How FreeWheel’s Allocation Module is Revolutionizing the Upfronts
The Upfronts are arguably one of the most important moments in TV advertising. With billions of dollars flowing through and a growing availability of streaming inventory, there is even more opportunity – and investment – for advertisers looking to tap into premium video to connect with their audiences.
And as programmatic activation on streaming continues to increase, it is helping to enable more automation and efficiency throughout the entire buying process. But, despite the rise of programmatic, managing Upfront ad spend commitments remains a surprisingly manual and fragmented process. Instead, advertisers and publishers are faced with challenges trying to manage buys that span across multiple transaction types without a holistic view, often resulting in under-delivery issues.
While programmatic can help address these challenges, the only real way to do this is through a technology rooted in ad decisioning.
Here is how the right technology can enable the first truly programmatic Upfront season, one which benefits both the buy and sell side.
Upfronts models have not evolved alongside programmatic technology
Programmatic Upfronts promise efficiency and scale, but the reality is that it’s far from seamless. The existing workflows are not only manual and time consuming but because they are disjointed, it results in duplicative work (i.e. entering deal information in multiple places). On top of that, the commitment’s delivery health can look different in the system to the buyer and seller. This disparate coordination across partners is complex and disconnected, and it typically means there’s risk of under-delivery.
The truth is that traditional tools were not built for the complexity of programmatic Upfronts. These systems were created to support straightforward, direct IO transactions. But today, the industry is transacting through a variety of deal formats like PG and PMP, across different quarters and platforms. This requires a level of automation and organization that the current platforms don’t have.
As a result, there are missed opportunities, a significant amount of time wasted, and strained relationships.
How technology helps solve for more scalable Upfronts management
To address these challenges, FreeWheel developed Allocation Module, a solution designed to centralize Upfront commitment tracking. This technology gives publishers the ability to monitor pacing and performance of pre-negotiated deals across geographies, buyers, and transaction types, laying the foundation for smarter, more scalable Upfront management.
The tool helps to automate deal sharing across platforms, reducing manual effort and providing unified visibility into commitment health. By streamlining reporting and fulfillment, it minimizes under-delivery risk and ensures commitments are met with less friction. Buyers and sellers can holistically manage and pace their ad spend budgets across direct, programmatic guaranteed, and biddable transactions, while maintaining dual-sided guarantees. This capability can also help accelerate the shift of premium streaming ad dollars from direct to biddable formats without sacrificing confidence or control.
For publishers, the Allocation Module delivers a comprehensive view of spending against Upfront commitments, while demand-side platforms gain real-time insights into bidding activity to meet client goals. Through a DSP-agnostic API, buyers can streamline reporting and fulfillment, ensuring their committed budgets are optimized across channels. Ultimately, marketers now have a scalable, technology-driven way to manage Upfront ad spend across diverse transaction types – unlocking efficiency, transparency, and growth in a programmatic-first future.
“The success of programmatic execution of the Upfronts depends on tightly connected infrastructure between demand and supply-side platforms,” said Chris Conetta, Director, Amazon DSP. “We’ve built Commitments Hub in Amazon DSP to centralize commitment tracking and help automate fulfillment for our buyers. Through our integration with FreeWheel, buyers can import commitment data and seller updates are automatically synced, eliminating the manual coordination that has historically slowed Upfront execution. This enables advertisers and publishers to focus on strategic initiatives rather than administrative overhead, creating the foundation for scaling programmatic Upfronts industry-wide.”
Powering the programmatic Upfronts
Delivering against commitments can be challenging. A cross-platform commitment system is needed to enhance operational efficiency and unlock more revenue – while ensuring delivery on agreed-upon commitments.
With smarter tools, publishers can confidently scale their programmatic Upfronts, advertisers and agencies can access their commitment details with ease and gain clearer insights into delivery, and DSPs can help troubleshoot faster.
The result is a more connected, transparent, and efficient advertising landscape that delivers on the promise of programmatic.
