What do cave men and astronauts have in common? More than either one could ever imagine, if you’re DigitasLBi, which decided to help the advertising industry broaden its view of digital media a decade ago by birthing the Digital Content NewFronts.
The theme of last year’s NewFronts was ad skipping, recalls Scott Donaton, Chief Content Officer at Digitas. “We were literally telling our clients not only is your audience skipping ads, but you should to. You should make stories that are worthy of peoples’ time.”
Fast-forward a year in the fast-forward milieu that is digital media. This year “we’re going a little more abstract but a step further in essence,” Donaton explains in this interview with Beet.TV, with the theme of “the cave man and the astronaut.”
This unlikely pairing represents human storytelling melded with technology as it relates to marketers seeking to engage with consumers beyond standard ad units. “You still have to make people laugh and cry and care if you want to connect with them,” Donaton says.
He believes it is at this intersection of humanity and human-created, technological communications advances where modern communications needs to gravitate.
As he surveys the activity at the NewFronts 10 years on, Donaton notes that what started as a conference has expanded into an industry wide marketplace. “The important thing here is as a moment to stop and focus on all the exciting things going on and all the things that brands can do,” he says.
“Some of the players coming in and out of the marketplace, that’s just a natural thinning of the herd if you will and the strongest will survive in that.”
To view a slightly offbeat video from Digitas about a cave man meeting up with an astronaut, click here.
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.
