Paramount ANZ has held its 2024 upfront at its Pyrmont studios in Sydney, and made a series of major announcements at the event.
To speak about all these announcements, Mediaweek caught up with Paramount ANZ’s SVP content and programming, Daniel Monaghan, and chief sales officer, Rod Prosser.
Advertiser announcements
The business announcements from the Paramount 2024 Upfront span shoppable TV, the BrandBOOST ad product suite, and a new series of measurement products, creating a network that impacts every aspect of the advertising experience with Paramount.
Combined, Prosser said that the announcements mark “a really big step forward” for Paramount’s offering.
Prosser: “12 months ago we announced a couple of significant partnerships, one being with Innovid and one being with KERV. Both of those partners brought ad experiences to the connected TV, which was exciting. We really built that out across the last 12 months, and we’ve had some great success with brands and clients around the uptake. We’ve delivered over 100 campaigns across the suite of BrandBOOST products, so the evolution for us is really about deepening the partnerships that we have.
“We’ve really focused on attribution and measurement. We think it’s really important that clients really understand what benefits Paramount can bring to the table.”
In exciting news for the Australian market, Down Under has been chosen by Paramount Global to be the test market for shoppable TV, launching its pilot alongside the upcoming season of Australian Survivor.
Prosser: “Shoppable TV is really exciting. What this proof of concept will allow us to do is demonstrate the worth of our dynamic ads. We will do a trial through one of our noisiest formats in Survivor, with a global partner tested here locally with KERV.
“Essentially, it will come to life in Survivor when a viewer is prompted to pause in an environment. They’ll be then served various products that they can go and shop Survivor buffs and other integrated products.
“Once that proof of concept has been validated, it will then roll out across the globe within the ecosystem, which is really, really exciting for us because we’re the test market. There’s been a lot of questions as to why we would be the test market, and part of that is we’re a very sophisticated market when it comes to addressable TV.”
2024 Paramount Slate
In a slate full of new and returning shows, one of the highlights is the local production of the Top Gear franchise starring Blair Joscelyne, Beau Ryan, and Jonathan LaPaglia.
Monaghan: “Top Gear is a Paramount+ premiere. It’s obviously a global franchise, it’s been running in the UK for many years. It’s hugely, hugely popular with an audience that is hugely loyal.
“In terms of commissioning it for Australia, we’ve commissioned a version that is shot in-studio here but it’s global in its travel and global in its appeal – where they go, what cars they drive. That was really important because we wanted to make a big buzzy version, not just a localised one set in one city. It’s going to look really premium, and the aim is to drive people to Paramount+ to watch it.”
Monaghan said that the commissioning of Top Gear reflects the wider work that Paramount does when looking for new shows to bring Australians.
“That is the philosophy of Paramount+ and 10 as well – we are populist, we want big broad audiences watching our shows. You’ll see that from our commissions on Paramount+, NCIS Sydney and things like Last King of the Cross. We take brands, we take IP, we take large talent, and our aim is to reach as many people as possible.”
Top Gear Australia
Key messages
When asked what they each hoped the key takeaway the market would get from the 2024 Upfront would be, Prosser and Monaghan both pointed to the unique offering that Paramount can offer brands.
Prosser: “The point we want to make really clear is that we are very different in this market. We are unrivalled in terms of breadth of platform – we’re free to air, we’re BVOD, we’re SVOD, we’re AVOD, we’re FAST.
“Off the back of that, we’re going to market with what will be effectively a converged trading position and selling position. Because it’s important once you have that breadth of platforms that we tie them all together.”
Monaghan: “From a content perspective, we’re the only Australian media company that has that guaranteed pipeline of global content from Paramount, plus our local content. We plan to continue that momentum all the way through the year – we’re starting with NCIS: Sydney on Paramount+ on November 10, and the local and international content will run nonstop.
“The same goes for Network 10. January 7 is Gladiators in 2024, and we will roll through the year with that momentum all the way through to Christmas. That is our focus.”
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Top Image: Daniel Monaghan and Rod Prosser