NBCUniversal is embarking on an expansion of Peacock’s advertising offerings, developing both new features meant to have sponsors, and new capabilities that executives at the company argue will not be matched by competitors in the space.
NBCU is using its annual developer conference, One23, which is being held Wednesday in New York, to roll out the offerings.
For starters, the company will roll out programmatic access to live sports on Peacock, a major shift in how live events are sold. The plan, which is an expansion of last year’s announcement of a self-serve ad platform for small and medium size businesses, will see NBCU committing to 30 live events per month.
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“For the first time ever, you know, a small business could be buying into the World Cup,” says James Kreckler, senior VP of digital advertising for the company. “Most people that are in that space, they never really thought they could buy NBCUniversal.”
“These things are always been sold very bespoke with these big sponsorship models, and they will continue to be sold that way, for people that want to like full takeover and everything,” adds Ryan McConville, executive VP of advertising platforms and operations. “But the ability to bid in dynamically to also get your message into those events is another thing … we’re really proud of because it’s sort of democratizing access [to live sports].”
Peacock is also planning to launch in-scene ads via a partnership with the ad tech firm TripleLift. When it launches, the service will allow for the insertion of signage and 3D products directly into scenes in Peacock programming.
“We’re in Build mode right now with them for this product to and our plan is that it not only is you know, perfect and pristine for the consumer, but that it can scale and that the machine learning for finding where the placements should be, are top notch,” says Jenny Burke, executive VP of advertising strategy. “In-stream product placement, virtual private placement into streaming, we believe in it but it needs to be done really well in order to be able to scale.”
And Burke says that Peacock is also deploying a new format that bears a resemblance to something DVD box set collectors are already familiar with: Behind-the-scenes commentary.
Peacock’s version, “Watch With,” will let users watch episodes of their favorite shows as the cast members, writers and directors give commentary on the episode, and answer live questions. Marketers will be able to sponsor the format.
“There’ll be live commentary, Q&A, within the Peacock product feature with those stars while you watch that episode,” Burke says. “And we’ll have the marketer showcased there with us to get involved in that fandom with the consumer.”
Peacock’s ad push comes as the environment for ad-supported streaming gets more and more crowded. In the last three months both Netflix and Disney+ launched ad-supported tiers, expanding the total market. While many advertisers will buy across many platforms, innovations like new programmatic options or unique sponsored ad opportunities can help a streaming service stand out.
NBCUniversal is also part of a group that includes Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and TelevisaUnivision in a Joint Industry Committee looking to unify around multiple currencies for the 2024 upfront. The company will hold a panel that includes its rivals at its One23 conference.
But another piece of that puzzle is a plan to pool streaming viewership data. The result could be a system in which HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, ViX+ and other streaming services could unify around definitions (like, for example, what’s a “view”?), and could allow for apples to apples comparisons, audited by a third-party, a far cry from today’s marketplace, where companies are holding tightly onto their streaming data.
“We all have our streaming properties, and there’s a real need and demand to aggregate and bring transparency to to those audiences, transparency to that environment,” says Kelly Abcarian, executive VP of measurement and impact. “How are we collectively going to bring together a set of data so that I can see your data and you can see my data, no different than how linear works today.”
