Digital Content NewFronts 2018

In the weeks leading up to this year’s Digital Content NewFronts, we interviewed a number of industry leaders about what matters most: They cited quality storytelling, data and insights, authentic integration, accountability and brand safety. This video is a highlight compilation our several of our conversations. The first three are a related trio of concerns. Quality […]

YouTube certainly has reach, but its content doesn’t always lend itself to precise brand alignment. That’s where smaller digital players like Studio71 can differentiate themselves, according to MediaCom’s Renee Badigian. In this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts 2018, Badigian, who is Account Lead at the GroupM media agency, talks about why consumers […]

Sometimes with digital video, shorter is the best way to engage with viewers. With its just-completed Digital Content NewFronts 2018, the IAB “went back to its roots for a week” and had one of its best years yet, says Anna Bager, EVP, Industry Initiatives. “Great presentations, the right amount of great content, sales, customer engagement. […]

Female-focused Refinery29 sees its audience responsibility as “to service them, not to sell them” and it’s further expanding its video reach with a streaming service later this year. Called Channel29, the over-the-top offering will be available on smart televisions and on Refinery29’s digital channels to reach young and progressive women. “I truly believe the audience […]

Walt Disney Co. has a new suite of advanced advertising offerings called Luminate, which spans the entire portfolio of linear networks, digital experiences and social executions across ABC, ESPN, Freeform and the Disney Channels. Luminate will use ESPN’s LiveConnect as a launch pad of sorts for other live events across the Disney portfolio and better […]

Premium content, a multitude of new partnerships and how brands can create authentic resonance with consumers are the “common threads and themes” that Initiative’s Adam Gilbert takes away from the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. He also traces the arc of a digital content ecosystem that is in a sort of “retrograde” phase as live content […]

At a Digital Content NewFronts where there was a plethora of new content distribution partnerships, ESPN was the rare standout. “One of the big things that we did announce was the fact that we had a big announcement, that we have no new distribution deals,” says Travis Howe, SVP, Platform Ad Sales Strategy, Solutions & […]

If anyone doubts how Oath plans to differentiate itself with Verizon’s massive caches of insights from its broadband and wireless services and brick-and-mortar stores, Jeff Lucas makes it very clear. “What Oath offers more than anyone else is deep, deep data,” the Head of Oath’s Americas Sales says. “But also we are thinking about commerce” […]

Here’s a useful tip for anyone wanting to pitch something to Initiative’s Amber Kozo: Try humor. It certainly worked for Meredith Corporation at the recently completed Digital Content NewFronts 2018. Meredith used its NewFronts presentation to announce additions to its over-the-top PeopleTV service, including “Chatter,” a live talk show hosted by actress Rosie Diaz that […]

Meredith Corporation plans to integrate e-commerce options “seamlessly and natively” into more of its content to make it easier for people to buy things “and give them a great experience on the back end.” The publisher’s e-commerce and shopper marketing plans were one element of its Digital Content NewFronts presentation last week. “One of the […]

Moving away from in-stream as the primary online video format will help break through advertising clutter and help brands better engage with consumers, particularly on mobile devices, according to Droga 5’s Frank Cannata. “If you’re constantly just trying to get that pre-roll in front of a consumer and all they’re doing is waiting for that […]

Amid all the hoopla that accompanies the Digital Content NewFronts, something more substantial is taking place. It’s the blurring of lines between traditional and digital media, as evidenced by the growing number of new partnerships. Whether it’s Twitter and ESPN or Disney and Tastemade, “To me, that was very encouraging seeing all these partnerships form […]

Armed with biometric research showing how brands can best align themselves with cultural happenings, Refinery29 will launch an over-the-top service called Channel29 later this year. “It will be both a combination of live programming and also pull from our library of incredible content as well as producing new content,” Refinery29 COO Sarah Personette says in […]

When it comes to social causes and movements, brands can’t stand on the sidelines anymore as traditional calls to action are being upstaged by emotional connections. “You cannot not stand for nothing. By doing that, you’re standing for something and something that won’t resonate with your consumers,” says Michael Kahn, Global Brand President at Digitas. […]

Group Nine Media made one of centerpieces of its second Digital Content NewFronts an artificial intelligence offering called GIA, for front-end optimization of advertisers’ campaign creative and distribution. It stands for Group Nine Insights Analyst, which takes “machine learning and artificial intelligence and applies it to how we are able to work with our brands […]

Amid discussions about brand safety, high-quality premium video, channel specific content, data and insights and technology and innovation at the Digital Content NewFronts, it was the cause-marketing theme that resonated with Cotton, Inc.’s Emily Cooper. “For me, the thing that’s really standing out the most is it feels like this year’s really the tipping point […]

Starcom’s Kristina Lutz is leaving the Digital Content NewFronts 2018 impressed by the quality of content in the marketplace and excited by the potential of the merged Meredith Corporation and Time Inc. “I’ve been really impressed with the content that I’ve seen. I think over the last number of years we’ve seen the quality of […]

The re-grouping of content on YouTube continues apace, upending the playing field for some content creators and raising concerns about content discovery amid the platform’s “tunneling effect,” says iCrossing’s Jeff Ratner. “I think YouTube is creating their own stratification of their content. Obviously, they took to heart a lot of the brand safety challenges of […]

Many people in advertising and media think they’re swimming in too much consumer data. John Hancock’s Lindsay Sutton disagrees, particularly with regard to statistics that can be used to divine people’s emotions when serving them the most appropriate content and advertising messaging. “I don’t think we’re yet in a place where we think it’s too […]

There seems to be no shortage of publishing partners for Twitter, which unveiled 16 of them at its first Digital Content NewFronts last year. This year, led by new content deals with NBCUniversal, Disney/ESPN and others, “We doubled it,” says Stephanie Prager, Head of Global Agency Development at Twitter. The content partnerships represent a pool […]