Navigating today's multiplatform content landscape is making the job more complex, but connecting brands and talent to appropriate audiences remains critical to the success of United Talent Agency LLC and ViacomCBS Inc.
Being an agent has changed significantly in the past two decades, UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer said at an Oct. 21 panel at Advertising Week in New York. Fifteen or 20 years ago, there were basically buyers, networks and studios on one side and talent on the other.
"We sat in the middle, helped people talk, negotiate a deal," said Zimmer. "Then, we all went home and had a nice dinner."
Today, brands, private equity firms, technology companies, studios, networks, streaming companies and international players are all part of the process.
ViacomCBS President and CEO Bob Bakish said the "modernization of relationships" is also manifesting in the pursuit of talent amid evolving distribution models.
Bakish said the recent establishment of the company's BET Studios was formed in a hybrid fashion. In addition to offering up-front payments or royalties to talent, Bakish said new deals can offer equity arrangements to secure exclusive contracts. He called the latter a "terminal value business," not just offering talent one-time payments, but multiple financial participation opportunities.
Diversification opportunities
Zimmer noted that as the content landscape continues to broaden and fragment, there are more opportunities and potential pitfalls. Yet, the mission remains the same: to create opportunities for talent around things they are passionate about and connect them to audiences.
UTA has diversified its portfolio to include brand building, podcasts, endorsements and esports. Zimmer said there is so much connectivity across these vehicles because athletes want to participate in music, esports, technology and fashion, while esport athletes look to build brands and be involved in TV.
Talent desires and ambitions are broad, Zimmer said, "So we have to serve them across all these frontiers."
Brand integrations
Bakish said part of the media company's charge is to provide brands, which help fund the creative ecosystem, with access to the audiences they want to reach through premium content connections.
UTA, according to Zimmer, helped team actor Will Ferrell with a General Motors commercial about electric car production for Super Bowl LV and aligned a different marketer with Netflix Inc. series "Stranger Things," through an event.
With much of the most-talked-about content coming from ad-free streaming services, that represents both opportunities and challenges for UTA, said Zimmer, as the agency must "find pathways" to such fare as "Squid Games."
Selling, not buying
Asked about potential M&A amid the evolving streaming ecosystem, Bakish downplayed the notion for ViacomCBS.
"Journalists and bankers love to talk about deals. For us, we look at it and say: Well, what does it take to be successful as a 21st century media and entertainment company?" he said.
ViacomCBS plans to continue operating a differentiated streaming approach featuring Pluto TV, the free ad-supported platform whose ad sales jumped from $70 million when it was purchased in 2019 to over $1 billion this year; premium product Showtime OTT; and broad-scale offering Paramount+, combining news, sports and entertainment.
Rather than making a deal, Bakish said ViacomCBS is taking funds from divestitures and plowing them into streaming because "we have something that is working."
