Readying the 'Today' brand for tomorrow

Libby Leist has her hands full steering the long-running morning show Today. Luckily, she’s got a leg up: She’s part of the brand’s key demographic.

“I’m a 43-year-old woman,” Leist told Marketing Brew. “I’m sort of that Today audience.”

That perspective has helped guide Leist, a long-time news producer, as she shepherds one of NBCUniversal’s largest and most enduring brands forward in an era where audiences increasingly favor digital and on-demand viewing. As SVP, a role Leist assumed in January 2021, she is tasked with balancing the desires of traditional audiences and reaching out to new ones, especially outside the usual morning time slot.

“It’s our job to just continue to push that message that we’re a leader in lifestyle,” Leist said. “I’m really proud of the fact that we already reach 70 million people [per month] as a whole in our audience, and we’re only going to push more to get that younger demographic to follow us.”

Today programming has stretched four hours since 2007 as it has looked to capture morning eyeballs with high-profile talent like Al Roker, Hoda Kotb, and Savannah Guthrie. Despite the fact that the show continues to outperform rivals like Good Morning America on ABC and CBS Mornings on CBS in the key 25–54 age demographic, linear viewership continues to decline. At the turn of the 21st century, the morning show was able to attract as many as 7.2 million viewers a day; as of last month, it averaged just over 3 million viewers.

“It’s no secret that linear TV ratings are suffering because of cord-cutting and the diversification of media,” Leist said. “But we really do have this loyal fan base at the Today show that we want to take care of, that we believe strongly has a huge passion for the brand.”

All-day viewers

The erosion of audiences on linear TV means Leist is keen to reach viewers who don’t necessarily tune in during the morning. One way to do that is to build Today’s presence on streaming. Today All Day is a streaming channel of 24/7 Today programming on NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock.

Today All Day debuted in July 2020, shortly after Peacock, and is regularly updated with new segments featuring Today talent, recipes, and behind-the-scenes content, along with a rerun of the Today morning broadcast. In all, the network produces 20 hours of additional original programming each week, with three hours of original content airing every day on Peacock. (NBCUniversal does not share viewership figures for either Today All Day or Peacock as a whole.

“We know that streaming is the choice of many younger people,” Leist said, and the original programming on Today All Day is crafted specifically to “appeal to somebody that wants to stream.”

That means there’s a lot of pressure to produce more content than ever before. Guthrie and Kotb star in the daily 30-minute show Today in 30, highlighting the day’s news and entertainment stories. Other series include cooking shows hosted by Today contributors Samah Dad and Anthony Contrin, a show hosted by Today co-host Al Roker, and a monthly shopping segment hosted by lifestyle contributor Jill Martin. Additional programming includes extended behind-the-scenes footage and longer cuts of interviews that originally aired on Today.

“In any given [commercial] break, Hoda and Jenna [Bush Hager] will be doing a TikTok for social media or recording some lines for Today All Day; we’re getting the most out of their time,” Leist said. “They definitely are feeling those demands, just because we have so many different content streams now.”

Being present on other digital platforms is also essential. Today.com reaches more than 50 million unique monthly visitors, according to data from Comscore, and the Today brand continues to rank among the top 10 lifestyle brands in Comscore with monthly unique visitors in 2021, NBCUniversal said. Meanwhile, Leist is also overseeing the continued expansion of Today’s social presence on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

To keep the expansion grounded, Leist says the linear Today show remains the north star for the brand’s content outposts. “Our digital site, our streaming channel, our social media channels, or podcasts, our Sirius XM show, our newsletters, our shopping—everything sort of comes from that hub of broadcast,” Leist explained.

Moneymaker

It also remains a cornerstone for NBCUinversal’s advertising sales. Last year, its four hours of weekday programming drove an estimated $395 million in ad revenue, according to data provided to Marketing Brew by the data-analytics firm Kantar. That, however, is also on the decline; in 2020, estimated ad revenue from Today exceeded $473 million, according to Kantar data.

Today is also forging ahead with its e-commerce ambitions, which delivers affiliate revenue when viewers buy products directly through Today. Earlier this year, the brand rolled out shoppable recipes, while Today All Day has hosted shopping specials designed to get people scanning QR codes and checking out on their mobile devices.

As Today grows its business, Leist is expanding her list of competitors. It’s not just Good Morning America or CBS Mornings—it’s also Condé Nast properties and People magazine, Leist said, depending on area of coverage. That means that the future of Today isn’t just about winning the morning—it’s about winning audiences all day, across platforms.

“Because of the fractured media environment, because people have so many choices—thousands of podcasts and thousands of websites, all the different ways people are able to consume news, lifestyle, entertainment—we just have to be really focused on what we want to do for people,” Leist said. “We always come back to a resource and a utility that we can help you navigate your day.”