I want to talk about one of the more memorable upfront moments. After walking the audience through some new information about CNN, CEO Mark Thompson came back on stage with a series of notecards. He then shared that President Biden and former President Trump had just agreed to their first televised debate, which would be hosted on CNN. Can you shed any behind-the-scenes insight on how that came about?
I was backstage and trying to follow along with the whole thing, but my understanding is that it had just gotten approved by both campaigns while we were live. I will say that Mark had a line when he broke the news that I think he had made up on the spot, but it was a perfect sales pitch. He said, “When people have something important to say, they say it on CNN.” And then he looked at the crowd of advertisers and said, “And I think you should, too.” Talk about a great line.
Will WBD be back at the upfronts next year?
The last few years have each had their own unique wrinkle, so this is the first year that I think the CFOs can credibly hope to crunch the ROI on these events. I think client attendance was great—we tracked around 3,000 attendees, with a lot of out-of-towners. I think people come in for upfronts, and they attend multiple presentations, schedule some key meetings and get to attend some nice after-parties. I think the buyers get plenty of bang for their buck, and we get to build up momentum that ends up being helpful in getting deals closed.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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