Warner Bros. Discovery just gave buyers a data-driven platform to guide their decisions and a simplified approach to targeting their key demographics.
Just ahead of its upfront presentation today, Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Ad Sales introduced NEO and DemoDirect—each aimed at bringing brands more efficient and effective ads across WBD’s premium video inventory.
The new NEO ad platform launches later this year and offers buyers access to streaming, linear, FAST, and syndicated inventory in one spot. Built to match a brand’s message to WBD content, NEO draws on reporting and insights to provide greater transparency into how an ad will perform with certain content.
“With this unique tool, advertisers can maximize the full potential of their advertising spend, analyze data more clearly, and buy on their own terms to scale campaigns faster and smarter,” Jill Steinhauser, WBD’s group svp of platform monetization and partnerships, said in a statement.
Linear advertising tool DemoDirect, meanwhile, wants to make it simpler to target specific demographics across the WBD portfolio by offering customers their audiences through one plan, one CPM, and one invoice. As WBD modernizes its approach to the upfront, the ad industry is increasingly asking its sales team to adjust its approach to fragmented media.
“DemoDirect is crafted for how brands choose to buy today—streamlined, scalable, and simplified,” said Allie Carr, WBD group svp of platform monetization.
Feature comforts
WBD touts DemoDirect’s one-stop approach to linear audiences, but also its ability to pair campaigns with “brand-safe content,” customize campaigns with targeting features including do-not-air (DNA) lists and frequency capping, and extend into digital through WBD’s StreamX.
When NEO launches, meanwhile, it plans to allow brands to customize their budgets, pacing, and goals through the platform. It also offers brands a view of every WBD screen and the ability to determine when and where their ads are running based on content data and performance metrics. Finally, brands get to blend their own data with WBD’s first-party audience data to aid targeting, reporting, measurement, and results.
With help from ad tech firms Magnite and the Comcast-owned FreeWheel, WBD is attempting to make the upfront ad-buying process somewhat simpler, even when the times say that just isn’t happening.
“This represents yet another important step toward streamlining the advertising ecosystem and delivering the transparency, performance, and innovation that buyers expect in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape,” said Sean Buckley, president, revenue at Magnite.
