About 300 media buyers attended the NFL’s sixth annual fantasy football contest upfront last night in Manhattan, designed to get the ad market enthused about the fourth quarter buying season for NFL media assets. With the NBA lockout likely to stretch into the NFL season, sources said that talk at the event was about finding places to put those now free ad dollars. “We have 300 of the most influential people in sports here, they control media buying in sports,” said NFL VP/Media Sales David Pattillo. He declined to say how much inventory the NFL had to sell across NFL Network and NFL.com.
NFL Network reporter Scott Hanson emceed the event, which featured 16 media buyers picking fantasy football teams. The winner at the end of the year gets to play a flag football game against an NFL squad featuring NFL execs and retired players. Giants RB Brandon Jacobs and WR Hakeem Nicks, as well as retired Jets DE Joe Klecko, said a few words to the audience. NFL Senior VP/Media & Sponsorships Keith Turner, Pattillo’s boss, also attended. When the event started six years ago, there were eight ad agency teams participating.
