The Digest: Fairfield County Marketing & Media Pros

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Digest.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Elton John!”
- Van Toffler, 2004 MTV Networks Upfront

That was my introduction to the media industry, MTV, and TV Upfront presentations.

In 2004, I was in my first job out of college. It was an outdoor advertising agency down the street from Madison Square Garden. My co-worker got invited to the MTV Networks upfront at the last minute by his friend because they needed seat fillers in the MSG Theater. So we went.

At that point, I’d never heard of a TV Upfront nor had any business reason to be there. But I’m glad I went. It changed my career.

When the show opened with a Jackass sketch, and then Van Toffler introduced Elton John for a live piano performance, getting into TV seemed like a good move. A few months later, I found my way to Comedy Central as a sales coordinator and never looked back.

Upfront week looks a lot different this year than it did back then. Instead of traditional TV, it’s YouTube, Netflix and big streaming platforms attracting the most investment. In a ~$31 Billion total Upfront market, streaming has overtaken traditional TV in share, and the gap is expected to widen.

Special note this week — read the article below about “The clipping economy” to understand the latest trend in entertainment marketing. What used to be called copyright piracy, is now a new business model for content marketing. You will hear a lot more about this over the next few months, especially around big summer movie releases (to the extent those still exist).

I’m proud to share the Season 5 Premiere of Grave Conversations as our Video of the Week. Andy Richter joined host David Dastmalchian for a revealing interview about his stroke, how Dancing With The Stars changed him, and hilarious stories about Conan.

That’s it for this week. Enjoying this newsletter? Please feel free to share with others and let me know your thoughts.

What’s Next?

This digest is a starting point. The goal is to build a community of senior marketing and media professionals in Fairfield County. If you have news to share, a campaign to highlight, job opportunities, or an event to promote, please email me at [email protected] 

Best,

Shawn