NBCU Leans More Heavily on ‘SNL’ for Ad Dollars

NBCUniversal is, for a quick moment, taking Live, from New York to a lounge found in a beach-side resort in France.

Fresh episodes of Saturday Night Live have been in short supply in the U.S. due to the Hollywood writers strike, but NBCs late-night mainstay could generate some interest on Wednesday at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. In a showcase led by NBC News Willie Geist, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels will hold forth with cast members Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Mikey Day and Ego Nwodim as part of a broader bid by NBCUniversal to get Madison Avenue to align itself with the program at it nears its 50th season in the fall of 2024.

At Cannes, says Mark Marshall, NBCUs interim chairman of advertising and partnerships, advertisers have much more of an idea of what they are looking to do with their marketing, as opposed to earlier in the year. The meetings are more collaborative, more tactical.

NBCU will also use Cannes to tout the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, says Marshall, hoping that the idea of sponsoring the athletic extravaganza in the summer and the landmark SNL season in fall and in 2025 will spur some to buy broader packages tied to both shows.

The Comcast-backed media conglomerate is betting that big, live spectacles will give it an edge in its bid to win ad dollars. Back home, the TV industry is enmeshed in its annual upfront sales haggle, when U.S. media companies try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory ahead of their next cycle of programming. By trotting out two events that wont take place for more than a year, NBCU is trying to build long-term demand for two properties that are likely to woo bigger live crowds than many scripted comedies or dramas.

The networks need events like those to stand apart from rivals. In 2023, advertisers are holding tighter to their purse strings, and many executives believe ad spending in the current upfront is likely to decline. To keep a limited pool of ad dollars from going elsewhere, TV networks need to do more than just throw hours of drama and comedy at the public, because many viewers are likely to stream them at times of their own choosing. Big events like the Olympics and the SNL anniversary, however, will draw crowds in the moment they are shown, creating a communal media event that is increasingly rare.

Indeed, NBCU has already been at work on this project for months. In March, says Marshall, Michaels made a presentation in Studio 8H, SNLs longtime home at NBCs New York headquarters, to around 100 advertisers about what to expect as the anniversary draws near. NBC plans a series of retrospectives around SNL as well as at least one documentary about the program.

We are engaged with over 30 partners who have brought ideas to us, says the executive, noting that Michaels is likely to have input on whatever ideas win approval. I think we would be crazy not to take the advice of the man who created one of the most iconic shows in history.

NBCU has also been in discussions with potential Olympics sponosrs as well. The company has already indicaed it will give up chunks of NBCs daytime schedule to Olympics coverage and make every event (and replays) available via the Peacock streaming-video hub as they happen. WIth Paris resting six hours ahead of U.S. time, NBC is likely to offer live coverage in daytime hours, then run a curated primetime program that also features significant behind-the-scenes vignettes and reporting.

After grappling with Olympics broadcasts that took place during the coronavirus pandemic, says Marshall, the Paris telecasts are expected to have a stadium filled with fans and families, while some events will take place alongside iconic Parisian landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower.

NBCU is likely to tout the SNL season during its Olympics coverage, says Marshall, which will end just a few weeks before the anniversary season launches. The company hopes some advertisers will want to connect to both events.