Warner Bros. Discovery touts ‘trust in measurement’ at upfront

Entering the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront on Wednesday, most were probably wondering whether the company would mention the impending Paramount merger.

It did — sort of. Co-President of U.S. Ad Sales Ryan Gould said onstage he wanted to address the “Ellison in the room; I mean, elephant in the room,” referring to Paramount CEO David Ellison.

But WBD more specifically acknowledged Paramount in another way. One theme of this upfronts has been outcomes, and the company touted its partnership with Paramount, Fox, NBC and others to provide outcome data from linear and streaming TV.

The TV networks realize there’s strength in numbers, and by teaming up, they can gain credibility and trust with advertisers, giving weight to standardized outcomes. It’s all happening through a unified conversion API powered by Open AP that’s also verified by the leading measurement companies.

“None of this matters without trust in measurement,” Gould said during the event.

He added that TV networks haven’t kept pace in how they plan, activate and measure.

WBD is also launching an always-on measurement and attribution dashboard, guaranteeing reach within buys. Historically, upfront deals have been centered around impressions, but one media buyer told The Current that moving toward audience-reach guarantees focuses on driving real impact over mass frequency.

“The outcomes are real,” Bobby Voltaggio, co-president of U.S. ad sales platform monetization, said onstage. “More efficiency, better performance and every dollar working harder for you.”

Sports leads the conversation

Before it got into the nitty-gritty of outcomes, though, Warner Bros. Discovery led its presentation with sports. Adam Lefkoe and Shaq turned into cheerleaders, literally, after a marching band came onstage.

The company is the only one to air March Madness and College Football Playoff games. Its sports portfolio also includes the MLB, the NHL, Top Rank Boxing, U.S. Women’s Soccer, Unrivaled and FIBA Women’s Basketball.

There was plenty of sneak peeks at the new shows and movies WBD is releasing, from a behind-the-scenes look at the Minecraft sequel to a new Oceans movie with Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper as Danny Ocean’s parents, as well as a new Gremlins movie.

And it wouldn’t be the upfronts without celebrities, as M. Night Shyamalan, Craig Ferguson, Leslie Jones and the stars of Heated Rivalry were in attendance.

But it wasn’t pageantry for pageantry’s sake. WBD is leaning into scene-level contextual targeting. Instead of advertising against a travel show, advertisers’ ads can be placed around more than 25,000 moments of travel in shows and movies. WBD is expanding that effort into Discovery+, CNN and WBD Stream, a digital suite for advertisers. Early testing on that is showing success, with a 13% lift in purchase intent.

Gould said it all rolls up into “turning cultural moments into measurable impact.”