To make things easy for brands during the extravaganza that is the annual Digital Content NewFronts, DEFY Media has condensed its advertiser offerings to three options: buy, badge, build.
“We want to make it easy that when they see our shows, they know how to work with us,” says DEFY Media CMO Andy Tu.
Buy consists of brands placing media at the show or channel level, while Tu likens a badge opportunity to Cold Hard Facts on ESPN. “We can do turnkey, easy integrations,” he says.
Build is for marketers interested in one of DEFY’s brands, which include SMOSH, Screen Junkies and CLEVVER. “Bring your brand to the table. We can do custom content together,” Tu adds.
In explaining the content creation process at DEFY, Tu says the company doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out the perfect label for its audience.
“We call them young people because we think it’s what’s most fair. When you talk to a young person they don’t like the idea that ‘I’m Gen Z or I’m Gen X.’ They feel individual and unique.”
It’s DEFY’s goal to create “standout worlds where they fit in but can stand out.”
Like other youth-oriented publishers, DEFY tries to keep pace with the rapid emergence of platforms and monetization options. It’s long been invested in YouTube, where it’s one of the biggest programmers, and as others pop up “our goal is one, how to we build the biggest addressable audience and how do we turn them into a business.”
The company’s biggest growth platform with regard to growth for video distribution this year has been Facebook, on which it does “a couple hundred” each month that are unique to the platform.
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts 2017. The series is sponsored by the IAB. For more videos from the #NewFronts, please visit this page.
