Leave it to dry-as-ever straight man Kenny Mayne to offer up some real talk among the back-slapping and glitzy gabbing at ESPN’s 2015 upfront presentation in New York City.

“Good morning current and potential sales clients,” Mayne said, addressing the industry crowd at the Minskoff Theater. “Once again I feel like ESPN is sort of objectifying me to win you over, because in the past I’ve owned you biotches.”

Aside from a few precious moments of the Mayne man pulling back the curtain, the upfront preceded with typical glamor and spectacle, including a performance of the national anthem by Jordin Sparks and appearances by Dwyane Wade, Darrelle Revis and the cast of ABC’s Good Morning America.

The event wasn’t without some actual newsmaking too. Scott Van Pelt will become the network’s solo anchor for a new midnight edition of SportsCenter, offering up commentary and guests in a late-night format that will blend in elements of his SVP & Russillo radio show. The show is scheduled to begin late this summer.

The network also unveiled plans for SportsCenter AM, a fast-paced morning edition of the flagship show that will air from 7-9 a.m. and work closely with GMA. The partnership means more ABC analysts could appear on SportsCenter AM to talk about big news stories as well as appearances from ABC meteorologists discussing how weather could affect a big sporting event.

Further merging popular ABC and ESPN properties, morning radio show Mike & Mike will move to New York City the day after the Super Bowl next year and inhabit a studio right above GMA. The move will allow ESPN and ABC ad sales groups to sell joint deals for both the female-skewing GMA and the male-dominant Mike & Mike.

Video presentations from Allstate, Dr. Pepper and Fidelity all outlined ESPN’s huge reach for advertisers and touted tentpole events like the college football playoffs and ESPN’s huge stable of live sporting events.

Dr. Pepper Executive VP of Marketing Jim Trebilcock discussed the company’s relationship with the college football playoff, noting that Dr. Pepper took the new playoff trophy to retail spots around the country and had fans lined up to take photos with it.

“The playoff system has allowed us to partner with ESPN and sell one hell of a lot of Dr. Pepper,” Trebilcock said in a video specially create for the upfront.

ESPN made public its plans to give advertisers enhanced information about viewer habits through a new agreement with Cablevision. The deal matches ESPN impressions with sales data to figure out value and demonstrate ROI to ad buyers.

The network also feted its reach in minority markets, noting that ESPN reaches 20 million Hispanics a week and that 16 million African Americans spend nearly 10 hours a week on the network across multiple platforms.

The presentation ended with fans clad in sports jerseys banging away on drums while sports highlights rolled on the projector and DJ Kalkutta spun beats. It had all the trappings of a big-time network upfront with perhaps one noticeable absence.

“We’re trying to make $15 billion this year,” Kenny Mayne said. “So no gift bags.”

Tags:


  Save as PDF