DCNF 2013: The Hulu Upfront

Digitas is recapping events from the Digital Content NewFronts! Stay tuned for posts throughout the week, and on May 2nd, we'll be live-blogging various sessions from our own event, the Digitas NewFront. Tweet #NewFronts to join the conversation.

It’s the NewFronts this week, right? Was the Hulu Upfront a typo? Actually no - it seems that the positioning of Hulu’s primary offering and big bet for the next year, all the way down to calling their big expo an  “up”front, is a deliberate move to articulate their value in the language of broadcast.

With content marketing and the “brand as publisher” model becoming the vision for the savviest advertisers out there, digital content platforms are the clear beneficiaries. And as such, we’re seeing bold moves to not only take a bigger bite of the digital pie, but working with broadcast budgets too.

The rapid rise and popularity of the NewFront is itself a signal of the appetite for digital content. While entertainment platforms continue to merchandise new content offerings as part of the digital content need and solution, Hulu, itself a platform more closely derivative of traditional TV, is making it a point to go the other direction and differentiate themselves in hopes of becoming more relatable to the biggest spenders in the house: broadcast advertisers (despite the momentum, digital still only amounts to roughly 1/5th of overall ad spend in the U.S.).

Traditional TV buyers are warming to the idea of moving some of their dollars to digital content. But often times the difference between closing a deal or striking out is as simple as vocabulary: putting the offering in familiar terms.

It’s just like running a network buy. But better. Because with mobile, tablet, desktop and connected TV, it’s primetime 24 hours a day.

Do the most savvy digital marketers hear this and find it revolutionary? Probably not. But Hulu knows that kind of talk might just mean something to a different group, arguably the ones with the biggest wallets.

- By Alex Jacobs, VP, Social Marketing, Digitas

DCNF 2013: The Weather Company NewFront

Digitas is recapping events from the Digital Content NewFronts! Stay tuned for posts throughout the week, and on May 2nd, we'll be live-blogging various sessions from our own event, the Digitas NewFront. Tweet #NewFronts to join the conversation.

At their NewFront event on Monday, The Weather Company (Weather) unveiled three new digital series and the first brand sponsor for their new partnership with Twitter. Looking at their programming as a whole, one of the big takeaways was that Weather is moving from being a news organization that covers a niche category in which it is the leader, to a content company that tells stories related to nature and the environment.  This puts them on collision course to compete with the National Geographic and Animal Planets of the world. In fact, beyond video content, The Weather Company is trying to become the next Pinterest/Getty of nature pictures.  They’ve hired a force of photographers to get the rights to, and find, cool images that hook audiences in slide shows.

All of this leads to some interesting opportunities unveiled for brands, both with Weather's data and their original programming. All of Weather’s new shows and pictures are available for sponsorship.  And the fact that 25% of the company’s audience use weather.com products first thing when they wake up and last thing before going to bed makes it an attractive proposition for certain clients. One thing that makes this opportunity particularly enticing is the emotional response that is triggered by audiences when a) looking at weather and b) watching video/images about weather/nature. 

Will it attract dollars? I believe yes. The Weather Company has over 100 million unique visitors per month across three different screens (TV, web, and mobile). The power of this installed base makes its content distribution plan enticing and definitely increases the chance of success.

- George Hammer, VP/Group Director, Media, Digitas

DCNF 2013: The Yahoo! NewFront

Digitas is recapping events from the Digital Content NewFronts! Stay tuned for posts throughout the week, and on May 2nd, we'll be live-blogging various sessions from our own event, the Digitas NewFront. Tweet #NewFronts to join the conversation.

At Yahoo!’s second annual NewFront, not only did the network announce a new slate of original programming (with an emphasis in comedy) with Ed Helms, John Stamos, Morgan Spurlock, Cheryl Hines and others, but they also expanded their syndication partnership with SNL and ABC News, and launched a new native ad product: in-stream ads.

I was pleasantly surprised by how Yahoo! has been able to embrace native advertising and develop an ad product (in-stream ads) at the pace that the market is moving, across desktop, mobile and tablet.  It shows that Marissa Mayer's leadership has indeed added a technology and entrepreneurial layer to Yahoo!'s media clout. And the benefits to brands here are big.  Native advertising offers a high-impact experience, but has often struggled with scale.  In-stream ads on Yahoo! have the potential to change that, delivering native advertising with unprecedented scale. In addition, as Yahoo! offers more unique brand content opportunities, in-stream ads will provide a premium distribution mechanism for these brand partnerships.

The one big question is in the targeting.  The reason video marketing is going "native" is to help video evolve into more than just a commodity medium.  Native advertising and brand content demand that marketers get context correct to drive relevance and impact. If the context isn’t right, it creates friction for the consumer experience, which defeats the purpose.

That’s not to say that Yahoo! wouldn’t get the targeting right. But as this unit rolls out further, I think that marketers are going to want more hands-on control. This has the potential to be a very attractive solution for marketers who are driving brand content partnerships with Yahoo!, as well as those who are operating on a smaller production scale.

- Michael Fasciano, Associate Director, Content Strategy, Digitas

Digitas NewFront 2013: Our speakers in five words or less (part II)

Less than one week to go until the 2013 Digitas NewFront!  Get a look at some of our newly announced speakers here, and tweet #NewFronts to join the conversation.

Last week, we had NewFront speakers such as Blake Shaw, David Karp, and Brian Wong  send us a statement of five words or less about their upcoming sessions onstage; something that exemplified the meaning behind their work.  You can see what they had to say here. And check out part two below, with insights from Bob Kupbens, Jules Daly, Peter Vesterbacka, and more.

“Mobility + Connectivity changes everything” – Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile Sales & Strategy, Google

“The future is new territory” – Jules Daly, President, RSA Films

“Let’s make it amazing” – Peter Vesterbacka, Chief Marketing Officer, Rovio / Angry Birds

“Mobility drives positive brand perception” – Bob Kupbens, Vice President, Marketing and Digital Commerce, Delta Air Lines

“Taco Bell and consumer engagement” – Amy Kavanaugh, VP of Public Affairs & Engagement, Taco Bell

“Making inspirational moments instantly shoppable”- Richelle Parham, Chief Marketing Officer, eBay

"Twitter, bridge, not island to TV" - Adam Bain, President, Global Revenue, Twitter

Video's Star is Rising: Our New Infographics with eMarketer

In advance of the 2013 Digitas NewFront, we’ve partnered with eMarketer to showcase the biggest trends and opportunities in digital. Over the next few days, check out our series of infographics on what’s next for video, mobile, social, and real-time marketing. From ad spend to consumption figures, we’ll bring you the stats that every brand and marketer should know.

First up: see how video’s star is rising.

Note: as we release a new infographic each day, you'll be able to find the rest on Flickr.