Reflecting on the annual Upfronts and NewFronts, Dentsu Aegis Network’s Matt Seiler loves the plethora of television content choices. “That we’re still talking about Upfronts and NewFronts and so on cracks me up, but whatever. Be that as it may, they continue,” says the President of Brand Solutions for the global network.
“I think what’s most exciting, and this might sound odd from an agency person’s perspective, is Netflix,” Seiler adds in this interview with Beet.TV.
Why is that?
“Because subscription has led to way better content. And like all things free capital market, that’s led to more choice means got to be better. Content’s better everywhere you look.”
He calls pay-TV content “extraordinary.” That, in turn, has made free TV content “have to be that much better.”
But there’s a need for aggregation of all that content because we can’t all possibly keep track of where it is, according to Seiler.
“And I think that the notion of that really good content being interrupted by nasty ads is wildly anachronistic. I love the platforms that are pushing for fewer interruptions that are being smarter about how brands are integrated.”
Integrating brands into “the really valuable stories that are being told and ensuring that they’re there in a way that’s reasonable” is paramount. Brands should not engage in integrations just because they’re just looking to insert themselves. “They’re there because they’re making the content better.”
He thinks this year’s Upfront rituals will produce “a lot better partnerships with the content creators and the brands and the agencies that work with them to ensure that when a brand’s showing up that’s a good thing.”
Along with proliferation of choice comes the need for aggregation and therefore a few trusted partners. “They’re probably not going to be the few trusted partners that you and I had growing up of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, et cetera. Those channels are going to look more like Prime and Netflix and YouTube as well as NBC, as well as some of those other channels,” says Seiler.
Nonetheless, he believes it’s a great time to be a brand and a marketer. “It’s confusing, but the choices are so much better and the idea of integration in the truest sense of the word is I think here.”
This video is part of a series titled The Road to the Digital Content NewFronts. It is a preview of topics to be explored at IAB’s NewFronts, which begin on April 30. This series is presented by Meredith Corporation. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
