Fox Sports completed a virtual road show this week to six ad buying agencies. While no one knows when sports will return, Fox execs, including CEO & Exec Producer Eric Shanks, Exec VP/Sports Sales Seth Winter and Exec VP and Head of Strategy & Analytics Mike Mulvihill, walked the ad buyers through various scenarios that may happen. Winter said, "It was really an information exchange." Shanks spoke about the different scenarios for when sports will come back, and Mulvihill gave a presentation on viewership patterns. "This was not a sales pitch at all," Winter said. "We did not talk about anything regarding sales. It was all programming, what we’re doing and what we think will happen -- running through all the different scenarios and all the different leagues." Fox has allowed some of its advertisers to get out of their ad commitments during the pandemic. Winter would not list specific advertisers, but he said they involved the QSR, casual dining, automotive and motion picture categories. Fox's hope is that those advertisers push their schedules into the summer. "We're not making them stay on the air," Winter said. "We're hearing that they want to be back on the air and they want their businesses to be restored, but we have to work with them and that’s what we’re doing" (John Ourand, THE DAILY).
TAKING A PULSE: AD AGE's Jeanine Poggi writes agency execs have spoken positively of these meetings, saying that they have been "informative at a time when there have been few details available." Horizon Media Exec VP & Chief Investment Officer David Campanelli said, "It definitely feels like there is a lot of good cooperation between networks and leagues (both network to leagues but also network to network) to sort out how to handle something like NFL, World Series and the Masters landing on the same weekend, which is possible" (ADAGE.com, 4/3). Optimum Sports Managing Dir Jeremy Carey said, "There is no question that sports will play a major role in the global healing process. We are seeing the anticipation continue to build. We appreciated the partnership and open dialogue with Fox as we navigate through this on behalf of our clients.” Campanelli said the virtual town hall “definitely helps us counsel clients and do our scenario planning for third quarter and especially fourth quarter around NFL." Meanwhile, Winter "expects to hold another round of video conferences with agencies in the next month or so to update them on the state of the sports industry at that point" (ADWEEK.com, 4/3).
