Title:GEMA NY Alumni Panel: How Advertising is Evolving in a Cluttered Media World

On April 11, 2024, the Georgetown Entertainment & Media Alliance New York held a panel event entitled “How Advertising is Evolving in a Cluttered Media World” with the following distinguished alumni panelists: Katherine Cartwright (C’05), Co-Founder and Principal, Criterion Global; Marc Gilbar (C’02), President, Branded Entertainment, Imagine Entertainment; Eddie Hill (B’92), Director of YouTube Sales, Google; Lizzy Roberti (C’05), Vice President, Sales, Barstool Sports; Sherry Weiss (F’00, MBA’07), Chief Marketing Officer, Dow Jones & The Wall Street Journal; and Moderator Krishan Bhatia (F’95), Managing Partner, State Street Media Advisors.

The discussion was wide-ranging with several key themes apparent in the conversation:

Marketers require measurement more than ever of their marketing campaigns to best understand the return on their spend; the creation of branded entertainment content (short and long form) has emerged as an alternative for marketers vs. deploying 30 and 60 second commercials; not only is reach and scale important to marketers in placing media, but the environment the advertising is presented in has become just as important to insure high engagement (e.g. running an ad on Meta vs. on Barstool Sports); there is a constant balance for media companies between offering advertising and subscription formats to its customers – this is something companies like The Wall Street Journal continually evaluate and also has become a prevalent issue for streamers now that they have introduced advertising tiers to their customers.

After the panel, the 75+ attendees enjoyed a reception and speaking directly with the panelists. GEMA would like to thank our partners at the Georgetown University Alumni Association for helping make the event possible and for their help in organizing and executing the event.

Check out all the photos from the event here.