Peacock, Quibi and HBO Max Still Plan to Launch as Scheduled
Upcoming streaming services Peacock, Quibi and HBO Max still plan to debut as planned despite coronavirus-related upheaval. Peacock's complications included the disruption of three daily live programs focused on the Summer Olympics, while Quibi's plans for a red-carpet launch event and a SXSW activation were canceled.
Read more: Streamers are increasingly being seen as companies poised to benefit from an intensely captive audience.
A+E Networks Shifts Upfront Push From Content to COVID-19 Social Initiatives
After canceling its annual upfront event, A+E Networks is downplaying the programming plans it had initially planned to tout and instead focusing on its COVID-19 initiatives and other pro-social community efforts, including working with the American Red Cross, as well as the Ad Council and CDC’s new marketing initiative by sharing info on its networks, donating money and airing PSAs.
Read more: The company is also sharing free educational materials on History.com to help the millions of students who have had to switch to distance learning.
- "This unprecedented new landscape serves up a challenge to brands to embrace the realities of modern marketing in a digital world," says Amy Cotteleer, chief experience officer and partner at Duncan Channon. "It’s a world where brands must put people, not products, first; where consumers crave connection, not commercials; where technology must deliver better experiences, not just broadcast information."
Sports Leagues Were Already All in on TikTok. Then the Coronavirus Hit.
Long before the coronavirus pandemic, the major American sports leagues started cultivating their presence on TikTok. Now, many of those leagues, along with their teams and athletes, are rerouting their social media strategies and rethinking TikTok during an outbreak that promises to render their sports dormant for the foreseeable future.
Read more: Some teams are even hosting virtual versions of scheduled games.
Media Agencies Are Rethinking Their Supply Chain to Combat In-Housing
Programmatic trading is entering a new era. Marketers are increasingly taking media buying in-house as changes in privacy laws and spending and Big Tech’s dominance put pressure on the legacy business models of network media agencies. In response, some of these players are starting to alter how they repackage ad tech and then offer it to advertisers in a bid to better improve their proposition.
Read more: As ad tech becomes the default means of media trading, media agencies are attempting to counter this trend with a revised proposition for marketers, with transparency at its core.
