Cheat Sheet: NewFronts’ final day showcased the merging of TV, streaming and social video

By Sara Guaglione

The first three days of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s NewFronts demonstrated how the TV and digital video industry is flattening among traditional TV, streaming and social video companies. As if to put a point on the mashup, the event’s fourth and final day featured a social video platform, publishers and a TV network group sharing the virtual stage.

Key details:

Nearly every presentation flaunted the targeting tools and first-party data that large media publishers and platforms have at their disposal and can offer advertisers looking to reach — and engage with — specific audiences.
TikTok urged marketers to find a way to fit into the conversations and trends happening on the platform to resonate with its users.
Meredith introduced new measurement tools for video advertisers and a slate of programming, with a focus on entertainment and women’s experiences.
NBCUniversal announced a new ad unit for Peacock and teased audience targeting and programmatic buying offerings coming later this year

DE&I discourse

The last day of IAB’s NewFronts 2021 opened with a conversation between Sheryl Goldstein, evp of member engagement & development at IAB and Monique Nelson, chair and CEO of agency UWG, on diversity, equity and inclusion progress across the industry. Goldstein said that the Inclusion Institute that IAB launched last year has been getting a lot of “interest” from IAB members “but not much funding yet.” She urged members to invest in the initiative. Without a DE&I strategy in place to move forward with these efforts (rather than “staying on the wheel” of DE&I commitments without accountability), brands and agencies “won’t make it,” Nelson said.

TikTok

TikTok’s presentation was the highlight of the last day, with its entertaining and informative presentation that directly surfaced and answered marketers’ questions on how to use the platform to align their brands with community-driven content.

The presentation — with its entertaining, informal but informative segments — was the talk of the NewFronts chat box. Advertisers and media executives praised the event, many calling it the highlight of the week. (A fireside chat featured Sandie Hawkins, general manager of global business solutions at TikTok and Sofia Hernandez, head of business marketing, in two armchairs wearing house slippers and thick socks, having a breezy but insightful conversation.)

“People check Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. They watch TikTok like Netflix and Hulu,” Hawkins said during the presentation.

TikTok’s NewFront was split up into four parts: the fireside chat — which went over questions marketers may have about aligning with community driven content, a discussion about the “paradigm shift” of defining the culture of the moment on TikTok, a segment highlighting TikTok creators and how brands can work with them and advice from marketers who have had success on the platform.

That last segment featured CMOs and other ad executives (from American Eagle to Chevrolet) stressing the need for brands to understand and fit into the cultural norms and community on TikTok in order to have success on the platform, participate in trends, shift marketing to match those trends and take risks and have faith in creators …read more

Source:: Digiday