Fox is bigger and better than Facebook, Google, says new ad chief
The new ad revenue president for Fox Networks, Joe Marchese, is bringing with him the advertising expertise that he honed at his digital ad firm True[X] and emphasised the appeal of television to advertisers compared with Facebook and Google. In a presentation he said Fox primetime “delivers 700 Facebooks”, with 76% of Fox’s content viewed on television. He added that Fox delivers 768 million impressions on a Sunday, versus Facebook’s 150,000. Marchese plans to offer single-sponsored commercials for on-demand video shows in an attempt to make advertising less intrusive. 

Just days after being named ad revenue president for Fox Networks Group, Joe Marchese got down to business, telling advertisers, “The sub-prime advertising market is dragging us all down.”

Marchese, who came to Fox after selling his digital ad firm, True[X], is a dyed-in-the-wool digital aficionado who is helping Fox reconfigure its ad pitch to Madison Avenue.

Much of Marchese’s pitch is that Fox is bigger and better than Facebook and Google, which together with Twitter and Snapchat are aiming to grab TV money.

In two hours Fox dwarfs both tech rivals — with 31 percent of stories viewed on digital and on-demand environments, Marchese said, adding that 76 percent of Fox content is viewed on a big TV screen in the living room.

“Fox prime time delivers 700 Facebooks,” he noted. “Here we have the highest-quality environments and we have it at broadcast scale and with the tools of digital to capitalize on it,” he said from the stage at the Beacon Theater during Fox’s upfront.

The Fox presentation, which was heavy on its fall sports coverage, featured newly signed Alex Rodriguez. (His girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, appeared at NBC’s upfront.)

Marchese noted that like his counterpart at NBCUniversal, the network will be relying less on Nielsen data to make guarantees to advertisers — looking beyond age and gender to target ads.

Marchese broke news, telling advertisers that the company will not sell regular commercials in video-on-demand shows. Instead, those will have a single sponsor — part of Marchese’s goal of making advertising less intrusive.

In a graphic on stage, he rammed home the digital point, saying Fox delivers 768 million impressions on a Sunday, versus Facebook’s 150,000.