Richard Ivey, Chief Procurement Officer at Media Experts shares his take on the 2022 Canadian upfronts and how brands can leverage broadcasters to grow to the next level.

This year, we are talking to the one, the only Richard Ivy, who is the Chief Procurement Officer for Media Experts. He's got over 30 years of industry expertise on the buying side. He has seen it, he has done it. He has been part of the change and he will be part of the next influx of change. We're gonna dive into what happened over the last few weeks, Richard.

How are you doing today?

[00:00:56] Dave Forde: all right. Beautiful. So break it down for us. Your title is [00:01:00] Chief Recruitment Officer. What does that mean in relation to media buying and planning?

So I oversee all of that.

[00:01:40] Richard Ivey: So it's interesting when you talk about TV and what your favorite shows are, it used to. All the TV, the best TV shows are the ones that you'd wanna watch were on network.

So I love things like, you know, the the Disney plus shows, yep. You know, Hawkeys, and, and, you know, And those type of things, but I also, you know, and then all for the Amazon stuff, like the boys and all those things. So there's a lot of stuff that's on that side. On the, I think the only shows that I've watched that are on the on the sort of the traditional networks, like Global and, and CTV and that sort of thing. I think I watched Ghost, which was actually a really good show on Global and I and I've also watched Abbot Elementary, but again, a lot of the stuff I did a lot of catch up stuff on those ones were done, were done on streaming services.

So. I you know, maybe jumping ahead in, in terms of some of the things we're gonna talk about, but it's, it's really interesting that the conventional networks really have, are gonna start, have to start leaning on what's, you know, the streaming services just to keep their audiences because they're gonna start losing them to other streaming platforms and non-ad supported platforms.

[00:03:09] Dave Forde: So moving forward now, again, we've just seen the traditional upfront. So the traditional broadcasters, are there any shows that you're looking forward to?

You've named two that you, you watched from last season, but moving forward, are there any new shows that you can't wait

I think bell had the most, new programming. So I, the only one, but I think I I'm a bit of a throwback. So I think the, the night court one looks kind of interesting only because I like John Larroquette and I used to love the old show. So that's a bit of a nostalgic kick, so I'll probably give that one a chance.

But other than that, I'm telling you most of the, a lot of the, a lot of the shows that I'm gonna be probably watching are still gonna be streaming shows.

[00:03:53] Richard Ivey: It's all about data.. That's that's the biggest trend.

I think the broadcasters have finally woken up and started to try to catch up to what's been happening, in, in the digital, in the digital. Channels, whether it's, you know, the Googles and Amazons and those type of, of the world where they were really lean, they've been leading into to data for years.

And, you know, when they had conversations with clients, they could really talk to clients about their con about their, their audiences. Like, you know, Amazon could tell you more about your, about a client, an advertiser, more about their audience than the a than the advertiser means because they have all of this, this data first party data that they ha they're able to harvest and use from, you know, people.

It's like, we, you know we know that X number of people watched it, but it didn't give us, give an advertiser or a client, a brand, any information on who those people were, what they were actually doing when they were watching, how did they actually. With the brand after the fact, those type of things. So I think the biggest change this year, and I think is that those, the broadcasters are starting to finally catch up and start saying, Hey, we need to be able to deliver on what audiences and what data can can do for for advertisers through our platforms.

Right. So that's where you've kind of now you've seen, yeah, all of broadcasters talked about the conventional stuff and what they were gonna be putting on their commercial on their linear services. But every one of them pivoted very quickly in the In their conversations to what are we doing in streaming and what are we doing with audiences and how are we targeting audiences and how are we reporting on audiences and those types of things, which, which is a huge change.

[00:06:12] Dave Forde: So again, when it comes to advertising, there are so many ways in which a brand can advertise. You've got radio, you've got TV, you've got streaming apps, search streaming services. You've got social networks. Are you, are you noticing that there's that, that clients' budgets are changing in this next year?

And if so, where? If so, where are they focused on more versus what

I'll put it this way. They used to be first on last. Right. It was like, you put your, you put TV, you used to put TV, radio print. All those things would just would [00:07:00] be on the plan. First digital was kind of like your secondary now that's completely flipped. The other way. Digital is first and it's and if a client only had $1 to spend, they're gonna spend it on a digital platform. Social probably has, has completely taken. Overtaken most of the most of the, the conversation when it comes to, where do we want, where a lot of clients wanna put their first dollar, it's like, it's digital and social. Absolutely. You can't get you, you know, you can't, you can't ignore those, those things.

Right. So that's a big, that's a big change over the last few years. We don't see, you know, it's, it, isn't just a, you know, it isn't just a tradit. Platforms that that clients wanna be a part of, they really need to be a part of the digital platforms and that's, and that's flipped pretty, pretty drastically, I think, in the last year.

Now it's like they understand that they need to kind of give up a little bit of their brand in terms of letting other people talk about their brands and experience the brand and, and, and represent the brand. That's not, so that's not, you know, directly driven by. You know, the their, the creative agency in their own message.

It's more like we're gonna give some license to people to talk about the brand, the way they experience a brand. And that's been a really big, a big change when, you know, for a lot of clients to be able to, you know, let, go of, let go of some of the that, that control and let influencers kind of tell them, tell people how they experience using a client's brand.

And that's. It's very different.

[00:08:42] Richard Ivey: We actually have been preparing for this for a long, long time. You know, we've been talking to our clients about it for, I would say probably three or four years ever since a ever since, safari.

And we have, and we are able to use a lot of that data, merge it with, with traditional data, whether a traditional and other digital platforms to to create. Profiles that are gonna, and that are gonna be able to withstand the loss of, of cookie tracking of, and that's gonna be a big deal.

So we are able to start to look at audiences and be able to target audiences that are, that don't rely on cookies. And that's a huge deal for our clients because we know that once the cookie is gone, it resets the, it kind of resets the landscape and we had to be prepared for that. So we are doing a lot of on our side to make sure that our clients are all prepared for that, for that eventuality.

[00:10:03] Richard Ivey: I think everybody realizes that digital buying, through digital channels has been like a huge shift in consumer behavior over the last couple of years. I think, if you'd have asked anybody in 2019, how long it would've taken for us to reach the level of digital, shopping and consumer shopping that we are right now in 2022, we've probably said it was, it wasn't two years away. It was probably more like five or 10 years away.

In some cases, I think the pandemic accelerated it, you know, by multiplier, by, you know, multiple you know, exponentially, I think where we, so that we ended up You know, accelerating how people interacted with brands online and how people shopped online. I mean, there were, you know, I think things like grocery shopping and those companies that do boxed box dinners and stuff like that, that have exploded because people had to stay in and they, and they started trying out things.

I think, and so that's, that's been a, that's been a definite different difference maker. I think it also accelerated all of the stuff you're talking about in terms of streaming and that sort of thing. All the platforms. That's accelerated. So how people shifted away from linear TV to more ondemand or VOD or streaming or all those things?

I think that's been another huge shift. I think that the pandemic has accelerated over the as well. In terms of some of the traditional media out of home and that sort of thing. We saw a lot of people move away from out of home during the pandemic made, which obviously made sense, but they're kind of coming back.

It's kind of coming back, I think out of home managed to bounce back quicker, I think, than I would've expected because as soon as people hit the streets started going outside again, we started to see advertisers want to get back in front of them and, and, and really do some things that are, that maybe take their message away from just screen.

[00:12:03] Dave Forde: The nuclear family, I feel that is a term that we would always use, but now it's a thing of the past.

So looking at it today, who controls the household budget and how do brand reach that person?

You know, the, it was kind of like people saying, you know, you know, the, the, the normal, right. Everyone wants to say, this is the normal it's, you know, and, and of course you saw that in advertising. It was like, you know, mom, dad, you know, usually white couple of kids, a dog or whatever. And that was, and that was considered usually white.

I think what we're finding now is that you can actually see that families aren't the same. Everybody like very families are different people are different. And people need to be spoken to in different ways. You can't talk to everybody with one voice and expect that and expect that people are gonna accept, accept a message, right?

Like it doesn't work anymore. Especially when people know you can, they can be spoken to in different ways. It was one thing when we had one, you know, three networks and, and no, and no other way to get messages out, but we people know they can be that, that you can talk directly to them now. And if you.

It's you're will it's because you're willfully not doing it. You don't want to have that conversation with people in their, in, in their own space. And I think that's a, that that's, I think what's, what's changed a lot in, in terms of, you know, how you address people now how you address you know, individuals and, and thinking about diversity and thinking about inclusion.

I don't think you're gonna, you're gonna have a, you know, very relevant conversations with most of the people that you're talking. That you wanna reach.

[00:14:35] Richard Ivey: Yeah, I guess you have you, you gotta start thinking be you gotta start going deeper. I think you gotta start thinking about audiences and how you can, how you can segment those audiences, how you can start to deal to dig into, you know who uses your brand and who do you want to use your brand and those type of things and the best.

And then make sure you're tracking your you're keeping, you're keeping your own customers. Audience is, you know, keeping that own customer data close, right? Like understanding what, who are your shoppers, who are your consumers, and then figuring out how to make those, how to, how to connect it, to connect it to.

So having a, having a good partner who understands how to take both parts, like, you know, the first party data from your from their own stack and then, and merge that with second party data from other various sources, and then link that up to the vendors, the publishers having a really good partner at middle in or even if you're doing it on your own or as a client is gonna be super important.

And that's why we try to position ourselves as that trusted middle person, trusted middle group, who can help, who can help our clients, merge that information with, you know, with, with the media channels that are out there and their first party data. So that's, that's a, I think that's gonna be huge going forward for most clients.

Understanding their own data. So a lot of clients are now, you know, bringing on data scientists in house, you know that's, that's probably gonna be important. You know, cause it's, you know, a lot of the people who are, who have a co have the data they're marketers, but they're not under, they don't necessarily understand the science of audiences and how to how to pull information apart.

You need somebody like that who can actually do that. You know, again, we offer those things at Medi cause we know it's important, but also we, you know, we, we, we've been working with clients who are, who are trying to build some of those things in house as well. But it's super important.

[00:17:01] Richard Ivey: I think an iconic brand would be from my perspective would be one that stands to test of time. Like they, they have a very, they have a vision. They have a platform that is know That has lasted and that stays relevant.

You know, they may change the taglines or the words or even some of the things they do in terms of media, but they stand for, how they put their message into market stays is consistent and I think that's the mark of something that can be iconic.

You know, there are brands out there that change, you know, that seems like every few years, everything sort of changes up and they're a different brand. And because you know something about working one day to the next, but there are brands who really stand to test time because they understand who they are.

They understand what these, what their audiences need from them. And they consistently fulfill. So yeah I think that's consistency and consistency and, and remaining relevant to your, to your consumers is probably the thing that I would say makes you, makes you iconic. Okay.

So you've been to a number of up upfronts over the years. What do you see as [00:18:00] the future of upfront need whole upfront new front model? Will it be changing? Will it be evolving? What's your thoughts there?

It's a huge undertaking to do them live. And I kind of wonder if they will ever gonna come back to the extent that it used to, . But again I think there's some value in doing them in-person doing some of those things. But again, I can't really speak to what the broadcasters or those of those folks, you know, need to do in terms of whether it makes sense for them to continue and do it live.

It's certainly, you can certainly get the message across in a virtual setting. You can also talk to more people, but you know, I, I think there's, I think that's gonna be something that they'll have to decide as an industry, whether we need to do them live anymore. Less and less, I think it's, that's, that's gonna be an interesting thing to watch.

And I think that's, and, and I think they, they've kind of leaned into it and I they've become like the new, the new broadcasters, so to see in a way. But yeah, I think that's, I think that you're gonna, I think. Going forward, it's gonna be, it is gonna remain like there's gonna be the big players who probably still do the splashy ones.

And then there's gonna be the through mid tier other ones that do more virtual ones, where they can talk to more people and, and, and get the message a little bit broader where they're not just talking to, you know, the, the top clients and top agency folk who get invited to everything, you know, because they are, you've been in the industry for 30 years, but also people who are brand new to the industry who do a lot of the day to day work and are gonna be the ones who need to know, what's what, how to buy their product and how to, how to interact with their, their reps and how to use the use their platforms properly. So I think there's, uh, I think.

[00:20:05] Dave Forde: So I think there's gonna be a, I think there's gonna remain a mix. Okay. Well there you have a boys and girls, the one and only Richard Ivy. He shared his thoughts. He shared his vision. You know what as usual it was some good stuff.

Richard, appreciate your time today. Uh, I hope,

So thanks a lot, David. Really appreciate you having me on.

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