'Fasten your seat belt': What to watch for in this year's TV and streaming advertising upfront market

‘Fasten your seat belt’: What to watch for in this year’s TV and streaming advertising upfront market

Agency and TV network executives expect a slower pace to this year’s dealmaking cycle, as advertisers’ budgets stay soft.

Happy upfront week:

• Digiday+ Research surveyed brand, retailer and agency professionals earlier in the second quarter to get an idea of how marketers plan to spend during this year's upfront.

Additional coverage:

• This year, some brands’ gaming budgets have returned to pre-COVID levels, forcing gaming and esports talent managers to pivot to keep up.
• Right-wing political groups are making a habit of targeting corporate shareholders in efforts to roll back environmental and social initiatives in the private sector.
• Dentsu’s latest new product is Merkury for Media, which aims to place all of its media for clients against first-party data coming out of Merkury, a global data, identity and insights platform. More in this Digiday+ Media Buying Briefing.
• Snap has been slowly gaining ad dollars with ad platform improvements and ad incentives to bring advertisers back into the fold.
• At this week’s Google I/O 2024, its many marketers will be tuned in for any updates on the future of generative AI and search.
• ICYMI: It's been two weeks (ish) since Google announced the third delay to its long-gestating plan to rid it's browser of third-party cookies — just about enough time to get over the shock of the utterly predictable.