerate Oath needed to showcase its suite of brands amid a big merger deal with Verizon, it took an anti-presentation approach, creating an outdoor festival experience “conducive to business deals but also with a distinct consumer feel to it.” Think: Parkour dancers, bucket drummers, cheerleaders, festival eats and a “pop room” with dangling bags of flavored popcorn.
Photo: Courtesy of Oath
Fun and Games
While digital publishers across New York City spent a week vying for attention from ad buyers with flashy presentations and reveals for NewFronts, The Onion in true tongue-and-cheek fashion decided it would make a splash by doing what it does best—parodying the whole thing. Tuxedo-clad servers handed out swans folded with dollar bills, the late Regis Philbin served as keynoter, and each attendee was handed an envelope containing a welcome letter addressed to “Dear Marketing God.”
Special Deliveries
ION TV created an “ION Delivers” campaign inspired by the corporate mailroom with an activation that popped up on the street outside of advertising agency offices. Ahead of the event, media buyers received a mock ION shipping notice alerting them to where they could “pick up their package.” At the activations, brand ambassadors decked out in delivery uniforms served up free branded desktop items and a contest.
Production Power
Proving that static presentations are a thing of the past, Disney Advertising this year leveraged all its magic, rolled out a blue carpet, and transformed a space in New York City’s Javits Center into a chandelier-adorned, kinetic feature-rich space complete with LED walls that opened like theater curtains and a cast of entertainment on the main stage. And did we mention the “Alien” encounter? Out of this world.
Photo: Courtesy of Disney
Featured photo: Courtesy of Adobe
