At upfronts, NBCUniversal’s legacy is the message

At NBCUniversal, age isn’t just a number.

The media giant, which is celebrating 100 years this year, kicked off upfronts week at Radio City Music Hall Monday morning by emphasizing that getting older is its biggest strength in an ever-competitive television and streaming marketplace.

“Our legacy is our greatest competitive advantage,” Mark Marshall, NBCU’s chairman, global advertising and partnerships, NBCU, told attendees onstage at Radio City Music Hall, “because our legacy is built on evolution, innovation, and a relentless focus on consumer behavior.”

And a birthday at NBCU wouldn’t be a birthday if it didn’t also come with a business opportunity.

“This fall, NBC is doing something that no other network has ever done—a stunt not even a real housewife of Beverly Hills has had the audacity to attempt,” Tina Fey said onstage after a live orchestra played her on to the theme music from 30 Rock. “We are throwing ourselves a huge birthday party so we can sell ads during that birthday party.”

Throughout its two-hour presentation, the network tapped into its deep bench of talent from some of its most recognizable film and television programming across genres, including comedians Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Jane Krakowski; reality-show legend Andy Cohen; morning-show mainstays Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, and Joe Scarborough; NBC Sports’s Bob Costas and Mike Tirico; and actors Vin Diesel and Jamie Lee Curtis.

There were some new faces, too, like Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, whose Las Culturistas podcast recently spawned an irreverent star-studded and brand-integrated awards show on Bravo. “What you do must be top secret, because we have no idea what it is,” Rogers joked onstage with Yang. “Who are you guys? What’s LinkedIn like?”

And, as marketers increasingly look for ways to measure the outcomes of their ad spend, the network has some additional tools in the pipeline, including a full-scale rollout of its Performance Insights Hub measuring campaign delivery, audience insights, and in-flight performance; new updates to its retargeting tool Live Total Impact; and AI-powered live contextual ad options, all of which will be available in Q4.

A year for the ages: Other NBCU properties are celebrating milestone birthdays too. The Today show will celebrate its 75th anniversary this fall, and Bravo’s iconic Real Housewives franchise kicked off 20 years ago this year.

Bravo is also expanding its experiential push to bring its fans and “Bravolebrities” together in the same place. In addition to the brand-packed fan event BravoCon in 2027, the brand will host Bravo Fan Fest in Charleston, South Carolina, in October.

Celebrating milestones is an increasingly important part of the NBCU advertising playbook: for Saturday Night Live’s 50-year celebration last February, the network hosted a special with brands including Allstate, Maybelline, Volkswagen, and T-Mobile onboard.

Skin-deep: It wouldn’t be an upfront presentation without an ad sales chief poking fun at himself onstage, and Marshall didn’t disappoint. In a brief video ahead of his onstage remarks, Marshall appeared in a tattoo parlor, where he revealed brand logos tattooed all over his body, before revealing that he planned to get an NBC100 tattoo right next to his heart.

“I want to be very clear; that was a body double with the stomach,” Marshall said after the video concluded. “The crew did not think that these abs were brand-safe.