The Real Power of the Upfront Presentation

While network upfronts are on the out this year I feel the "Upfront Presentation" or Upfront "Trailer" is an important tool in explaining to advertisers what your show is and where it is going. These short form marketing tools can be emotionally engaging and aid in closing ad sales. Many shows' advertising have been sold on just an upfront presentation. In fact I created one presentation for a show (that will remain nameless) that hadn't even been filmed yet. We faked the whole thing and made it look like the show was in production when they were still casting it. (That presentation won an award)

Now I did have the pleasure of creating the Upfront Presentation for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and working on that project for Bob Bibb and Lew Goldstein at The WB and that gave me a lot of insight into how TV Networks picked shows and I still think there is a lot to be learned from Network Upfronts.

If you are going after advertisers for your online video and you are just getting started you might want to create a presentation that explains the details about your show and where you see it going in the future. An "Industry Trailer" that's not for consumers but for advertisers and other companies that might want to partner with you.

Networks are still going to go after Upfront money for their shows. They will still meet with Ad Agencies and Media Buyers from large advertisers and ask for their advertising buys before new shows launch. Why wouldn't they? And there's no reason for the online video advertising world not to do the same.

I think we should get together and have online content creators meet with advertisers at a cocktail party and we should show them our Upfront Presentations.

Maybe we could do one in New York, one in Chicago, one in LA and one in San Francisco.

Would any of you be interested?