While other programmers pitch scale and content that appeals to viewers of all shapes and sizes, AMC Networks says it is focusing on fans and is offering advertisers a new platform for targeting its audiences and doubling up on branded content series build around its show and their stars
Instead of being something to everyone, “we are everything to someone,” AMC Networks chief commercial officer Kim Kelleher told Broadcasting+Cable. “That’s a different approach. It’s the right one for us.
At its upfront event this week, AMC will highlight some of its upcoming shows, as well as its digital capabilities.
“Our slate has never been better," Kelleher said. “We’re taking some big swings in genres we haven’t done a lot in. But also there are a lot that our fans have been craving.”
Key shows including the latest from The Walking Dead and Anne Rice universes of zombies, vampires and witches will be on display along with Lucky Hank, starring Bob Odenkirk. Giancarlo Esposito, another familiar face from ABC’s Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, stars in Parish and Clive Owen stars in Monsieur Spade.
AMC has been pushing its content out beyond its cable channels, which have been challenged like the rest of the industry by cord cutting. AMC viewers can watch content in a number of ways, at all times, on demand or on 15 free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels across seven platforms..
AMC will also be creating an ad-supported tier to AMC Plus, giving marketers another way to reach AMC’s most engaged fans.
Kelleher said AMC’s audience-first strategy has created more viewing than ever. She said AMC has been working with measurement and analytics company 605 to build a platform that will help advertisers target those viewers,no matter how they’re watching. 605 was founded by Kristin Dolan, whose family controls AMC and was named CEO in February.
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AMC says Audience Plus lets advertisers map specific target audiences regardless of how they are consuming content and enhanced addressable advertising capabilities.
“We’re now able to show a marketer that not only are you buying an audience within a Lucky Hank episode on linear, but the profile of those audiences can be found across our FAST channels, and those audiences have proven to be incremental,” said Evan Adlman, executive VP of commercial sales and revenue operations at AMC
“We now have the ability to do true cross-platform addressable campaigns, and that is within our live linear programming on all of our neworks, within all of our programming, in addition to our VOD inventory and all of our CTV streaming inventory. We don’t hold anything back."
Audience Plus gives advertisers a single dashboard to look at and see what they bought and how it landed across the entire AMC ecosystem, Adlman said.
AMC’s branded content unit, the Content Room will be working overtime.
One of Content Room’s most successful projects has been Bottomless Brunch, staring Colman Domingo of the Walking Dead, sponsored by Diageo. Domingo and Diageo are moving on to You Are Here, a travel/memoir show that takes Domingo to places that have been meaningful in his live. Diageo’s Johnnie Walker brand is integrated into the series, which launches on June 19 (Juneteenth) on AMC, Sundance TV, IFC and WE tv.
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Upcoming series including Jim Chee: Private Eye, a six-part spinoff from Dark Winds; Daryl Dixon: Paris Underground from the Walking Dead universe; In The Kitchen with Harry Hamlin, a star of Mayfair Witches and NIght Island; a six-part series based on Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and The Queen of the Damned. The series follows art thieves looking to steal a painting on the island, a plush vacation spot for the undead and other mystical beings. It is possible that this will be the first series where Rice’s vampires and witches meet up.
Content Room will also ramp up Show Me More, a show that recaps series and gives backstage access to AMC shows, featuring their cast and showrunners. Some episodes are being made for AMC Plus subscribers only. Sponsors have included AT&T, Mercedes and Nationwide.
AMC CMO Kim Granito said The Content Room works closely with the producers of AMC’s shows. The branded content shows are being made longer, from seven minutes to a full 30, but they’re elastic and can be cut down to any length and how on any platform.
Also in the works is a Night Market pop-up store based on the Anne Rice universe.
Since last year, the ad market has been weak, a problem going into the upfront season. Media companies from AMC to Disney have gone through layoffs and belt tightening as they chase profits amid the high cost of programming streaming services. (Clients aren’t concerned about the cutbacks, they’re doing it at their own companies, Kelleher notes.)
But Kelleher says she’s seeing signs of the second half rebound other media companies have said could be on the horizon.
“That’s not just hopes and dreams. I actually think we’re seeing early indicators and a strengthening of categories that have been soft over the last few years,” she said. “We’re seeing the scatter market get a little bit busier. We’re seeing pricing –specifically direct response in the direct-to-consumer space – strengthening. These are all leading signs that show the confidence is coming back on the marketing side.”
Adlman added that AMC is ready to give advertisers what they want. “In this market, we’re optimistic for us. We’re hearing from clients and some of the agencies specific demands, such as flexibility and transparency, which means, they want to know when I buy something, where is it being delivered and how do I know it’s being delivered there?”
Adlman said that as ad clients resume their spending, they want to be assured that their ad dollars will be spent effectively.
“They really want to know about the capabilities for targeting and providing business outcomes because they are very focused on ROI,” he said. “We feel that between Audience Plus and our digital strategy, we fit well with where clients are in early conversations.”
Holding an upfront in April, before the May rush, “forces us to be ready and allows for us to engage with our advertiser and holding company partners as soon as they’re ready,” Kelleher said. “We’ve seen more of an always-on level of conversation. We’re going to be a bit outside of the fray and do our own thing.”
