The Interactive Advertising Bureau is going bi-coastal with its Digital Content NewFronts presentation/negotiation event by trimming the original New York affair from two weeks to one and kicking off a Los Angeles version in the fourth quarter.
“We decided this year to change it up a little bit because we have been getting feedback consistently from the buy side that two weeks is a lot and is exhausting,” the IAB’s Anna Bager explains in this interview with Beet.TV.
Scheduled for April 30-May 4, in New York City, the East Coast event will feature NewFronts’ 2012 co-founders DigitasLBi, Google/YouTube, Hulu and Oath. They will be joined by BBC News, Condé Nast, Disney Digital Network, ESPN, Fusion Media Group, Group Nine Media, Jukin Media, Meredith, The New York Times, Refinery29, Studio71 and Twitter.
Each company will produce and manage its own independent, invitation-only presentation, according to an IAB news release. The organization will host a NewFronts Insights Breakfast at the end of the week to spotlight new studies on the evolving digital video landscape.
Among the benefits of having a presence in Los Angeles is its proximity to the studios and creative talent long associated with traditional television entertainment, according to Bager. It will be “West Coast style, very focused on content, very focused on what makes digital video so special,” says Bager, who is EVP, Industry Initiatives. “We feel that’s a story we need to tell throughout the year.”
Asked about the purpose of the NewFronts in relation to the traditional TV Upfront advertising negotiation season and its related entertainment and media company presentations, Bager says, “First of all it is a marketplace and I think that a lot of video content is actually being bought in the NewFronts. Want to keep that marketplace going” while educating media buyers and companies that need to produce video content.
“It’s the biggest opportunity, it’s the most exciting place but it’s also the least understood,” she adds in reference to premium video. “What works, how do we measure it and what’s next. That’s really what we need to figure out.”
The Los Angeles installment isn’t being envisioned as a series of presentations across the city. “We’re hoping to centralize it much more so that it’s easier to access for the buyers and also, frankly, so we can drive the cost down a little bit for producing these shows,” Bager says.
