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- [00:00]
Brian Norris
Foreign.
- [00:13]
Allison Schiff
Welcome to Ad Exchanger Talks, the podcast devoted to examining the issues and trends in advertising and marketing technology that matter most to you.
- [00:24]
Sarah Sluice
This episode is brought to you by Zadac. So Zeta's AI platform unifies paid, owned and earned media into one powerful growth engine, optimizing performance in real time and driving measurable outcomes with confidence. Don't Hope for higher ROI. Expect it with Zeta. Learn more at zetaglobal.com ADExchanger.
- [00:55]
Brian Norris
Foreign
- [00:58]
Allison Schiff
I'm Allison Schiff. You're listening to Ad Exchanger Talks and my guest this week is Brian Norris, CRO of the E.W. scripps Company. Brian's been in the TV world for a long time and he's seen the business evolve from traditional linear to building new businesses for legacy TV players, including onboarding newer digital native brands into premium video. At Scripps, the focus is on democratizing access to premium content by pulling sports, including underserved women's sports, out from behind paywalls and making it available for free both over the air and via a streaming fast channel so that fans can watch the stuff they want while Scripps opens up new opportunities for advertisers. We'll talk about that and lots more. But first I've got to do a quick plug for our next event, Programmatic AI, taking place May 18th through the 20th in Las Vegas. We'll be talking about all things AI related, from AI in media planning and agentic optimization to responsible AI and the human advantage. We've already started posting speakers on the event website, including folks from Microsoft, AI People, Inc. Horizon Media, Walton Isaacson. Go and check it out. Podcast listeners get 10% off the price of their ticket when they use the code POD10. See you there. Hey Brian, welcome to the podcast.
- [02:18]
Brian Norris
Hi Alison, thanks for having me.
- [02:21]
Allison Schiff
So let's start with you. What's one thing about you that not a lot of other people already know about you?
- [02:28]
Brian Norris
Yeah, I think the one thing about me is that not a lot of people know is I'm a huge aviation enthusiast. I'm not a pilot. I think I'm okay with the fact that I probably will never get my pilot's license, but that doesn't mean that I can't continue to learn about aviation. And what I tend to do is relate aviation back to business, often around training and your instincts and, and the decision making process that you go through. And so my love of aviation, I'm able to refer to every single day in my life. So that's it. Big aviation enthusiast.
- [03:04]
Allison Schiff
Did that start in Childhood. What triggered it?
- [03:07]
Brian Norris
Yeah, it started in childhood. You know, as a matter of fact, my, my. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and in the apartment that I grew up in, I could see the Runway at JFK to binoculars and I would watch planes fly by my window. My favorite was to see the Concorde fly by my window and I would follow its path onto the Runway. And so that coupled with the fact that my, my father worked for an airline and I had an early exposure to flying and we got to fly for free. And that just fueled my, my curiosity and enjoyment of aviation. And I've stayed with it my entire.
- [03:47]
Allison Schiff
What I used to love to go, I haven't been in a very long time to Teterboro Airport because they have that area, I guess, I don't know, on the side toward the back, they have those disused airplanes from all different eras. And you can go and sit in an old 1960s airplane on, just look out the window and pretend it was really fun. We went there a bunch when I was a kid.
- [04:12]
Brian Norris
I love it. There's something truly magical about aviation and being able to, you know, fly across the surface of the earth and be at a destination in a few hours. Almost like magic.
- [04:27]
Allison Schiff
So before we move on to your day to day and we'll talk a lot about the new partnership with Ally local tv. Lots of good stuff, but lay it on me. Give me one piece of business advice or some kind of business reference that has an aviation theme.
- [04:46]
Brian Norris
Yeah, I talk to my teams all the time about balancing your instincts and your training. And so in the. And while I'm not a pilot, what I do know is that what we all know is that pilots are highly trained. And sometimes your instincts can be counterintuitive to your training. And so what I tell my teams all the time is trust your training. Sometimes your instincts will only take you so far. Sometimes your instincts can actually fail you. But what we do have is great training. Our teams and the teams that I work with and lead within our company are very experienced. And that training actually will lead them to make some great decisions. So when I talk about training versus instincts, we don't have to always rely on our instincts because we are so highly trained as pilots are.
- [05:39]
Allison Schiff
Well, and you also, you. You develop your gut through your experience. So I'll do a little resume rewind on you. You've been the CRO of scripts for nearly three years, but you spent your whole career in the TV industry and you've seen a lot of changes, I'm sure just in the way people watch and the business model. So you started out at A and E in the late 90s and then Viacom and then fast forward to 2017. You were over at Dish and VP of media sales and analytics for Sling TV, then NBCU for around six years and Scripps since mid 2024. So how has the job changed since back in the day? Although it almost feels like I don't have to say back in the day, like the job's probably pretty different for a TV sales leader just five years, like looking back at five years ago.
- [06:31]
Brian Norris
Yeah, it has, it's changed dramatically. It's changed so much that, you know, you referenced me starting at A and E. I actually got my start at Lifetime Television, but they were subsequently acquired by A E. So it's actually weird for me to hear that A and E is on my resume because I worked for, for Lifetime and the business was completely different. That was 1999. And the way that I've evolved in the business and the areas that I tended to gravitate towards was around helping establish businesses, build new businesses within those established organizations. And so one of my favorite case studies that has stayed with me since business school was is called building Breakthrough Businesses within Established Organizations. And so I've lived by that, that goal of being able to be a change maker within an established organization. When I worked at Dish Dish, I was part of a team that helped to bring ad sales to the company. Prior to me and a handful of other very talented leaders joining Dish, the ad sales process was outsourced to a third party. And so we came in in 2008 and we brought that process in house and we opened up a New York office, a Chicago office and a Los Angeles office and we built it from scratch. And we were also able to build different capabilities from scratch. Household addressability built that from scratch. We launched the first streaming virtual MVPD with Sling. We built that from scratch. And so truly, it truly embodied this premise of building a breakthrough business within an established organization, which Dish was well established by the time I got there. And then when I moved on to NBC Universal, I had a great opportunity to build and work with small and medium sized businesses. So places like NBC and many other media companies do a great job at working with larger agencies, holding companies and clients. But as, you know, businesses grow and as audiences become more fragmented, there becomes an opportunity for media companies to diversify their advertisers. And so the thing that brought me a lot of joy was to help bring new advertisers to the NBC platforms. And so these are all of the advertisers that target you on social media and that you never see in video content. And that was a real thing. You know, we would scroll on our own social feeds and see plenty of brands that keep targeting us. You'd see brands that target you for those pair of sneakers that you're never going to buy, but they keep targeting you, guess what? Because they want to find somebody. They want to convert you, but they also want to find additional people that have the same characteristics as you. And so they keep targeting you because they can't find those people. And so what we were able to do at NBC was to give those advertisers that extended reach that they were looking for. And so that premise extends over into Scripps. And what got me very excited about the opportunity at Scripps is that while the company is approaching 150 years, the thought process was very much of a company that was being refounded through the lens of women's sports, through the lens of local sports, and really, really challenging the status quo of content being held behind a paywall. And I love that. I loved being a 150-year-old company, but also a challenger brand and also bringing sports, local sports, and women's sports to the forefront. And so I wouldn't have been interested if it was just doing the status quo. And what we've done is far from status quo.
- [10:47]
Allison Schiff
Definitely want to talk about women's sports and sports in general, but I just want to welcome my dog Oliver to the podcast. Anyone who was watching the video saw me reach out my arm to open the door because he was whimpering on the other side, and now he's there soaking up all of your good information.
- [11:04]
Brian Norris
Love it.
- [11:05]
Allison Schiff
I want to go back to something you said, which I think is really interesting, fragmentation as an opportunity, because fragmentation is usually considered to be a problem, but not if you think of it from the perspective of bringing more advertisers who haven't been buying against a certain kind of media into the fold.
- [11:26]
Brian Norris
Yeah, it's. You know, fragmentation can certainly be seen as a. As a problem if you don't approach it in the right way. And so from an audience and advertiser standpoint, there are so many brands, like I said on social, that would love to have a larger reach platform than the social platforms that they're on. But quite frankly, when we started down this path in 2019 at NBC Universal, there was no real easy way to onboard those brands into video. And we created some of those pathways. But where I sit right now at Scripps. The fragmentation is partially due to the paywalls that we all have to contend with. And so I think the single most appealing thing for me with in the scripts environment is that we're truly able to democratize the content. Right. We are not, we don't rely on the virtual mvp nor do we rely on the, the cable or satellite home. While we have great partnerships with those platforms, our content is essentially available for free over the air. And that continues, that premise continues within streaming as well. And so because all of our content is streamed across free ad supported distribution platforms. And now the, the way for us to continue to break through that fragmentation is to provide true value for audiences in the form of live content, in the form of truly premium content. You know, many publishers might talk about their content being premium and then it's, it could be all library content. It, you know, if you've ever tried to watch live sports in a free streaming environment, good luck, it's behind wall. So we've made, we've made it our mission to make sure that live sports are available for free to anyone who to access them in a free streaming environment or in an over the air environment. So some of these tactics of bringing live sports to the masses for free and while also investing in truly premium content I think is really something that can help separate us and break through
- [13:58]
Allison Schiff
some of that fragmentation and premium content that doesn't always get its due. So Scripps made a pretty explicit promise a couple of years ago to make it easier to be a women's sports fan in America. And since then, you've done a lot of things. You've added dedicated WNBA franchise nights, National Women's Soccer League double headers, new leagues like Athlos, which I wasn't familiar with. It's a professional female only track and field series, Major League Volleyball. And you just broadcasted the first ever nationally televised professional women's hockey league game on linear TV on ion. And LI Financial is the presenting sponsor on that. So talk to me a little bit about the strategic through line, like why anchor so much of the Scripps sports strategy to women's sports as opposed to keeping it as a smaller, experimental piece of the portfolio, which is the case at a lot of broadcasters.
- [14:58]
Brian Norris
Yeah, there's our commitment to women's sports really started with this premise that consumers want to consume this content and they just really have a hard time finding it. And so if you think back four years ago, prior to Scripps airing the WNBA on Friday nights with A franchise night inclusive of studio programming. It was very difficult to find a WNBA game. Right. You'd have, you'd have to do some searching, you might have to, you know, use some, some platforms that maybe you weren't familiar with. And aside from that, you just didn't know. You didn't have a specific night to find that content and find those sports. And so the, the premise was simple, is to, you know, surprise and delight our customers and advertisers with a, with the consistency of giving women's sports the franchise nights that they deserve, which in the case of the WNBA is on Friday nights in the National Women's Soccer League on Saturdays. And, and advertisers and audiences enjoy that. They enjoy that consistency. And so using that premise as the foundation of everything that we do, it allows us and it gives us permission to bring emerging sports to the platform. And then when we think about emerging sports, think about the sports that do so well in the Olympics and then think about the fact that you might have to wait four more years to consume those sports. And so we saw ourselves with a great opportunity to bring professional women's hockey to national television. We saw ourselves with a great opportunity to bring women's track and field to national television in a way that is exciting and a truly cultural moment. And so looking at it through those lenses, we have all the permission in the world to showcase, to highlight these women, to highlight the value that they bring and the joy that they bring to audiences, and most importantly, not have to require audiences to wait for years to be part of that excitement. And when you think about it through that lens, it's a no brainer. And we're going to continue down this path. You know, we've, we've mentioned the Professional Women's Hockey League and we've also mentioned Athos. But we, we, we brought pro cheer as a competitive sport to national television. We brought Major League Volleyball to the national, national environment for consumers to experience that. And so we're, which, we've been at this for a little over three years and I can truly say we've just started.
- [17:51]
Allison Schiff
But talk to me a little bit more about the business case, like when you're wearing your CRO hat and what convinced you and the leadership that this wasn't just a nice PR move, but really like a asset for advertisers.
- [18:04]
Brian Norris
Yeah, advertisers have been asking for new ways in which that they can reach new audiences. While we do know that women's sports aren't just consumed by women. Right. It's Pretty balanced. Male, female. We also know that the women that participate in these sports are so much more than just athletes. They are mothers, they are entrepreneurs. They are so dynamic. And brands love to associate themselves with, with athletes and celebrities and people who, who hold a certain level of influence with the, with the public. They love to align themselves with, with people like that. And between the WNBA and Athlos and the nwsl, it's filled with women with great stories. They are so much more than athletes. And us being able to air, air that their competition is really just a part of their story. And the thing that we've also made a commitment to is telling those stories. That's why the studio shows are so important. Because while we do focus on the X's and the O's of the game, we also spend a lot of time producing content that advertisers can and have align themselves with that highlight the complexity of these women and the, the richness and the, the, the deepness of, of all that they do in their lives. And so this creates an opportunity for brands to align themselves with these stories. And so brands have been asking for great storytelling and the actual sport is just part of that storytelling. But there's the brands have realized very quickly that, you know, the women that are participating are as equally as important as the sport itself. And so when we look at it through that lens, it becomes a no brainer that we have to, it is incumbent on us to tell these stories and to highlight these women and then create a vehicle for brands to attach themselves to this storytelling and attach themselves to the athletes as well and to
- [20:19]
Allison Schiff
do it through new channels. So one more question before we take a quick break. You just touched on it briefly, but we'll go into more detail now. You launched very recently a free ad supported streaming channel for the Script Sports Network. So it's a mix of 24, seven live events, encore games, original stuff acquired shows, the whole panoply of content. But why go fast now? Like what gap are you trying to fill in an ecosystem, a sports media ecosystem with this product for viewers and also advertisers. Because there are just so many sports streaming options out there already. Kind of like the bad part of fragmentation.
- [21:03]
Brian Norris
Yeah, yeah, it's a great question and one that we've talked about a ton. And there are, and you're right, there are so many opportunities to consume sports content out there. But the one gap in the, in the environment is the free part of it, right? The free and the live part of it. Right? You can, there are opportunities to stream live sports all the time. But if you, if you are like me and are experiencing some subscription fatigue, sometimes you just want free. And so we saw that as an opportunity for us to surprise and delight advertisers and audiences. And so, you know, when we've launched this Scripps Sports network streaming channel, we're doing that, we're bringing live sports to the platform. We're bringing conversations with athletes beyond the X's and O's to the platform. And so it gives us the perfect moment in time to give consumers a break from sports that live behind the paywall. And it gives advertisers the chance to, to find these, to find these viewers.
- [22:20]
Allison Schiff
There is so much. You alluded to it already. Content behind paywalls and subscription fatigue is, it's real. I mean, I also subscribe to things that I forget about and then I find them on my bill. I'm like, oh damn, I still pay for that.
- [22:37]
Brian Norris
Right? I think we all find ourselves in that, in that situation. And if you don't do an audit of everything that you're paying for, you can be paying for things that you, that you don't use. And so aside from the, the live component of the streaming network, it's the original component as well. Being able to bring original programming. We actually acquired a show by comedian and actor Kevin Hart which is called Coldest Balls where he interviews athletes and sports personalities from the confines of an ice cold tub.
- [23:15]
Allison Schiff
I've seen that.
- [23:16]
Brian Norris
Yeah, yeah. And so it's. So we're bringing that type of original content to the platform. Again, it is sports adjacent and shows the real personalities of some of your favorite athletes and, and celebrities. And so these are some of the things that you may not typically be able to find in a free environment. This does not represent library content. It does not represent content. Content that we are recycling over and over again. This represents content that we, content that we've invested in because we know that is that it is so rare to find original content in free environments.
- [23:59]
Allison Schiff
Well, original content is what gets sold during the upfronts. So we're going to take a quick break now and when we come back, we're going to talk about upfronts, we're going to talk about measurement and more about the appeal that local TV brings. So stick with us.
- [24:24]
Brian Norris
Foreign.
- [24:30]
Sarah Sluice
I'm Sarah Sluice, Editorial director of Ad Exchanger and I have with me here the chief Growth Officer of Zeta, Ed C. Who leads the charge in helping businesses and CMOs achieve measurable high impact marketing outcomes. Thanks for joining us.
- [24:46]
Brian Norris
Ed.
- [24:48]
Ed C.
Sarah, great to see you. Thanks for taking the time with me today.
- [24:51]
Sarah Sluice
Yeah. So what's different in the year 2026 about how brands and agencies are approaching ad tech?
- [25:01]
Ed C.
So, Sarah, I think it's a really, really interesting time. For years, we've all been talking about ad tech and martech and all these different things. But at the end of the day, as a marketer, what am I responsible for doing? Helping people make marketing decisions, helping them make buying decisions through a series of touch points. Adtech and Martech are actually artifacts of our history of how we bought Meteor and how we managed our own touch points. What's finally happened with today's technology is we can release some of those artifacts and bring adtech and martech together. I think that's going to be a huge thing. We're seeing more and more people doing that, and it's releasing marketers to have the freedom to really say, how do I reach Sarah? How do I recognize Sarah? How do I reach Sarah? How do I offer something relevant? And how can I see the results of the communications I'm having with Sarah?
- [25:59]
Sarah Sluice
So, yeah, let's talk more about that freedom that comes from blurring the lines between ad tech and martech. What else happens when you kind of unify things and blur them, bring them together?
- [26:11]
Ed C.
Well, a couple of things happen, Sarah. Instead of saying, how much did this channel produce? We actually started saying, how profitable is Sarah? To us, it changes from measuring a channel to doing what marketers are really responsible for, creating a profitable customer and saying, what did each touch point, what did each offer, what did each thing actually contribute to the profitability of that particular customer and allows the marketer to actually say, I'm managing a supply chain, and I'm managing the most important supply chain to a company, the customer supply chain.
- [26:50]
Sarah Sluice
So how does that unified customer view then empower marketing teams and agencies once they know about this profitable customer?
- [27:00]
Ed C.
Well, one of the big things here is it lets them do the really unsexy side of marketing, waste management. And that is incredibly important. Making sure that you're able to stop the wasted impression. The extra touch point we have all probably in the last two weeks bought something and then got another impression. Trying to sell you the thing that you just bought. It helps take those things out, things that you would never buy. It allows us as marketers to say, I am being able to recognize a pocket of opportunity. With precision, I can reach that pocket of opportunity. Again, with precision, I can be more informed of what relevant items I can bring to that person, and I can leave enough data to actually say what's working, what's not, and see the results. It's incredibly empowering. It's incredibly freeing. And as a marketer, it helps you have a better conversation with your cfo, which some of those conversations haven't always been so positive.
- [28:01]
Sarah Sluice
Okay, so less waste, more profit, better meetings with your cfo. Thank you, Ed, for weighing it all down for us.
- [28:10]
Ed C.
And it slices bread along the way, too.
- [28:14]
Sarah Sluice
Wonderful. Thank you to Ed and thanks to Zeynep for supporting our podcast.
- [28:18]
Ed C.
Thank you, Sarah.
- [28:33]
Allison Schiff
All right, we're back. And as promised, we're going to talk about the upfronts because they're coming up right around the corner. So everyone, including you guys, are deep in upfront planning mode, I'm assuming. So we were talking about the new Fast channel before the break. How are you bringing that and the broader sports portfolio, including ion, which we didn't talk about, and local, into your upfront story this year? And what do you want buyers to walk away with, you know, in terms of how Scripps fits into their video mix? Give me like a little taste of the pitch.
- [29:08]
Brian Norris
Yeah. Well, we just concluded our upfront live event. We did it on March 25th at the Barclays center in Brooklyn. By the way, I'm from Brooklyn. I'm always excited to be able to do my job and experience what we do in my backyard where I grew up. So that's always a big treat for me. But the storyline was really about how we've continued to invest in women's sports. Last year, that was a big storyline as well. But that storyline which really focused around WNBA and National Women's Soccer League, but we didn't end there. And so there was, there's a lot of excitement about Major League Volleyball, about Athlos, about the Scripp Sports Network, which, which started streaming very, you know, in the recent past. And the advertising community is excited about that. They're also excited about the commitment that we've made beyond sports to some of our other platforms and networks, in particular, Bounce and the investment that we've made on Bounce, which is our over the air network focused towards the African American community. And we've made investments there. We've signed a new show called the Silver Fox Squad, which follows a team of stylish men who are, you know, over 50, who are proving that confidence, wisdom and great style actually only get better with age. And so that represents some of the commitment that we've made to original programming. And then we spent a lot of time talking about Grit, which is our country Western network, and the moment that we're having within our country right now, especially with the America 250 coming up over the summer and this concept of Americana and leaning into all things that are rooted in this country. And the advertising marketplaces has seemed to really embrace that. While in a time where many publishers are not investing in original programming, we are investing in original programming, in a time where many publishers are put putting sports behind a paywall, we're making it available for free. So a lot of what we're doing is counter to what's happening in the greater marketplace. But we think that as a being Scripps, being a company that's approaching 150 years in, in in business of, of service serving consumers, we didn't get here for 150 years by going along with the stage status quo. We continue to innovate, to do things that others may not be thinking about. And it's paid off for us for the last 150 years. And so I'm excited about the future,
- [32:17]
Allison Schiff
but there still is always this tug of war during the upfronts between the big, splashy national sports and everything else. So are you, I totally understand the pitch, but are you seeing it resonate with CMOs and investment leads at agencies in terms of what they want to do with their sports dollars over the next months? Like, are you seeing conversations shift in a meaningful way with money toward women's sports and local.
- [32:43]
Brian Norris
It really is. So from a women's sports perspective, you know, you mentioned earlier our partnership with Ally to bring the professional Women's Hockey League to. Into the national forefront. That conversation was one that we, first of all, because of our size, we're able to be very nimble and make that decision over the. To. To pull that off over the course of a couple of days. And we did it because, number one, it was the right thing to do. And number two, an advertiser was asking for this. And so, you know, we were able to partner very quickly with that advertiser. And I think it goes back to the fact that, and what I love about this company is that, yes, we are 100 or approaching 150 years of being in business, but we can move as nimble as any startup. Right? And so we, we find ourselves at this place where many of the emerging sports that we're bringing on don't have incumbent advertisers tied to us in any sort of meaningful sponsorship way. And so that excites and energizes advertisers because they're able to come in and actually own something and be part of its creation and be able to help build something that's really special. And so while it is never our intention to say no to an advertiser, and I've really taken that to heart with our teams, we really want to say yes. We want to say yes to these ideas that advertisers require of us. We have a terrific marketing team that continues to come up with innovative ideas to integrate and to seamlessly weave in advertiser messages and stories within our content. And we're committed to that. And when advertisers see that, we're able to say yes, when maybe many others are saying no, or maybe there are incumbent advertisers tied to specific sports programming. For us, it's a wide open playing field. And as we bring on these new emerging leagues and even some of the established leagues, we have such great relationships with our league partners and with our advertisers that executing these ideas has been truly a joy for advertisers and for us.
- [35:07]
Allison Schiff
Well, between ION and Linear and Fast, you guys are stitching together. Ooh, siren in the background. Yeah, you guys are stitching together like a pretty interesting cross platform sports footprint. I want to talk a little bit about reach and frequency, like how do buyers think about reach and frequency in that environment? Because of course the pitch can be TV style, scale with streaming flexibility. But then, you know, maybe it's also about stitching together like fragmented fan communities that can be harder to reach through traditional buys. Is that what you find is resonating with buyers?
- [35:49]
Brian Norris
Yeah, I find that the fact that we are over the air and we don't have this over reliance on MVPDs for distribution, that advertisers actually, often we lead with reach, we lead with that. We have the opportunity to reach 100% of the viewing audience in the United States. And so in the past, while that's been, you know, ION was seen as this efficiency vehicle for advertisers with procedurals, the procedurals that we air and, and the mass distribution that we have now, that's being looked at a little bit different. We still provide the, the, the mass reach, but we also have brought ultra premium programming to the conversation. And so then when you layer that premium programming, our reach and our ability to execute data driven video campaigns across both streaming and our linear footprint, now that becomes a targeting vehicle for advertisers that is unmatched in the marketplace. It's not like we are pairing behind a paywall. Streaming audiences with cable audiences, everything is free, right? And so that, that means that the advertiser has the ability to target and still get a meaningful amount of audience that fit within that target that actually helps to fulfill their marketing goals.
- [37:31]
Allison Schiff
That's a nice segue into talking about measurement and performance, which I do want to get into. So from the demand side perspective, how are marketers evaluating success on like Ion and script sports and all of that? Like, are they sticking with traditional GRPs and reach, or are you starting to see more demand for audience based deals like outcome based guarantees, cross platform attribution that also include streaming, like that kind of thing?
- [38:02]
Brian Norris
Yeah, I think it's, it's all of the above. It is, you know, we, we have our advertisers that in particular, if you think about like the pharmaceutical category, our audiences do incredibly well against pharmaceutical targets. And so in that, in that case, the reach and the, and the, the broad demo targeting makes a whole lot of sense for them. And then when you think about our sports opportunities for advertisers, it gives those brands an opportunity to reach higher income and higher sought after audiences from income and a little bit of a lower age standpoint. And so in that case, you know, we're, we're happy to work with those advertisers on some brand lift measurement and show our value and efficacy through brand lift. And then when we talk about our streaming opportunities, listen at. The name of the game for many advertisers, in particular those that operate in the SMB and direct to consumer space is actually are those audiences converting into sales? And because of the nature of our reach within streaming, we have a great opportunity to reach a large amount of potential customers for those brands. And then they convert all throughout the funnel, at the top, the middle and at the bottom of the funnel. So from a measurement standpoint, it really depends on what the advertiser is looking to accomplish. And then we build something that's bespoke for what those advertisers are looking to accomplish. If they're looking to elevate their brand, then we will put together a schedule that will do that for them. If they're looking to convert at the bottom of the funnel, then we'll put together opportunities that are successful against those metrics. But it all starts with the conversation that we have with those advertisers on the front end about what is it that you are wanting to accomplish with this campaign. And as salespeople we are, you know, you talk about, go back to the training versus your instinct. Our instinct is to Talk about ourselves. Right. And to talk about all the great things that Scribs has. Our training will tell us that we need to listen first. And so our teams have gotten better at listening to what advertisers need and then building something that is bespoke to them, that will be successful against. Against their goals.
- [40:43]
Allison Schiff
So I want to talk a little bit about challenger brands layering local sports and CTV on top of national buys. National buys are very scaled and that's where a lot of money goes for that reason. But if you were advising a CMO with a limited sports budget about the right mix across tent poles and regional plays and free streaming, what would you tell them? Keeping in mind what you were just saying about really trying to create the best program for an advertiser, it's not just about selling scripts. Even though it kind of is your job to sell scripts.
- [41:20]
Brian Norris
Yeah, it is. You know, and you know, a big part of my job is advising these brands and agencies. I would really advise them to not discount the power of local sports, especially when they are looking to create connection with audiences. While sports on a national scale is incredibly powerful, when we think about sports from the local level, with the passion that those local fans bring to the sport, both in person and on air, you can't discount that. And we've seen time and time again that brands are rewarded for participating in supporting local sports. And so the story that we have to tell is around the scale of those local sports. So for years and years, local sports have been behind a paywall and their success hinged on the success of regional sports networks. And so what we've done is we flipped that on its head. Right. What's old is new again. When I was growing up, I could watch my favorite team, the Mets, live over the air for free. And so that's changed. And so in many markets, we're now bringing that free experience back to television. So if you think about the sports that we've made investments in, in particular in Vegas with the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL Florida Panthers again, the hockey team in South Florida, there audiences have loved to, like I said, we've surprised and delight those audiences by giving them those sports access to those sports for free. And so when advertisers comb, when advertisers combine their in arena efforts as well as their on air efforts, it creates this seamless opportunity for them to reinforce a message over and over again. Not to mention with their direct to consumer streaming apps, it gives them this opportunity to reinforce a message over and over again in a community that they're looking to make connections with. And so it doesn't just stop with that. The local sport as an opportunity by itself, what we've created, created is for brands to reach sports lovers either on the national level within CTV or on the local level. And so it was very important for us to create a one stop shop, if you will, for an advertiser to make one phone call to me, they can call me or anybody on my team and we'll put together something that bespoke, that actually create the flywheel and a surround sound effect for them to create a message that is consistent on the national level within CTV in arena and also on air in those local markets via Linear. So we have this wonderful opportunity to really super serve our advertisers from a sports perspective. And I didn't even mention the sports that we have the entitlements to air based on our local affiliations by market. And so our local affiliations are spread across abc, cbs, fox, NBC. And so we have, as a result, we have access to every sport that they sell and that they air on their platforms. And so we can really create this great local solution that has been amplified through a, through a national offering as well. So with Scripps having this, this robust CTV as well as a national platform inclusive of, of local as well, it creates this opportunity that very few can, can recreate in the sports landscape. So I'm excited about all that we can bring to advertisers. And like I said earlier, like, it's, it's just, it's just starting. We're continuing to add sports in local markets, we're continuing to add national sports. And, and like I said, like we talked about before, we've launched this Scripps Sports network streaming to continue to, to amplify all of the sports opportunities that advertisers are looking for. But I think most importantly that consumers are craving.
- [45:56]
Allison Schiff
Even so, do you find that there are any misconceptions that you have to clear up when marketers want to advertise against women's sports or a portfolio like you have, but there's something holding them back. Like what you wish more buyers understood about, like the value of your audience?
- [46:11]
Brian Norris
Yeah, I think some, there are some misconceptions that, that the majority of the audience that consume women's sports are women. All right, I think that, I think that, you know, we have to tell the story, that it is a very balanced audience. I also think that there are misconceptions about the number of audiences consuming local sports. And then we show them what our local sports do in markets like, like Vegas and South Florida. And then the advertisers are blown away with the amount of, of viewership that those sports are driving. And then I think that, you know, ION is not, has not been known as a sports platform like in its DNA. And so some of the misconceptions are that audiences won't flock to ION to consume sports. And then we have to show them that. No, they actually are, that we are actually a leading network for women's sports. And, and the fact that we've given these sports the franchise nights that they deserve. Audiences have rewarded us by showing up week in and week out. And so, you know, they're, one by one, we have to knock down some of the, the misconceptions about what it means to serve the sports fan. And as we do that, you get that, I can see it in meetings. You get that lean in moment with the advertiser or the agency partner or the brand, and they're like, huh, I didn't realize that. Tell me more. That question, that response happens more than you can imagine. They, you make a point and then it's completely contrary to what they might have believed. And then it gives us that opening to continue to evangelize why it's so important that they support these opportunities.
- [48:09]
Allison Schiff
So we somehow came to the end of this podcast. It went by pretty quickly. I have one other question. I know you have this POV on the metabolic health economy driven by, you know, the rise in the use of GLP1s that, that is this massive transformative market force that's going to reshape everything from how CPG products are developed to how people spend their time to overall marketing strategies. So with that as the backdrop, how are you guys adapting your sales approach to help brands reach this health first? I was going to say health first consumer, but this health first person, because I'm trying to use the word consumer less across all of your stuff.
- [48:55]
Brian Norris
Yeah. And so while it's still early days of, of GLP1s being adopted en masse by the viewing public and consumers in the U.S. i think that only about 7% of the population has actually used those drugs, but a large percentage, I think 30 plus percent have actually considered it. And so what that's telling us is that usage, as they become easier to consume in a pill format versus a injectable format, is that those numbers of people using those products are going to go up. And I think that it creates a lot of change. It's going to create havoc in, in the marketing ecosystem. I think in a good way. I think wellness will be in wellness and companies that support wellness will be, you know, thrust into the forefront. I think that we have to continually align ourselves with brand that brands that put wellness first as a, as a business imperative. I think it aligns very nicely with our investment in women's sports. Right. And which is all about wellness and being healthy. So, you know, while many, many people in our business think about and talk about AI constantly, you know, my view is that it as it relates to, to actually connecting with consumers. I think that the rise of GLP1s will do that in a way that's greater than AI, at least for the short term. However, the way that we get our work done is going to be fueled by AI and that is going to be that. There is no denying that the way that we get our work done, our ability to be efficient, our ability to move very quickly, is going to be led by the AI revolution.
- [50:55]
Allison Schiff
Interesting. I wasn't expecting AI to swerve into your answer, but I tend to agree with you. Well, Brian, thanks for the time. Here's to women's sports and thank you for co piloting this episode of ADXchanger Talks.
- [51:14]
Brian Norris
Thank you, Alison.
- [51:24]
Sarah Sluice
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