Male Millennial, Gen-X Opps: The CW Network appoints media AOR as it shifts towards sports (Score 80)

Sales lead: Reach out if you can help this network promote its new sports programming. 

• The CW Network selected Known as its media AOR in September 2023.
• The agency will handle media strategy, planning, buying, and optimization. 
• Known had been working with CW on a project basis. 
• This move comes as CW expands into live sports with the recent addition of LIV Golf and ACC football and basketball. 
• We predicted roster shifts when we told you about CW naming Chris Spadaccini as CMO in February. 

In other news:

• Paul Catalano joined as sports marketing VP in August 2023.
• Catalano most recently served as affiliate marketing manager of CBS. 

Target demographic: Male millennial & Gen-X sports fans

The network will likely:

• Continue ramping up ad spend
• Try new ad channels to attract new viewers
• Seek additional agency assistance 

Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: CW spent nearly $12.7m on national TV ads YTD, an 81% increase from $7m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend increased by 41% from $7.6m in 2021 to $10.7m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as Young Sheldon, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Walker, NFL Football, and Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: CW spent about $4.2m on digital display ads YTD, more than double the $1.9m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 570.4m impressions via Facebook (40%), Instagram (22%), YouTube (20%), Twitter (7%), desktop display (5%), desktop video (4%), and mobile display (1%). 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell by 64% from $6.9m in 2021 to $2.5m in 2022. 
• Ad location: It placed 100% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, youtube.com, twitter.com, and imdb.com. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Agency reviews commonly follow one another, so reach out to the new CMO now to be top-of-mind. 
• Current roster:
  • Direct Agents: digital AOR
  • Known: media AOR