Hasta La Creative!

While it can be invigorating to declare the upfronts anachronistic, obsolete or dead, you could easily argue the opposite: that they’re more important, wanted — indeed needed — than ever.

First, let’s make the distinction between the big party and the actual negotiation for advertising dollars. This week’s broadcast-TV upfronts will have both, in spades. Audience fragmentation is the new normal, but broadcast still aggregates the biggest crowds. And after these big parties are over, possibly as few as 40 people from the networks, agencies and brands will go into backrooms and decide how $9 billion of the $62 billion U.S. TV ad market will be spent next year.

Agency folk love to complain about upfronts: there are too many; they’re not real if there’s no negotiation; they’re a waste of time and energy, etc, etc. But rather than listen, watch what they do. This is the time of year when the most powerful ad execs in the nation stand in line — line! — to get into Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to hear the pitch, see the clips and laugh along with the stars.

Continue reading at AdAge.com