Want Results to Jump? Leap Media’s Trademarked Long-Form Syndication Gains Altitude
Chris PIzzurro (Image courtesey of Leap Media)
At a time when the advertising business is getting more automated, Chris Pizzurro’s Leap Media Group is offering marketers a more personal and curated approach to getting people to buy things.
Leap Media brings TV advertisers a syndicated package that includes relevant premium content from top producers, targeted linear and digital distribution and aggregated campaign reporting, while its nimble structure allows for value pricing.
The result is Leap Media develops creative ways to put its clients’ brands inside of good TV shows it owns rights to and buys air time to place these shows where the right people are going to see them, says Pizzurro.
“That’s our special sauce,” says Pizzurro, explaining his custom ad-supported syndication approach. “The value proposition is for those who don’t have $10 million to be in the Olympics, we can provide a more efficient CPM and throw in content integrations.”
In April, Leap Media’s unique approach earned it a trademark from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its Long Form Brand Engagement ® TV shows.
In the travel category, Leap Media works with Expedia’s Media Group Studios, which creates videos promoting attractive vacation destinations like Panama.
To take advantage of Leap Media’s distribution and promotional capabilities, Expedia used those videos to produce a long-form TV show.
Expedia promotes Panama
The program appeared on networks including AMC, WeTV, Reelz and on the Vizio platform, and yielded more than 3 million unique impressions in a single weekend.
“Weekend mornings are primetime for our leisure category. We reached consumers when they were in leanback mode and receptive to travel storytelling,” said Angelique Miller, head of the Expedia Group Media Studio. “This was a great way to leverage our investment and bring our Panama Tourism partner unique reach in a very efficient manner.”
Other brands that have utilized Leap Media syndication include Bosley, Gorjana and Nuts.com through Leap’s partnership with Marketing Architects.
Catherine Walstad, chief media officer at Marketing Architects, says her clients are looking for advertising that produces business outcomes. Leap Media’s syndicated programming is a good fit and generates results.
“We love finding unique ways to place advertising and he’s just a great person to work with,” Walstad said. “Chris is a test-and-learn type of guy and so are we.”
These days, Leap Media offers media buyers inventory via both old fashioned direct sales and programmatic technology for those who do want to automate transactions.
Leap Media Group was launched in 2009 by Pizzurro, who had been ad sales exec at Turner Broadcasting for 13 years. At Turner, Pizzurro built up the company’s digital and video-on-demand businesses, creating an internal digital ad network that generated new revenue and turned underperforming websites profitable.
When Pizzurro, with partner Stuart Lipson, started Leap Media, they worked with agencies on strategies for using digital media such as addressable advertising, video on demand, mobile video, broadband video and social media.
Leap consulted for Canoe Ventures, the ad-tech company owned by cable giants Comcast, Cox and Charter, on building its set-top VOD and addressable advertising capabilities. Eventually Canoe brought Pizzurro in-house, where he served as senior VP, global sales and marketing, growing its VOD ad business to over 100 brands advertising on 20 networks.
Pizzurro also developed an ad marketplace for Canoe. “I have agency and brand relationships, so I could sell the set-top box inventory that linear networks weren’t able to sell on their own,” he said.
When Canoe was being folded into Comcast’s FreeWheel, Pizzurro left Canoe and brought that ad marketplace asset to Leap Media. While selling VOD ads was generating revenue, he decided that to create more value for clients, he needed to get into the programming business.
Leveraging the Expedia relationship, Pizzurro started looking for other travel shows that had already been produced that he could syndicate. He was introduced to Peter Greenberg, the CBS travel editor, whose show The Travel Detective originally appeared on non-commercial PBS. They met at a travel convention and Greenberg quickly agreed to give Leap Media ad-supported syndication rights to the program.
Samantha Brown, who also hosts travel shows, heard what Greenberg was doing with Pizzurro and soon Leap was syndicating her series, Places to Love, as well.
“I've been doing it for a while now and I literally have producers calling me every week,” Pizzurro said.
Leap Media has also turned videos created for YouTube and other online platforms into programming for TV. One example of that is chef, YouTube star and cookbook author Gemma Stafford’s Bigger Bolder Baking franchise.
Bigger, Bolder, Baking with Gemma Stafford
Leap Media, along with Taste Buds Entertainment, co-produced a half hour special, Gemma’s Summer Desserts, to get more people to sign up for Bigger Bolder Baking emails. The show appeared on weekday mornings on TV networks and shopping channels. The TV exposure boosted signups by as much as 1,500% compared to promotion on social media alone.
“We’ve released six shows with Leap Media, proving that creator-led content belongs on TV,” said Kevin Kurtz, CEO of Taste Buds Entertainment and the Bold Baking Network. “With Gemma Stafford and years of audience insights behind us, we’re building a smarter kind of food media—and Leap Media is powering that momentum, helping us bring authentic, creator-driven shows to bigger audiences on TV."
At this point, Leap Media has a portfolio of about 30 shows. Genres include travel, food, finance, lifestyle, business and sports.
“We’re not out shooting million-dollar pilots. We’re taking good quality shows and bringing them to new audiences, ad-supported audiences,” Pizzurro said.
The number of networks Leap Media works with has also exploded, going from one when the company was starting out to more than 30 now.
Leap Media is now able to integrate advertisers into shows in creative and flexible ways. “You’re not limited to 30 second or 60 second spots,” Pizzurro said. “You can sponsor the whole show if you want.”
In Q2 2025, Leap Media has bought time on networks to program blocks of shows that appear mainly on weekends. On Friday mornings, Leap Media shows air on Sinclair’s Charge digital broadcast network and the Reelz cable network. On Saturdays, Leap has hour-long blocks on Cox’s YurView, AXS TV, RVTV and the YTA network. On Sunday mornings, two hours of shows appear on AXS TV, followed by a one-hour block on YurView. On Monday’s an hour-long block appears on ROI, the streaming personal finance channel.
For Leap Media, the syndication business model is pretty simple. Brands pay to run ads. Leap Media buys time to air its shows with the brand’s commercials inserted, and the balance is split between Leap and the program creator. “Everyone benefits,” says Pizzurro, whose operation has grown to 12 people.
Beyond its own programming, Leap Media continues to operate its ad marketplace, selling ads directly and via programmatic platforms. “We work with a variety of demand-side platforms, helping them find supply,” he said.
Marketing Architects started working the Pizzurro when he was at Canoe selling VOD inventory. “Then he spun off into Leap media and, of course, we were not going to stop working together,” Walstad said.
Walstad added that Leap Media worked as a consultant when Marketing Architects was building its Annika DSP. “We were trying to build out our publisher network and they were really instrumental and helpful in navigating those conversations and getting us connected to the right people.”
With the economy filled with uncertainty and marketers trimming their second-quarter budgets, Pizzurro thinks he’s got the solution for brands looking for a tailored approach that creates efficiency and effectiveness.
“Because we have perfected the direct-from-producer gameplan, you get more bang for the buck, which marketers need now more than ever,” he says.