Disney is the latest publisher closing the wonderful world of upfront talks.

Today, Disney announced it had crossed the upfront finish line, with commitments across entertainment, streaming, sports and inclusion. Demand was driven by live events; addressable across sports and entertainment, including Hulu and the Disney+ ad tier; and programmatic and measurement offerings.

Overall revenue and volume commitments made in the upfront were “in line with the prior year,” according to the company. In 2022, Disney announced its strongest upfront ever, reporting $9 billion in advertiser commitments.

Additionally, more than 40% of the total upfront dollars committed this year went toward streaming and digital, with Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu leading the way, which is in line with last year. The company also announced increased commitments to Disney+ from all agency partners, which was led by the expansion of targeting, measurement and programmatic capabilities.

There were single digit increases in sports volume and pricing, for which Disney credits the strength of its rights portfolio and increased demand for its womens’ sports offering.

“Our investments in the most dynamic technology and streaming capabilities, coupled with the most enviable sports rights, powerful storytelling and impactful cultural moments, sets Disney apart,” Rita Ferro, president of advertising at Disney, said in a statement. “As we close the 2023-2024 Upfront, our insights led approach and deep understanding of consumers continues to deliver growth for our clients, while deepening their connection to the most engaged audiences at scale.”

Regarding categories, auto, consumer packaged goods, financial services, media and entertainment, pharmaceutical, sports gaming and travel and leisure performed well. Plus, the company secured “substantial inclusion commitments” from financial services, pharmaceutical, retail, tech and telecommunications brands.

In addition to Disney, NBCUniversal, Fox, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery have all closed talks, with The CW in the midst of winding down negotiations as well.

The inclusion commitments are notable for Disney, as ad sales chief Rita Ferro challenged advertisers to “be intentional” about DEI during Disney’s May upfront week presentation.

“It’s really important,” Ferro told Adweek following the event. “We started that ask for a commitment as part of the upfront years ago because the intentionality behind what we’re doing in that space from a company perspective and all of our storytellers and creators have been really important in terms of how we think about the investments.”

This year’s upfront was one of the slowest markets in years, with advertisers thought to be seeking rollbacks in pricing amid uncertain macroeconomic conditions. However, Ferro told Adweek back in May that the market was always “active.”

“Disney tends to be at the front of the line. We own the scale and size of what we have, and sports and streaming are a priority for most marketers if you ask them across the board, and we have probably the largest footprint in both of those,” Ferro said.

Ferro added that though it wasn’t “the robust market of other years,” brands were still enthusiastic about having the right relationships and business terms in place with Disney.

Planning for fall

In addition to uncertain macroeconomic conditions, the ongoing writers strike is also weighing on brands’ minds heading into the fall.

However, the company has safeguards in place. Notably, ABC went with an unscripted-heavy fall lineup, which will help in case the strike is prolonged.

Additionally, in an earnings call in May ahead of upfront week, CEO Bob Iger touted Hulu and Disney+ content combining in a single app experience, saying the advertising platform of the combined experience would be “incredibly exciting,” as over 40% of Disney’s domestic advertising portfolio is addressable.

Frances Allen, the CEO of Checkers and Rally’s Drive-In Restaurants, has had a remarkable career journey that took her from the world of advertising to the helm of a renowned restaurant chain.

Allen’s career began in the advertising industry, where she honed her skills and gained valuable experience. However, she soon realized that she had an innate drive to explore different fields and seek out exciting opportunities. “Once I feel like I’ve done some of the most exciting things in that field, I want to move on to the next thing,” Allen explains.

Today, as the CEO of Checkers and Rally’s Drive-In Restaurants, Allen’s journey has come full circle, combining her marketing and operational expertise to lead a thriving brand. Her experiences have shaped her into a dynamic leader, always ready to embrace new challenges with curiosity and enthusiasm.

Listen to this week’s episode to hear more about Allen’s story and how she’s embraced change and pursued diverse opportunities that lead her to be CEO.

Reach the right audiences in the right moments with Amazon Ads. With a wide range of owned channels and creative ad formats, Amazon Ads helps brands seamlessly deliver innovative, immersive ad experiences for brand marketing, performance, and everything in between. From streaming to shopping to gaming and beyond, connect with consumers in the places they love to be. Learn more.

If there’s a building that only has murders in it, it makes sense to try to escape it.

Top line

In honor of the quickly-approaching Season 3 premiere of Only Murders in the Building, Hulu and The Escape Game have teamed up for an escape room experience that brings the series to life both in-person and online.

Between the lines

Hulu’s latest pop-up for the series will look to transport participants into the world of Only Murders in the Building, giving them a puzzling mystery of their own.

Inside the game, participants will find themselves on the 10th floor of the Arconia, just outside of the apartment of Martin Short’s Oliver. There, they are tasked to find a key prop that has gone missing from Oliver’s new Broadway show. And as the mystery unfolds, participants will go deeper into the story, try to discover who took the prop and explore secret passageways in the walls of the building.

Fans of the show can expect to relive favorite moments from the series, interact with popular props, discover Season 3 Easter eggs and solve a mystery along the way.

In-person participants in Los Angeles can play at The Escape Game located within the Century City Mall from Aug. 11-13. Those in Las Vegas can check it out at The Escape Game Las Vegas in The Forum Shops from Aug. 18-20.

And for the online experience, which is available globally from Aug. 14-18, guests can RSVP at onlymurdersescapegame.com.

Bottom line

The escape room experience is the latest marketing move ahead of Only Murders in the Building’s Season 3 premiere Aug. 8.

In addition to series regulars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, Season 3 is adding big names such as Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep. The series previously debuted the first look at Streep’s new character in an Oscar-night promo.

Paramount is crossing the upfront finish line.

The company is now virtually done with negotiations, becoming the second major publisher after NBCUniversal to wrap the upfront.

Regarding results, Paramount is closing talks up low-to-mid single digits in dollar commitments. According to a source familiar with the matter, competitive advantages and capabilities drove strong demand across the company’s IP-driven, multiplatform offering.

Volume was up, and the company saw strong results across ad sales platform EyeQ, which has more than 90 million full-episode monthly viewers from Paramount+ and AVOD service Pluto TV; ad targeting platform Vantage; and sports verticals, which saw significant double-digit growth on a combined basis.

Sports properties drawing strong interest were the upcoming NFL season, Super Bowl 58, March Madness, PGA/Masters and UEFA.

Among the key drivers, there was continued momentum in digital, with upfront commitments doubling since EyeQ’s 2020 launch; the company had accelerated adoption of direct programmatic deals; and Vantage had brands increasing by 30% for 2024, with more than half of dollars going through new currency.

In terms of categories, personal care, beverage, auto and insurance all saw rebounds.

Similarly to NBCU, there’s no news on whether CPMs (cost per thousand viewers reached) went up or down, with many marketers expecting rollbacks this upfront season.

Paramount’s results, which came in the face of economic headwinds that led to the slowest upfront in years, could have lasting implications.

The company made a statement during the upfront this year, being the only major publisher to drop out of upfront week, exiting its decades-long residency at Carnegie Hall and opting for smaller client dinners instead. Though some in the advertising community may have questioned the decision, the dinners were a hit among buyers, earning overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Ad sales president John Halley, who is overseeing his first upfront after his predecessor Jo Ann Ross transitioned her role to chairman last fall, previously told Adweek that the dinners help the company reflect “a unified entity” and “frame and facilitate” upfront discussions. According to Halley, the smaller events were “successful in giving people a feel for what we’re trying to achieve through our content investment, all the way through to our huge audience footprint.”

“There’s no question it was the right decision,” Halley told Adweek in May, reflecting on the company’s move to exit upfront week. “There’s no question that it’s more effective than the status quo event.”

When it comes to the traditional upfront model, Halley assured Adweek, “We’re not going to go back to the old way of doing things.”

It remains to be seen if Paramount’s performance in the upfront will affect how others approach upfront week, though buyers previously told Adweek they appreciated the change in format.

The fall schedule… for now

Halley previously told Adweek that Paramount was touting its entire slate during talks, including several sports properties such as March Madness, the Masters and Super Bowl 58, which airs live on CBS and Paramount+.

The highlights of CBS’ 2023-24 strike-contingent primetime programming originally included new series Elsbeth, a spinoff of The Good Wife, and Kathy Bates in a Matlock reboot. There were also 22 returning shows, including CBS comedy Ghosts and FBI.

However, the network announced in July that it would tweak its fall schedule amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.

The new CBS fall lineup leans in even more on unscripted programming as well as a mix of acquired scripted programming and expanded versions of reality shows, news and primetime sports. In addition, Yellowstone will join on Sundays in a broadcast premiere and air starting with Season 1.

Luxury health and wellness brand, Thorne, has teamed up with basketball legend, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Dwyane Wade, and his up-and-coming baller son, Zaire, for a campaign and partnership each of them hopes is “built to last.” 

Produced by BUCK, the campaign, titled “Build to Last,” comprises two 30-second hero spots; one featuring the retired, 3-time NBA champion and 2023 Hall-of-Fame inductee giving the audience a glimpse of his maintenance routine, and the other featuring the younger Wade, a rising star in the Basketball Africa League for the Cape Town Tigers, practicing his moves on the court.

It’s one of my favorite partnerships now because my son and I are doing it together.

Dwyane Wade, former NBA star

Both Wades are juxtaposed onscreen alongside teams of scientists developing the most advanced products to suit the needs of their generationally different bodies. Three additional 15-second clips, one of which features the duo together, will be released online with the hero videos, which will also run across CTV and all Google channels. 

The 13-week global campaign, which launched Tuesday, will roll out in twelve key markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Shanghai and Canada, with out-of-home (billboards, subway panels, urban panels, spectaculars) running exclusively in Beijing and Shanghai. Paid search, activations, and influencer and brand ambassador creative engagement will round out the remaining elements.

The brand will also offer limited-edition “Build to Last” product boxes based on Dwyane and Zaire’s personal “product line-up.”   

Wade(s) in uncharted territory 

For Dwyane and Zaire—who, along with Dwyane’s wife, Gabrielle Union, had already been using Thorne products for years before receiving the call to partner with them—the opportunity to collaborate on a campaign as a family was an added benefit. 

“Well, obviously, it’s one of my favorite partnerships now because my son and I are doing it together,” Dwyane told Adweek. “How cool is that?”  

The elder Wade, who’s spent the larger part of his two-decade-long career navigating brand sponsorships prior to becoming a full-time entrepreneur, told Adweek that unlike other sponsorships “where you try to make it fit,” the partnership with Thorne was an organic one that “just flows.” 

“My family and I had been using Thorne for the past few years already, and now I have an opportunity because of our partnership to get a little bit more information on what the products are and how I can use [them] to best benefit me.”

For Dwyane, those benefits include having products that build his mind as well as his body, which after two decades in the league has seen its share of wear and tear. (He joked about the relief of no longer having to “push 7-footers off of him.”) 

“It’s all about aging, right? It’s all about being healthy as you age. I’m in my 40s now. Things are a lot different. Things are looking different. They’re feeling different. And it’s all about healthy aging. [Beauty] is one of the top categories in the world because everybody [wants to] age beautifully. Well, what about the inside? I tell people, ‘You could have a beautiful car, but if the engine ain’t working…you ain’t going nowhere!’ I [want to] go places!” 

He is also using the partnership to educate his own father and other Black men on taking necessary steps to improve their health before it’s too late. 

“My dad and I talk about this all the time…as Black men in our communities, we do not discuss health. We do not discuss anything that’s going on with us. We just find out that something happened. And I don’t [want to] do that. And I don’t [want to] do that to my family. And we live in a world right now where we don’t have to. And so, I’m thankful for companies like Thorne. I’m thankful that this is a company for me and my family where we feel that we can find our information to be able to make sure that I’m around. That Zaire’s around. And my wife is around. And so, that’s what’s important.” 

For Zaire, who used to watch his father on various commercial sets in his youth, being on one where he was also the star hit differently. 

“That day was great because I just got to be myself,” he told Adweek. “[Thorne] allows you to be yourself. I think that our family’s obviously big on that. Just being ourselves. And not caring about what anybody else has to say. Just enjoying that day with the Thorne family and my dad while we were on the court [and] on stands doing our different shoots. Just all over…it was great.”  

The product-savvy progeny—who swears by his Amino Complex and cites the brand’s ingredient transparency and NSF-Certified supplements as a professional athlete subject to stringent testing—also shared with Adweek how the campaign’s tagline resonates as Zaire creates his own path as a young athlete, and as his own personal brand, both of which he agreed requires a disciplined mindset. 

“I think what excites me is the name of the campaign, ‘Build to last.’ It’s obviously a longevity campaign. I know I’m in this for the long run with my career. I know they’re in it for the long run with their company. I feel like that’s where [our] mutual understanding came from.” 

Says Dwyane, “Our campaign is built off of us. And so, when we say, ‘build to last,’ like…this is built to last.” 

A Thorne blooming with new possibilities 

For Thorne, the campaign with the Wades—their first-ever global one—marks a turning point in a company that began almost 40 years ago as a manufacturer that sold directly to doctors. 

Founded in 1984, the brand was acquired by its current leadership in 2010 and branched out into conventional medicine, collaborating with The Mayo Clinic and the United State Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOC), and establishing strong clinical credibility amongst its clientele prior to launching direct-to-consumer in 2018. 

We’re so aligned, which is what we’re kind of trying to weave into the brand campaign.

Michelle Crow, Thorne CMO

“Within the last few years, we invested in one national brand awareness campaign each year to really get the message about Thorne out,” Michelle Crow, Thorne’s CMO, told Adweek. “Why we’re different. Who we are. And then, this year, we wanted to do something different. We’re really trying to build a trusted, luxury, consumer health brand.” 

Crow told Adweek Thorne historically leaned into animation in previous brand marketing, citing a reluctance to “dive into live action” to maintain a luxury aesthetic. But the brand could not pass up an opportunity to work with the Wades, who they’d learned were already devoted clients. 

“They’ve been fantastic partners,” says Crow. “They’ve been really fun and honest, and I think the thing that has been most exciting is their genuine interest in learning more about where they’re at and what they should be doing whether it’s [a] different diet, exercise or supplementation or testing. It’s been kind of a very open, collaborative approach to working together, which has been great.”  

She continued, “Philosophically, we’re so aligned, which is what we’re kind of trying to weave into the brand campaign from a messaging and creative standpoint. So, kind of really paralleling the grit, patience, determination, relentless pursuit of excellence across the Wades as well as those are kind of the key values of Thorne and who we are and our legacy.”   

Crow told Adweek the brand was excited to feature both Dwyane and Zaire, who she notes are in “such different phases of their life,” because it gave them an opportunity to show consumers the breadth of their product offerings and how there’s “something for everyone at every age and life stage.”  

“Once you’re in our ecosystem, you really stay with us for a long time because we could be your partner for life,” she said. 

Still, with a network of over 47,000 health professionals and 6 million consumers and a direct sales pipeline to over 100 professional locker rooms across sports leagues in the United States, the brand sees an opportunity to become an even more formidable player in the health and wellness space soon. 

“Thorne’s biggest opportunity as a brand is to build awareness,” says Crow. “Internally, we say that Thorne is the best-kept secret in the health and wellness industry. So, we’re really on a mission to try to change that and kind of turn Thorne into a household name.”  

CBS’s fall lineup is going through its own version of Survivor.

The network, which previously announced its fall lineup back in May, is now revealing an almost entirely new fall schedule amid ongoing programming disruptions throughout the TV industry from the SAG and WGA strikes. The CW and Fox also recently announced updated schedules for fall.

The new CBS fall lineup leans in even more on unscripted programming as well as a mix of acquired scripted programming and expanded versions of reality shows, news and primetime sports. In addition, Yellowstone will join on Sundays in a broadcast premiere and air starting with Season 1.

Monday, which previously featured comedies The Neighborhood and Bob Hearts Abishola as well as NCIS shows, will now switch to include new series Loteria Loca at 8 p.m., which is hosted by Jaime Camil and based on the Latin game of chance known as Lotería.

NCIS will still air on Monday at 9 p.m., but it’s now followed by a to-be-announced Paramount+ original.

On Tuesday, which previously had CBS’ FBI block, Big Brother will air at 8 p.m. It will then be followed by FBI: True, a show featuring conversations between agents about their toughest cases. And FBI will air at 10 p.m.

Wednesday stays as it was originally scheduled, with extended versions of Survivor and The Amazing Race.

Previously, Young Sheldon, Ghosts, So Help Me Todd and new Good Wife spinoff Elsbeth were set to air on Thursdays. However, the day will now focus on unscripted fare, with Big Brother airing at 8 p.m., new Josh Duhamel-hosted game show Buddy Games coming in at 9 p.m. and The Challenge USA airing at 10 p.m.

Young Sheldon, Ghosts and Seal Team will still plan to join the schedule later.

More reality on the way

Friday features The Price Is Right and Let’s Make a Deal in primetime at 8 p.m. Plus, new game show Raid the Cage airs at 9 p.m.

According to CBS, Raid the Cage is “action-packed,” with two teams facing off to grab prizes from “the Cage” before time runs out. Classic fan-favorite episodes of Blue Bloods then take the 10 p.m. slot.

Saturday nights include primetime college football games from the Big Ten, SEC and Mountain West conferences, as well as the NWSL championship. Plus, 48 Hours will continue airing on Saturdays at 10 p.m.

And on Sunday, which previously featured a new Matlock reboot and The Equalizer, CBS will have 60 Minutes followed by episodes of Yellowstone and Big Brother. And for NFL doubleheaders, 60 Minutes will air special 90-minute episodes.

The network will have more than 100 hours of NFL on CBS in the fall, with 18 weeks of games beginning on Sunday, Sept. 10. CBS will also have the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 11.

According to CBS, specific premiere dates and additional programming will be announced later.

CBS Fall 2023-24 Schedule

(New programs in ALL CAPS; times are ET)

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. — LOTERIA LOCA
9-10 p.m. — NCIS
10-11 p.m. — Paramount Original TBA

TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. — Big Brother
9-10 p.m. — FBI: True
10-11 p.m. — FBI

WEDNESDAY
8-9:30 p.m. — Survivor
9:30-11 p.m. — The Amazing Race

THURSDAY
8-9 p.m. — Big Brother (eventually changing to Young Sheldon and Ghosts)
9-10 p.m. — Buddy Games (eventually changing to UK: Ghosts)
10-11 p.m. — The Challenge USA (eventually changing to Seal Team)

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. — The Price Is Right/Let’s Make a Deal Primetime
9-10 p.m. — RAID THE CAGE
10-11 p.m. — Blue Bloods Classics

SATURDAY
8-10 p.m. — Encores and Sports
10-11 p.m. — 48 Hours

SUNDAY
7-8 p.m. — 60 Minutes
8-9 p.m. — Yellowstone (for NFL doubleheaders, an expanded 60 minutes will take the first Yellowstone spot)
9-10 p.m. — Yellowstone
10-11 p.m. — Big brother

Business organizations, and particularly marketers, on both sides of the Atlantic, can breathe a sigh of relief as the European Union restored a decision that allows for lucrative transatlantic data exchanges between the U.S. and the EU this week.

If that sounds a little dense, here’s what you need to know.

The new decision ends the three-year stalemate that found tech giants such as Google and Meta, as well as smaller and mid-sized companies in legal limbo and cut off U.S. companies trying to target EU audiences, missing out on reaching millions of consumers and leading to revenue loss. In one such case, roughly 10% of Meta’s ad revenue came from ads delivered to Facebook users in EU countries, the company said in its Q1 earnings this year.

Now, the free data flow between the regions is allowing a $7.1 trillion U.S.-EU economic relationship, according to the White House.

“This is positive news for businesses in U.S. and EU who need the data transfer for their business models,” said Joe Jones, research and insights director at IAPP.

So, what’s new this time?

In its third iteration, the EU’s new framework, known as the adequacy decision, recognized the law reforms in the U.S. that now, due to significant surveillance upgrades, offer sufficient guardrails for Europeans’ data.

“Following the agreement in principle I reached with President Biden last year, the U.S. has implemented unprecedented commitments to establish the new framework,” said Ursula Von Der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in a statement.

The framework also gives EU residents several rights, including the ability to access their data and request correction or deletion of inaccurate or unlawfully handled data by U.S. companies.

The new framework also limits U.S. authorities from accessing EU individuals’ data and will be allowed to do so only when deemed necessary, such as for investigating a serious crime, according to Jones.

Meanwhile, EU residents can take their complaints to a U.S.-based Data Protection Review Court (DPRC), which will be composed of former U.S. judges and senior lawyers. The court will be tasked with reviewing complaints and assessing if the data collected violated the new guardrails, and if so, will be able to order the deletion of the data.

Why has it taken so long?

Working through significant U.S. surveillance reforms to determine what is considered adequate under the EU law was always going to be a sensitive, high-stakes and constitutionally a complex endeavor, according to Jones.

The reforms, he said, necessitated significant on-the-ground changes to how U.S. agencies collect and process data—something which naturally requires a considerable amount of time.

Ultimately, the new framework replaces the Privacy Shield with new guardrails put in place by the U.S.

That sounds familiar. What was the issue previously?

EU regulators were previously concerned with the lack of a real data privacy framework in the U.S. that ensured the data safety of EU residents.

As a result, in 2020, the EU courts invalidated the governments’ previous data agreements, known as the Privacy Shield, alongside a 2000 deal called Safe Harbor, over fears of U.S. intelligence agencies’ access to Europeans’ data.

The ripple effect was felt by companies, mostly small and medium-sized firms, who could no longer transfer personal data from the EU unless they complied with the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs).

Although SCCs weren’t a substitute for Privacy Shield, they allowed a more regulated data flow via non-negotiable pre-written clauses and conditions mutually agreed upon by both, the sender and receiver of personal data. However, SCCs are very expensive, according to Jones.

But these were temporary solutions. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) threatened to potentially suspend Facebook’s data sharing between the EU and the U.S. last year.

Around the same time, Google Analytics faced a regulatory pushback over data spying concerns in the U.S. by French watchdogs.

Are we at the end of hearing about this?

Not exactly. The agreement ends the EU-U.S. negotiations, albeit temporarily. Not everyone is satisfied.

Max Schrems, the Austrian activist who filed lawsuits that struck down the previous data agreements, said in a statement that he would likely challenge the new deal in court by the end of August. According to Schrems, the new framework is “largely a copy of the failed Privacy Shield” and there were little changes in U.S. law. Schrems expects his complaint to come to the European Court of Justice in early 2024.

“We have various options for a challenge already in the drawer, although we are sick and tired of this legal ping-pong,” he said.

What will happen next?

According to Jones, the resolution of Schrems’ court challenge could potentially take more than a year and a half.

In the meantime, he recommends that organizations could opt to join the new data transfer framework, but it is advisable to also continue testing alternative mechanisms such as SCC contracts.

Ad buyers have switched up their YouTube strategies after a report rocked the industry late last month, accusing the tech giant of misleading advertisers, sources told Adweek.

Google Video Partner (GVP) inventory is a network of third-party online video that Google says meets high-quality standards. For certain ad formats like Video Action Campaigns, buyers are automatically opted-in to buy GVP inventory alongside YouTube content.

The report, authored by independent ad-tech research outfit Adalytics, found that when advertisers pay for premium campaigns that include GVP, the third-party inventory did not meet Google’s own standards for these campaigns. As such, ads were silent rather than playing with sound-on, ads were found on tiny out-stream video players in the corner of webpages, and ads ran on publisher sites that failed to meet Google’s quality media standards, due to peddling disinformation and copyright infringements.

By analyzing clients’ ad-buy placement reports and using web archive data, Adalytics found that this kind of unsavory GVP inventory, at times, made up the majority of campaign budgets from Fortune 500 brands.

In response, five ad buyers told Adweek they are taking action to limit their exposure to GVP inventory.

“Since the report, all campaigns that were running on GVP are being reevaluated based on performance against primary KPIs, as well as inventory served on,” said David Mirsky, group director of media at Crispin, Porter & Bogusky, who noted few clients were advertising on GVP inventory prior to the report. “Decisions to pause, or not, are being made on an instant-by-instant basis.”

Buyers redirect away from GVP

A director of media at a large brand said 19% of their YouTube inventory was being spent on GVP inventory, without the brand knowing. The brand is directing its media away from GVP and assessing all YouTube buys, the executive said, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive industry relations.

A buyer at an agency said they are in the process of auditing clients’ exposure to GVP inventory. For one campaign, with a $1 million budget that ran on over 25,000 sites and apps, 33% of impressions were delivered on GVP inventory. The agency is working with Google to turn off GVP for this client.

We turn off GVP, so performance is going to tank

Anonymous media buyer source

Two other agency buying sources said clients were en masse working to eliminate their exposure to GVP. One buyer said that before the Adalytics report, the majority of the agency’s brand advertiser clients were opted-out of GVP placements, while most performance advertisers opted in. Now, nearly all brand clients and half of performance clients are opting out of GVP inventory. The agency is also negotiating with Google to get more granular reporting data.

“It just feels like a bit of bait and switch,” the buyer said.

The buyer backlash comes at a time when Google, a long-dominant force in the advertising industry, is under particular stress. Google laid off 12,000 employees earlier this year after tepid earnings, and the company faces antitrust suits from multiple jurisdictions. Moreover, the company had already rankled buyers with its Performance Max buying tool, which places ads on Google’s vast swath of media properties via AI, causing concern to some who say it lacks transparency.

Google did not respond to a request for comment by press time, though the company did publish a blog post shortly after the Adalytics report came out, calling its claims “extremely inaccurate.” The post said that in the majority of video ad campaigns served on YouTube, GVP inventory enhances campaign performance and is more than 90% viewable, among other rebuttals.

The performance dilemma

But, removing spend from GVP has consequences, and buyers divesting from the third parties YouTube sends their ads to are worried performance will suffer.

“We turn off GVP, so performance is going to tank,” said one of the media buyer sources.

This is partly because GVP inventory cannot be opted out of for certain performance-centric campaign types, like video action campaigns.

A fourth media buyer said that their agency has been monitoring Video Action Campaign buys since YouTube made GVP inventory the default more than a year ago. Throughout, the buyer said GVP inventory has never made up more than single-digit percentages of campaign inventory and has performed comparably or better than YouTube on return on ad spend and cost per acquisition. This buyer’s experience contrasts with the findings of the Adalytics report, where some brand YouTube campaigns had as much as 84% of inventory via GVP.

“GVP for business goals works pretty well,” said the media buyer, who is not altering their YouTube strategy following the Adalytics report.

Other sources said third parties’ supposedly good performance on lower-funnel metrics is misleading. The open internet is filled with so-called made-for-advertising sites, research has found, which are designed to game the kind of metrics campaigns optimize for but actually have very few engaged viewers.

“In theory, a lot of YouTube works, however, this is an area that makes me question whether a media mix model can be gamed by buying tons of impressions for very low CPMs,” the media buyer source said, noting that YouTube often comes up in the top three in a brand’s mixed media model based on return on investment. “By doing so, you inherently make it a math equation that drives a higher level of return, yet no one ever heard the ad that was delivered below the fold and sound off.”

Buyers might be able to figure out what’s driving performance—scammy websites or legitimately good inventory—if the process was more transparent, sources said.

YouTube does provide buyers with a list of where all websites run, but the list includes thousands of domains that are difficult to parse through, and which brand safety vendors usually don’t evaluate, sources said. And there’s less transparency into the ad’s placement, whether in-stream or out-stream, sound on or sound off.

Duplicating buys and media wastage

With the lack of transparency inherent to buying third-party inventory via YouTube, some buyers have always avoided GVP.

“We’ve always had a hypothesis that it’s better to buy open exchange video inventory through programmatic than using GVP,” said George Tarnopolsky, vp of programmatic at Good Apple. “YouTube is treated like a direct publisher.”

Most buyers are already buying open web video inventory, and if GVP is taking up a greater chunk of YouTube buys than a brand anticipated, these efforts could be duplicative.

“You can buy the same exact inventory in DV360,” one media buyer said, referring to the Google-owned demand-side platform. “You’re doubling up where you only want YouTube.”

At least one media buyer is holding onto some GVP inventory in their buys to see if Google makes changes to inventory quality behind the scenes.

“The pressure is on Google to clean up that supply,” the buyer said. “Those that are opting out are doing it out of caution and wanting to hold Google’s feet to the fire.”