For advertisers seeking to work with FOX networks during the 2018-2019 season, things are about to get a bit jazzy.
In what is being hailed as “a major initiative to transform the commercial experience on its networks,” Fox Networks Group (FNG) President of Advertising Revenue Joe Marchese unveiled what are being billed as “JAZ” pods.
They’re defined as two-ad (“Just A and Z”) pods, giving advertisers adjacency to FOX’s sports and entertainment programming, across all of its networks.
This includes specific shows, events, time-blocks and even select whole nights on the broadcast network, Marchese says.
Perhaps most noteworthy: this will be the only format of linear national advertising available for FX’s new series The Weekly, FX’s new narrative documentary series that will debut later this year.
Additionally, FOX will dedicate select Sunday nights to JAZ pod-only commercial breaks.
Sundays on FOX, featuring the animation block anchored by The Simpsons, draws the highest concentration of male millennials of any night on broadcast television, FOX claims. Thus, it says it “will serve as an important benchmark for the new ad format.”
Marchese said, “JAZ pods, which offer the highest-impact commercial format on television, deliver on two key objectives for advertisers: First, we are offering the most effective ad format in television by bringing brands closer to our content, with each commercial airing adjacent to our leading sports and entertainment programming. Second, by reducing commercial time, we are limiting the other ads with which brands must compete for viewers’ attention, recall and engagement. A lower frequency of ads with higher impact and memorability means that the brand wins and the viewer wins.”
The ad format will debut later this year across FOX’s portfolio of networks, including during live sports.
