Today Paramount revealed its content and business plans for 2024 with highlights including the introduction of shoppable TV, a new MasterChef lineup, and increased ad personalisation. Pramaount’s chief sales officer (ANZ) Rod Prosser [lead] and senior vice president of content and programming, Dan Monaghan, spoke to B&T about what this means for the advertising and media market.
“This year, we’re really focused on measurement and attribution for brands”
Whilst last year’s strategy was about “innovation”, this year is more about proving ROI to advertisers, Prosser said.
“This year, we’re really focused on measurement and attribution for brands – we want to really demonstrate that we are delivering ROI. So we’ve, throughout the year, been doing some case studies. And it really demonstrated that there was a lot higher ROI for clients, so we then thought we need to present that. So we need to have the products to really be able to measure, measure all of that and indeed the attribution”.
“We want to give people an alternative to sport”
Monaghan says Paramount is continuing to focus on entertainment and shows that can be watched by the whole family.
“We want to give people an alternative to sport give them some flashy entertainment that they can sit down and watch with the whole family and [speaking about Gladiators] a brand people know (or of a certain age know) and can introduce their kids to”.
New examples of this are Gladiators, Top Gear, and Deal or No Deal, Monaghan said, adding that Paramount will continue to focus on existing favourites such as Survivor and I’m a Celeb.
“We want people to be able to sit down and watch them with their families and co-view which is really important. Of course, you can watch it and catch up on 10 Play. But it is important for us to have that show that people are talking about and you can watch with some immediacy”.
On Shoppable TV: “We’re pretty confident”
Shoppable TV is a concept that has been talked about for a while now, and Prosser says he is “pretty confident” that advertisers will get some “really good” results from the initiative.
In terms of what this will look like, Prosser said it will take place in a Total TV environment. The viewer will be served a prompter and then they will have the option to pause and be taken to an e-commerce environment where they can buy things such as the Survivor buffs.
Paramount is trialling the initiative in Australia and, if it goes well, it will be rolled out globally.
Monaghan said the show’s producers always work to ensure that an in-show product integration is authentic.
“It’s the producers themselves that are working closely with the brand and my team to come up with the concept. So it doesn’t feel jarring”.
