Fox isn’t giving up on linear TV anytime soon.

What’s happening:

Today, Fox Networks announced that it’s utilizing DatafuelX to provide optimized data-driven linear (DDL) media plans.

Why it’s happening:

DatafuelX, which utilizes analytics and technology for multi-currency, cross-platform solutions, noted that Fox will leverage its full-service SaaS platform, M3, to provide DDL media plans against advertiser advanced audience targets on transactions using Nielsen (both panel and big data) and VideoAmp. 

The news comes as upfront negotiations are kicking into high gear.

“With the industry shifting to an audience-centric, multi-currency marketplace, it’s critical for sellers to provide marketers with agnostic solutions that can effectively forecast, optimize and steward deals against any currency and any audience to drive outcomes,” Jay Amato, CEO at DatafuelX, said in a statement. “With M3, Fox can do just that to assure buyers of the value their inventory offers, realize greater yield and ultimately increase revenue.” 

Fox will be implemented on DatafuelX’s M3 platform for third-quarter campaigns across its networks and cable properties. Additionally, according to the company, Fox will utilize DatafuelX’s DemoPlus, a customer-centric solution within M3 that expands reach beyond DDL for a more comprehensive demo inventory. The solution provides Fox with even more targeting precision on linear.

“Today, it is table stakes for buyers to have more precise advanced audience guarantees, and data-driven linear provides just that,” said Darren Sherriff, svp of advanced ad solutions at Fox. “With our trusted partner DatafuelX, we are confident that M3 will provide us with the tools to optimize opportunities in this space.”

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What else to know:

Ahead of TV upfront week, media buyers told ADWEEK that this year’s upfront would be all about streaming; however, several mentioned that data-driven linear would also be a topic of conversation.

Though not as dynamic as addressable TV, DDL allows marketers to make more automated linear TV buys. With the tech, advertisers can get more targeted linear, going beyond age and gender demos without sacrificing scale.

Cannes Lions has revealed the Dan Wieden Titanium Lions shortlist, one of the most prestigious prizes in the advertising industry. 

20 pieces of work out of 200 entries made the category’s shortlist. The Titanium Lions is a coveted prize at the festival because it recognizes provocative and boundary-pushing work that progresses the industry. 

There are two Super Bowl campaigns on the list: CeraVe’s influencer-led “Michael Cerave” by Ogilvy, which pranked people into thinking actor Michael Cera was the skin care brand’s founder; and DoorDash’s “DoorDash-All-The-Ads,” an ambitious giveaway that offered one winner every item advertised during the Super Bowl. 

In another U.S. entry, Sphere Entertainment’s MSG Sphere in Las Vegas–a ginormous dome in the desert that features shows and advertising on its outer shell–received a nod. 

Notably, French telecommunications company Orange and agency Marcel made the shortlist for “WoMen’s Football,” which used VFX to highlight gender bias in soccer. The campaign recently picked up a coveted Black Pencil at the D&AD Awards, sometimes portending Cannes Lions winners.

Dove, Coca-Cola, Xbox, Spotify, Google and Heineken are also among the shortlisted advertisers. The full list is below. 

• Laut Gegen Nazis (Loud Against Nazis) “Rights Against the Right – The First Trademark that Stops Trading Nazi Merch” by Jung Von Matt
• Anzen Health “855-How-To-Quit-Opioids” by Serviceplan
• Aizome Wastecare “Industrial Waste – Certified as Skincare” by Serviceplan
• Dove “The Dove Code” by Soko
• CeraVe “Michael Cerave” by Ogilvy
• Orange “WoMen’s Football” by Marcel
• Sphere “Exosphere” by Sphere Entertainment
• JC Decaux “Meet Marina Prieto” by David
• Arla “Selfless Shelves” by FP7 McCann
• Degiro and UN Women “Pink Chip” by AKQA
• Coca-Cola “Thanks for Coke-creating” by VML
• DP World “The Move to -15” by Edelman
• Google “iPager” by David
• Eletromidia “Guarded Bus Stop” by AlmapBBDO
• Heineken “Pub Museums” by LePub
• Tottus Supermarket “The Gift Card of Life” by McCann
• MasterCard “Room for Everyone” by McCann Poland
• DoorDash “DoorDash-All-The-Ads” by Wieden+Kennedy
• Spotify “Spreadbeats” by FCB New York
• Xbox “The Everyday Tactician” by McCann

Roku’s new ad sales leader is making moves.

What’s happening:

Today, Roku announced that Sarah Harms and Sal Candela are joining the company as vp of advertising marketing and vp of global agency partnerships, respectively.

These are the first two major executive hires under Jay Askinasi, svp, head of global media revenue and growth, who became the company’s ad sales leader in February.

Why is it happening:

Askinasi joined Roku following the surprising departure of Alison Levin, Roku’s former head of advertising, who left the company last year for NBCUniversal. With the appointments, the company’s ad leader puts a personal touch on the team and bolsters Roku’s sales efforts as it tries to take even more share of the market during the TV upfront season.

Harms, who reports to Askinasi, will be responsible for the overall strategy and execution of marketing and measurement efforts across Roku’s advertising business, according to the company. The exec previously spent five years at Microsoft, overseeing national sales and account management for the buy-side ad technology business, formerly Xandr.

Meanwhile, Candela, who reports to Kristina Shepard, vp of global advertising sales and partnerships, will look to elevate partnerships with Roku’s largest ad clients across all markets. Candela previously served as head of agency development at Spotify and president of enterprise partnerships and U.S. investment at Omnicom Media Group.

“Expanding the Roku Media team marks a pivotal time for the company, as Roku continues to grow its market-leading scale,” Askinasi said in a statement. “I have no doubt that Sarah will help take our business to new heights with her proven ability to deliver scalable, valuable solutions to advertisers. Sal’s deep industry knowledge and agency relationships will be advantageous to our business as media investments continue to shift towards TV streaming this upfront season.”

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What else to know:

In addition to the ad sales appointments, Roku is enhancing its ad sales through new partnerships with demand-side platform The Trade Desk, measurement service iSpot.tv and the publisher NBCUniversal. The company announced the partnerships in May during NewFronts.

The deals with The Trade Desk and iSpot.TV will facilitate programmatic buying and measurement, while the NBCUniversal partnership creates a hub for the 2024 Paris Olympics on the Roku interface.

“We want to position ourselves as the lead-in to all television,” Julian Mintz, head of U.S. ad sales at Roku, said at the time. “Right now, streaming is fragmented, but we put that puzzle together for viewers and advertisers.”

Gaming company Supercell cast celebrities and influencers as iconic characters from some of the biggest mobile games in history for the launch of its much-anticipated new game Squad Busters.

In its biggest marketing campaign to date, created by agency Uncommon Creative Studio, Supercell’s star-studded ad shows the benefits of “squadding up.” The comedic five-minute film imagines Squad Busters characters as a tight-knit friend group who does everything (yes, everything) together.

Directed by Jody Hill, the cast includes Chris Hemsworth and Dolph Lundgren as gruff barbarians, Ken Jeong as a chicken, Christina Ricci as a very intense witch, Auli’i Cravalho as the shotgun-wielding Shelly and Will Arnett as the lumberjack Greg.

A gamer awakens on an important day only to find his “squad” ready to tackle the day’s challenges by his side. He attends a job interview in which the interviewer reluctantly offers him the gig after steely glares from the crew.

After a supportive side quest to the public restroom, they all cram into a small car where they belt along to Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” while stuck in traffic.

Highlighting the game’s multiplayer action and competitive play, the squad runs headfirst into a group of similarly dressed influencers, including Bella Poarch, Thoren Bradley, Gabriela Moura and ZHC. A classic video game brawl ensues as Sean Phillips, or Dude With Sign, makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo.

Building hype

The much-anticipated Squad Busters is Supercell’s first release in five years, following the success of 2018’s Brawl Stars. AppMagic estimates that the game has already seen more than 5.2 million downloads from just a month of a soft launch. 

Last year, Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen explained the gap between releases, saying the company’s goal was to create games “that are remembered forever.”

The campaign for Squad Busters will also feature App Store and Google Play takeovers and TikTok activity.

“To mark this launch, our team wanted to create a show-stopping moment, so it felt fitting to have Hollywood icons face off against social media stars in a fun way, showing that life is more fun when you’re with a squad,” Paananen said in a statement.

As sports marketing spreads across platforms and fandoms, it’s become increasingly important for broadcasters, sponsors, leagues and teams to know their fans.

Manny Puentes, GM of advertising at sports data and analytics firm Genius Sports, has been in advertising for 26 years and has watched sports fans’ online experience evolve. From fans reading whatever publishers offered to brands capitalizing on user-generated content and data-heavy “conversations” with consumers, Puentes has mapped the expectation change for all parties. 

“That conversation is based on your interactions with the product, and it remembers that conversation as you’re going through and scrolling,” Puentes said. “You’re like, ‘Oh, my God, you know me … I like this feeling.’”

As Puentes pointed out, each ensuing generation expected more out of that data conversation, especially when they were marketed to as a result. “Banner blindness” set in, and patience with broad, impersonal ads thinned.

Now, companies like Genius Sports are trying to push that conversation forward.

The pursuit of data personalization has led Genius Sports to consider audiences within identity graphs. It looks at profiles from a user’s TV, laptop, smartphone, and tablet and how they used platforms such as Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok across devices. Puentes explained that this is all to ensure, at the very least, that there’s no fandom confusion.

You don’t ”want to think on this device you are a [Las Vegas] Raiders fan, and on this device, think you’re a [Buffalo] Bills fan,” Puentes said.

In addition, in sports, an increased investment in streaming platforms (the Olympics on Peacock, Major League Baseball on Roku, the National Football League on Netflix) has unlocked  “all of the reporting and analytics and insights that you need to understand the lifetime value of the audience.” While companies like Nielsen have attempted to broaden linear viewing measurement, direct access to that data helps power tools like Genius Sports’ Fan HubID—which builds fan-based profiles for marketers and broadcasters based on information from live game feeds.

Such tools not only allow brands to narrow the focus of game campaigns but also let broadcasters and leagues see what grabs their fans’ attention. During a conversation at ADWEEK’s Brand Play Sports Marketing Summit, Puentes told Andy Kauffman, svp of marketing strategy and science for the National Football League (NFL), that increased fan focus on players and disappearing third-party cookies give leagues an opportunity to stop “talking at the fan.”

With more than 400 league partners, including the NFL, English Premier League and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), Genius Sports is not only attempting to give them and their sponsors a better look at their fans, but it’s also putting that data on the screen to give fans and brands more ways to interact with the game.

“We’re becoming advanced as a community that embraces privacy, embraces consent and embraces transparency to give the ultimate value to the audience you’re trying to reach by having a true conversation with them and not thinking that they’re a Bills fan when they’re a Raiders fan,” Puentes said.

Investing in data equity

When the WNBA opened its season on May 14, it did so using Genius Sports’ Second Spectrum 3D tracking technology at each game. An array of cameras is placed in every WNBA arena, and Second Spectrum tracks player positioning and ball movement.

“Technology continues to fundamentally change the sports landscape,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. “Deploying state-of-the-art optical tracking technology through Genius Sports will deliver rich data to our teams that they can leverage to enhance player performance while informing in-game strategy and enable a new wave of insights and media elements for fans.”

Puentes noted that the league is currently using Second Spectrum primarily to measure shot quality, shooter impact, time in the paint, efficiency, points per chance, contest quality and defensive matchup data. It can break down performance metrics to a player’s maximum speed and total distance covered.  

“It is really exciting that our league is adopting this type of technology,” said New York Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb. “The system capabilities are far more comprehensive than anything before seen in the WNBA and will greatly enhance strategic planning across the league.”

For its part, Genius Sports integrates all official WNBA tracking data into its basketball insights and analytics engine. The WNBA, meanwhile, becomes the first women’s professional sports league in the U.S. to use league-wide 3D tracking data and contributes to a data set that puts its metrics on par with those of its men’s counterparts.

“Basketball is going to be basketball, whether it’s a man or woman playing, and technology is not going to have a bias—it’s just going to tell you the data,” Puentes said. “It’s going to help you be better, and it’s going to bring parity across the leagues in cases like the NBA and WNBA.”

Getting brands in the game

But teams and sponsors can take data a step beyond the playing field and move it directly into their marketing.

Partnering with EPL club Brentford FC’s men’s and women’s teams this season, Genius Sports provided data-driven match highlights in the club’s home—Gtech Community Stadium—and across social media. Debuting the technology during a men’s matchup with Sheffield United, Brentford augmented in-game replays on stadium screens with graphics for player names, shot speeds, shot trails and the pitch map—all presented with small appliance manufacturer Gtech’s logo.

“​​With that 3D-immersive inventory, this is the first step into being able to process any live stream and make that programmatically available,” Puentes said. “That’s where we’re going—that’s not there yet—but we’re taking technological advancements and capabilities to bring 3D-immersive experiences to audiences.”

Using Genius Sports’ Dragon product, Brentford has Genius Sports capture 10,000 surface data points per player more than 200 times per second for every match. When the technology detects a player taking a shot, the big screens above the stadium goals automatically display the Gtech logo above the goal. Fans get the metric- and graphic-laden highlights on social media after each match, Genius Sports gets the data and Brentford and Gtech get another wrinkle to their sponsorship agreement. 

With Genius Sports already providing data-driven alternate broadcasts for the Premier League, NFL and NBA through Premier League Productions, CBS, Prime Video and ESPN, it sees more opportunity for brands to buy in. While new technologies can capture sports moments for brands as they happen, they can also personalize them for specific fans based on profiles like Genius Sports’ FanHubID.

“We also can display a brand that we know that you would have a high propensity for because we know you across platforms, across teams, across leagues and [across] your affinity towards particular brands,” Puentes said. “Now we’re tying it all together.”

Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade are getting emotional ahead of Inside Out 2.

In honor of the June 14 debut of Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2—and only a week after the House of Mouse’s upfront event—Disney is bringing Wade and Anthony together into the world of Inside Out, with the stars taking the audience inside their own minds to see the emotions that NBA legends deal with.

The spots, from Disney Advertising, Disney CreativeWorks, Disney Studios and ESPN Creative Studio, air during NBA Countdown and Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals today, also running across Disney’s social channels.

In the first spot, Anthony reminds Wade of a time he missed a bunch of threes back in 2004.

Obviously, Wade doesn’t take kindly to the gesture, and his emotions, Anger and Embarrassment, ultimately decide a cold shoulder is the best move.

In another spot, Disney goes inside Anthony’s head. This time, Anthony struggles to decide if he should be mad about Wade offering him onion rings while showing off his NBA championship rings.

Anthony’s Anger and Envy wrestle with the decision, with the real-life Anthony telling Wade, “Next time, just get some fries.”

Of course, Anthony is much more level-headed in reality, with the former ADWEEK cover star previously saying he brought that mentality to his StayMe7o brand.

“When you’re feeling a way, you stay mellow. You remain mellow. So that’s my mentality,” Anthony said. “It’s also the mindset and mentality that people have when dealing with chaos and the fast pace of life … how to ‘stay Melo.’”

According to Disney, the production team paired Unreal Engine software with the hardware of The Volume stage to compute and display a 3D environment for the spots. This creates the mix between live action and animation, allowing the environment to move and react to actors and camera movements.

Beyond its debut, the campaign is set to air in Disney’s exclusive Eastern Conference Finals window, rotating throughout the Eastern Conference Finals across TV, digital and social.

Inside Out 2 debuts in theaters on June 14.

Google has fundamentally transformed the online search experience with its AI search engine AI Overview, which incorporates videos and images, and encourages users to ask complex and detailed questions. 

While it’s clear that traditional SEO methods will not work with AI-powered search (Max Gomez Montejo, CMO of digital marketing firm Next Net Media, anticipates organic traffic going down by 25%), it is still too early for the ad industry to have best practices around AI-powered search. But more forward-thinking marketers are already scrambling to experiment.

Some marketers are overhauling their sites with videos and images to their websites, which will improve visibility in AI-powered search results. These marketers are, for instance, converting text-based FAQs into videos, so the content will be more visible in this new era of AI-informed search.

“Brands that are able to bring together their video and image assets into the same strategy as their SEO are the ones taking an early lead in AI Overview,” said Jeremy Hull, chief product officer of Brainlabs. “It will mean creating more videos, and that’s a big lift.”

Others are experimenting with trying to make sure their sites show up when people search using long-tail keywords (i.e., phrases above four or five words), such as, “I live in Texas. What are ideal weekend getaways with my family?” As these questions get more detailed, marketers have to make sure their websites contain the right information about their products and services.

Still others are dedicating more resources to appearing organically on sites like Reddit, as Google increasingly surfaces content from that site, said Sam Tomlinson, executive vice president at boutique agency Warschawski.

Even though marketers have to rethink their search strategies due to AI-generated search, Tomlinson is not panicking.

“Lots of people are overblowing this,” he said. “This is just another evolution in search.”

Building content expertise to achieve AI search visibility

Not all keywords prompt an AI Overview response.

For instance, long-tailed queries such as, “I am planning a vacation with my kids, a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. What are some activities I can do?” triggers an AI response. Straightforward searches like “Nike running shoes” do not.

“AI output tends to lean more informational than transactional,” said Joel Swaney, principal SEO at media agency Collective Measures. The agency is conducting brand audits to analyze content gaps so that they will likely be indexed in AI search results for informational queries.

Through its SEO tools, the agency is collecting user questions via keyword or query-based methods to identify content gaps within brand websites. Simultaneously, it’s drawing insights from inquiries received through the brand’s customer services and social listening efforts.

Additionally, Collective Measures is gearing up for mid-funnel queries that contain comparison questions for products and services, to maximize ranking within regular search.

“That is where clients have an opportunity to capture potential impression or click loss coming from AI Overview,” said Swaney.

Google is aggressively combining its AI tools

Although a huge chunk of Google’s revenue comes from Search ads, Google hasn’t yet revealed what AI Overview’s ad units will look like. The tech giant has said it plans to unveil this at its Marketing Live event this week.

There have been hints.

Google has been testing product carousels that suggest additional products consumers may like in its AI-generated responses, said Evan Finkelstein, senior manager of SEO and performance content at the insurance company New York Life. 

Google also seems to have plans to combine generative AI search with its more conventional AI tool Performance Max, which uses AI to determine where ads should be placed to get the best results.

Google, for instance, is nudging advertisers to integrate a tool called Broad Match. It targets based on keywords in text-based campaigns with Performance Max campaigns, according to a pitch deck that Google sent to advertisers in February shared with ADWEEK. Google is telling advertisers this will help ensure relevant AI search results.

The tech giant labels the combination of Performance Max and Broad Match its “Ads Power Pair.”

Some marketers are still unsure if harnessing Performance Max impacts how brands appear in AI Overview results.

“We have tested Performance Max [but] are not able to see its impact in SGE,” said Michael Robbins, senior manager of paid search at Exverus Media.

But Google continues to aggressively combine Performance Max with AI Overview.

New tools that use both include Automatically Created Assets, which generates creatives based on keywords; and New Customer Acquisition, which uses advertisers’ first-party data and lets marketers bid at a higher amount to target new and existing customers.

Some ad buyers, however, say these tools will help advertisers transition into a world of AI-powered search.

“This advanced value-based bidding feature lets [advertisers] have more control by steering the bidder toward their preferred customer type,” said Michelle Merklin, vp of paid search innovation and growth at Tinuiti. “Such hybrid tools are going to help advertisers maintain the control and the performance they need as more changes are happening to the search results page.”

YouTube asserted its dominance as a video platform that transcends traditional television at its upfront event from Lincoln Center today, boasting billions of viewers and achieving highly relevant ads for its brand partners.

“We’re redefining what TV looks like, helping creators reach new heights and using AI to expand creativity,” said Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube. “YouTube views in the living room have grown 130% in the last three years.”

Citing Nielsen figures, Mohan added that YouTube has remained the leader in streaming watch time every month since February 2023. On average, viewers are watching over 1 billion hours of YouTube content on the big screen daily.

Unlike other media companies that simply pitch new TV shows, YouTube announced the launch and expansion of YouTube Select Creator Takeovers, allowing advertisers to buy inventory on channels representing the top 1% of content on the platform. Brands will be able to work with creators of their choice, owning a 100% share of voice on their channel.

The program expands on its pilot launch at the end of 2023, drawing creators such as Travis and Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” YouTube podcast.

Big viewership on a big screen

In the first half of 2023, over 75% of YouTube Select campaign impressions landed on TV screens in the U.S., per company figures.

Additionally, YouTube is introducing a new Google AI-driven format for CTV using non-skippable assets across in-stream inventory. The platform also announced branded QR codes for advertisers for an interactive presence on YouTube.

“Our new video reach campaign non-skips powered by Google AI will deliver on your reach and awareness all more efficiently, using your existing non-skippable assets,” said Sean Downey, president, Americas and Global Partners, Google.

The new-look upfronts

In addition to its numbers, YouTube delivered major talent, including Zach King, Cleo Abram, Haley Kalil, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and a performance by nine-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish featuring Finneas.

The platform also handed the microphone to Pepsi CMO Todd Kaplan, who highlighted YouTube’s role as Pepsi’s top ROI driver, contributing to 21 consecutive quarters of positive sales growth. In a notable holiday campaign, Pepsi embraced the “dirty soda” trend by blending Pepsi with milk in an ad featuring Lindsay Lohan, which garnered over 50 million views.

Utilizing Google AI, Pepsi successfully engaged with its audience for its Zero Sugar campaign by delivering tailored ads at scale. Kaplan noted that the brand created 70 unique ads with custom voiceovers to effectively connect with its target audience in contextually relevant ways.

“We outperformed our usual ads by over 50%,” he said.

In addition, the platform announced that Google and Scripps Sports reached an agreement for locally televised WNBA Friday night games on ION to be shown on YouTube TV in home and away markets of teams playing. YouTube TV will be the only pay-TV provider carrying both local and national WNBA games this season, starting May 31 and continuing through the regular season.

Netflix is looking to score on its NFL Christmas Day games by doubling down on adtech.

In its first in-person TV upfront week presentation (the company had a virtual upfront last year), held today at Manhattan’s Pier59 Studios, the company announced several ad tier updates, including its own in-house adtech platform.

“Bringing our adtech in-house will allow us to power the ads plan with the same level of excellence that’s made Netflix the leader in streaming technology today,” Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s president of advertising, said in a statement ahead of the presentation.

The streamer expects its yet-to-launch platform to provide advertisers with fresh insights, impact measurements and buying methods. And Netflix is already expanding its buyers market to make room for new partners like Google’s Display & Video 360, Magnite and The Trade Desk.

“We’re being incredibly strategic about how we present ads because we want our members to have a phenomenal experience,” Reinhard noted. “We conduct deep consumer research to make sure we stay ahead of the competition, bringing opportunities that are better for members and better for brands.”

Reinhard estimates that Netflix’s ad-supported tier—which launched in November 2022—now counts 40 million global monthly active users, an increase of 5 million from 2023. Additionally, 40% of new subscribers sign up for the ad tier in the countries where that option is available.

When talking about Netflix’s ad tier during its most recent earnings report, co-CEO Greg Peters said there is “plenty more” to do to “realize the potential” in the space.

In addition to the ad tier updates, the company announced several upcoming projects, including a renewal for 3 Body Problem.

Ahead of its upfront event, Netflix’s other co-CEO Ted Sarandos was an open book about the first looks and teases the company would showcase, including Cobra Kai, Emily in Paris, Outer Banks, The Night Agent, Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and Season 2 of Squid Game, which Sarandos called “our big one.”

The company also announced new series, including The Waterfront, Rising: Simone Biles, and yet-to-be-titled projects about Olympic Men’s Basketball, a Tim McGraw-led drama and a Dallas Cowboys docuseries.

Meanwhile, new movie announcements included an untitled Kathryn Bigelow film and Adam Sandler reprising his iconic character of Happy Gilmore in a sequel film.

The announcements add to Netflix’s big news day, which included the aforementioned Christmas NFL deal. The three-year agreement is set to change the TV landscape, making the streamer a prime contender for upfront TV dollars.