Naturally, these new branded verticals will also come with fresh sponsorship possibilities for advertisers that might otherwise be wary of having their ads potentially mix with CNN’s political coverage.
“Breaking news in politics is the backbone of CNN,” said Ryan Gould, WBD’s head of streaming, digital and advanced advertising sales and client partnerships. “But brands have a sensitivity around that kind of breaking news environment, and we do a really good job tapping into cultural moments and events beyond politics, whether that’s travel, lifestyle or sports.”
“The verticals offer advertisers opportunities to sponsor different media across a variety of media,” added Thompson. “There are going to be a broad range of different things to sponsor, many of which are going to be a long way from the sometimes quite divisive political topics that I know some advertisers worry about.”
No 30-second rule
Advertisers also don’t have to worry about sponsorship opportunities being limited to traditional 30-second ads. Thompson said CNN is eager to explore “long-running sponsorships” and “creative relationships” with equally eager brands for their various verticals. “The idea of finding an audience and building it from platform to platform is—for a certain kind of advertiser—a much deeper relationship than just placing 30-second spots,” he noted.
“I think that climate solutions and extreme weather will be a very interesting vertical, as well as health and wellness,” Thompson continued. “On our linear channel, we’ve already got a lot of specialty health advertising based around health coverage. And with [CNN chief medical correspondent] Dr. Sanjay Gupta, we’ve got one of the best-known and most-trusted faces in medicine in this country.”
But Thompson is quick to add that Gupta won’t be appearing on CNN sporting some kind of branded sweater anytime soon. “We’ve got to keep our editorial independence,” he emphasized. “The idea is to create opportunities and adjacencies that could mean a given advertiser could find the audience and the right content partner to get their message across.”
