Insight
1. The target audience—TV buyers, planners, and decision-makers—is concentrated on the East Coast.

2. This traditional audience still consumes written industry news and attends flagship events.

3. Upfronts wrap and media buyers begin making key budget decisions by June.

4. We need an event that is influential, but not oversaturated, to make a presence at.

5. Guerrilla tactics could hack attention—and the budget.

Strategy
With DISH Connected officially launched, the goal was to turn industry buzz into buyer belief before the second-half media budgets were finalized.

Rather than compete for attention during the cluttered Upfronts, we held the announcement until late May, giving DISH Media a clear runway to own the conversation. Awareness surged through organic pickup across key industry publications.

But coverage alone wasn’t enough—we needed presence.

We identified Advertising Week New York as the strategic launchpad: large enough to reach key decision-makers, yet focused enough to allow for disruption. Its timing aligned perfectly with the media planning window, and its proximity to DISH Media HQ allowed for hands-on execution and greater budget control.

With limited resources for traditional sponsorships, we went scrappy by design. Through sharp, on-the-ground activations and disruptive messaging, we positioned DISH Media as the bold signal in a sea of sameness.