In this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts, Blank talks about “the culture of now,” how UPROXX approaches collaborating with brands and how to get those brands to “create a piece of content that is shared naturally by our audience. It’s a tricky thing to figure out.”
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.
]]>This is typified by Little Things videos that range from how to keep an avocado green to the easiest way to make a smoothie by pre-storing the ingredients in a mason jar—the latter having generated 88 million views, according to Editor-in-Chief Maia McCann. In this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts, McCann discusses the company’s foray into OTT content delivery and why “mom content shouldn’t be just about being a mom.”
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.
]]>In this interview with Beet.TV during the Digital Content NewFronts, Dr. Parikh explains how she helps her editorial team decide on accurate and legitimate sources of information, the importance of reporting both preventive measures and how to live with certain conditions, along with the way that video helps to simplify complicated subjects.
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.
]]>Using Velocity, Mashable tries to identify “who’s influenced, who can influence on a certain topic and who’s influenceable,” Wise says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts. This is done by staffers examining users’ behavioral habits like sharing, engaging on the web, liking, commenting and other activity.
Snapchat in particular has been a boon, as Mashable is the platform’s exclusive tech partner for its Discover network of media outlets. “That’s led to significant growth. For us it’s a game changer,” says Wise.
At this year’s NewFronts, the company launched a new vertical video product called Mashable Reels. Reels are arranged as slideshows that can be easily scrolled through on both desktop and mobile devices. The slides also change automatically after the individual videos they contain finish running, as Tubefilter reports.
Sprint and McDonald’s are two launch partners for Mashable Reels, according to Wise.
He says the “secret sauce” for Mashable inside of video and in addition to sponsorships is branded content, again fueled by predictive analytics. “I think when you look at the advertising community they’re not really quite sure what to create,” Wise notes. “They have a gut.”
He cites the example of an automobile manufacturer that says it wants to target 18- 34-year-olds who are in the market. Since that doesn’t really differentiate the auto brand from its competitors, Mashable seeks additional targeting data that might consist of, say, coffee, shoe and travel preferences. Then it tries to figure out what content those targets are consuming right now.
“The brand might think it’s entertainment but we’re saying it’s technology,” specifically technology related to music, so Mashable does a deeper data dive. “Inside of that thread we’re going to see that the insight is fearless thinking” so content related to fearless thinking is produced and distributed.
“It’s creating the right piece of content that you may not have thought was the kind that you should create,” Wise says. “If we’ve done that right we then should prove out that it actually works that we’ve moved the needle on your business. I think we’re getting pretty close to being able to do that.”
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.
]]>At the Digital Content NewFronts, the company’s production division, NGL Studios, announced two new initiatives: Latin History For Morons, featuring Leguizamo, and a new platform called EOP Comedy: With Liberty and Comedy for All. In this interview with Beet.TV, Chitel talks about NGL’s proprietary video technology, its ability to reach Hispanic and multicultural Millennials with premium video and the 50 private marketplace deals it executed with advertisers in 2016.
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.
]]>In this video interview with Beet.TV, Business Insider chief revenue officer Peter Spande says the publisher is now helping brands make BI-style content specifically for social channels.
The world no long just comes to news sites, they experience them through social platforms, too. On Twitter, for example, @businessinsider now has almost two million followers – and BI is embracing the opportunity to deliver branded video there.
“We do three things, and only three things,” Spande tells us, channelling a pitch he made to ad buyers at the Digital Content NewFronts:
“We can do it in a way that wasn’t possible without social. We’re not going to say the website is dead. We create over 600 pieces of content for our websites.
However, in many cases, the way people access our websites is completely different than it was 10 “years ago. People are coming via social. That has led us to telling stories on those platforms rather than click to come through to our websites.”
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.
]]>“We were curious about how people actually behave when they are presented by an ad experience,” Receptiv President & Global CRO Richard Kosinski says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts.
That curiosity was sated by equipping the test subjects—who thought they were testing a new software app—with brain activity scanners and eye-tracking glasses. During the test, the participants were shown full-page, interstitial video ads and embedded, opt-in video ad units.
“People find full-page, interstitial units to be annoying, interruptive and disruptive to their experience,” Kosinksi explains. “They don’t like them. They use negative feedback.”
When they experienced the embedded, opt-in video ad units, “They found those to be joyful, helpful. They were generally positive.”
A second major finding from the research involves the disparity in time spent watching the ads. “When people were served a full-page interstitial, they watched 25 percent of the video through to completion,” Kosinksi says. “But when they were presented with this embedded, opt-in format 90 percent of them watched the video through to completion.”
Finally, the subjects spent three times more time with a brand in the embedded, opt-in format. Of a total of 40 seconds, 19 of those were spent understanding the ad unit and reading through it, then 21 seconds “with the brand itself.” But as soon as people were served a full-page interstitial, “They spent two seconds looking at the ad and then maybe seven seconds with the brand,” says Kosinski.
As if more evidence was needed about users’ lack of affinity for full-page interstitials, two-thirds of people who were served them didn’t bother to turn their phones to the horizontal, even though the ad format was meant to be seen horizontally.
“They watched it sideways,” Kosinski says. “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t designed to be a sideways observed ad.”
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.
]]>In this interview with Beet.TV after his appearance with Astronauts Wanted at the Digital Content NewFronts, Stimmel discusses how music artists are more “multi-dimensional in how they output creative,” the Jack Antonoff tour-documentary-meets-Curb-Your-Enthusiasm series Sony executed with Lorne Michaels’ Above Average. Also at the NewFronts, Rumble Yard showcased upcoming projects with Al Roker, The Chainsmokers, Kurt Hugo Schneider and Grace VanderWaal.
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.
]]>In this interview with Beet.TV after the magazine’s first-ever Digital Content NewFronts presentation, Feifer explains the role of the print publication and its digital counterpart, how to tap “the emotional experience of entrepreneurism” and how broadening the formerly narrow editorial focus appeals to everyone from venture-backed companies “to kids selling stuff on eBay.”
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.
]]>In this interview with Beet.TV, the independently owned agency’s VP of Digital talks about the need for vigilance and third-party verification in the digital media ecosystem and why “everyone is making that bet that video is the future of digital.”
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.
]]>In this interview with Beet.TV after his appearance with Entrepreneur at the Digital Content NewFronts, Armstrong explains that it takes 30 people to produce the weekly show and why it “feels like it’s daily with all the workload we have behind it right now.”
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.
]]>It’s a fast-paced mode that McGrath and Shore willingly chose when they departed MTV Networks back in 2013. They were well aware that while MTV had forged many a trailblazing path with young viewers, everything had changed dramatically.
“It’s much more democratized than it ever was. There’s many more places, chances, platforms, players than ever before,” Astronauts Wanted Founder & President McGrath says in this joint interview with Shore by Beet.TV during the Digital Content NewFronts. “And I wanted to jump in and follow the audiences.”
In what is now a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment, Astronauts Wanted can’t be content with just satisfying millennials. In fact, that age cohort is almost yesterday’s news.
“We’re entering a period where millennials are aging out of the youth demo at the top end,” says Shore, who is Chief Creative Strategist. Given the rise of Gen Z, “Every time a generation shifts, tastes change, stories change, the way to tell those stories changes and it almost always takes the entertainment industry off guard when that happens.”
Astronauts Wanted sees itself as positioned at the generational inflection point and solve for the marketplace the challenge of catering to the next wave of culture seekers.
“I think the content level of TV has risen to a point where it would be challenging to get somebody into a movie theatre,” McGrath observes. “You have to do something really unique and different. Everyone’s upping their game.”
One key distinction between the MTV of yore and today’s video entertainment landscape that both McGrath and Shore relate to is that, while some TV networks are still quite meaningful and powerful, the old gates have been blown away.
“You are no longer the only game in town,” says McGrath but “in the reinvention business all the time now.”
Asked what he hopes marketers take home from the presence of Astronauts Wanted at the NewFronts, Shore says, “Here comes a new generation and just like millennials reinvented entertainment, these guys are going to do it as well. I want to make them thoughtful about that and stop and think ‘who do we talk to about that.’”
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.
]]>And while there’s lots of attention paid by industry groups to user experiences with ad formats, “There should also be guidelines for how to make strong content,” says Unruly SVP, Marketing & Insight, Devra Prywes. “I think it’s really important for advertisers to realize that content and distribution are two sides of the coin for success.”
Not that long ago, video views ruled the day. But now earned engagement metrics are coming to the fore and that’s a good sign, Prywes says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts.
Unruly was one of the participants in the NewFronts Insights Lunch, the focus of which was original research around digital video. Despite the specter of Mother’s Day looming large, Unruly shared its Parents Playbook research to show that dads over index across all devices, are more likely to buy and are more emotional when watching video ads.
Other Unruly research underscores that vertical video “is the future” because most people don’t want to turn their phone to watch horizontal video. “But it’s a little daunting for brands to have to make different types of video creative,” Prywes says.
She’s quite happy to hear more conversations about emotional storytelling and less of an emphasis on video run times. Except that some advertisers are “still locked into” run times of 15, 30 or 60 second ads.
“If you’re making really strong ads, people will watch,” says Prywes, citing the viral Kraft Swear Like a Mother effort. In this 1:35 video, author and “swearing expert” Melissa Mohr offers advice to the 26% of mothers who reported never having sworn in front of their kids.
“It’s a long video,” observes Prywes. But because “there’s a lot of garbage out there, brands that are focused on quality will get that attention.”
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.
]]>According to President & Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Tibbits, comScore data show that at 55.8 million women, Little Things claims the mantles of largest standalone lifestyle site and the largest URL reaching women.
“We’re very protective of our audience,” Tibbits says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts. “We all know that there are challenging things going on the world and there’s plenty of places for an audience to get that content. We’re not that.”
That protection encompasses not only content but also user experience. The Little Things website “is very ad light,” says Tibbits, and there are no content recommendation widgets to slow down page loading.
Little Things took to the NewFronts to unveil a new talk show series, “The Daily Glow,” which will debut on June 5 and air every weekday afternoon on Facebook Live. In addition, the company by mid-summer will distribute its long-form video programming via Amazon, Apple TV, Roku, XUMO and Pluto TV, as Campaign reports.
“The Daily Glow” is the 13th show from Little Things. The shows consist of episodes ranging from 30 to 60 minutes in length.
The company’s goal with branded and sponsored content is that “it’s woven in,” be it sponsorship of a live show or custom videos. “We can tell a story that our writers, editors and researchers have found and if a brand wants to join us on that journey, it’s an incredible service to the audience and to the brand,” Tibbits says.
Facebook has turned out to be a very productive “front door” for Little Things, generating website traffic and new users. Although it claims to generate less output on Facebook than other publishers, what Little Things does publish “has the highest engagement per article of anybody doing it,” Tibbits adds.
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.
]]>“I think what we see now is people are really engaged in sports moments and they don’t traditionally see those moments now during a three- to four-hour game broadcast,” says Bleacher Report President Rory Brown. “This is the audience we want to speak to.”
Fresh off a re-launch of the Bleacher Report brand and an app refresh, Brown explains that the company continues to acquire young fans because its approach differs so much from that of traditional legacy sports coverage in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts.
While the 18-34 demographic is the company’s strike zone, “At the same time we’re even getting folks younger” as they figure out “who they are as sports fans,” Brown says. This can be the result of someone acquiring a smartphone for the first time.
“We’re growing up with this fan base and we really do see ourselves as the leader of sports culture specifically for the modern sports fan.”
Bleacher Report has some 4.3 million followers on Instagram, ADWEEK reports.
Now age 34, Brown recalls growing up watching SportsCenter and game highlights on TV because those were the only sources of information available. But it’s a whole different ballgame now, mainly due to fan interaction via digital channels.
Even though the Super Bowl will always be the Super Bowl and one NBA game is still “a very engaging linear experience,” the conversations happening on social media in particular are a locus for fan engagement.
“And Bleacher Report is the place where that’s happening,” says Brown. “It’s a no brainer for people to bring their brands and dollars because we’re engaging them outside of just that exclusive live window.”
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.
]]>So what is Lerer doing with the money? Having formed Group Nine Media to operate Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker, he now runs a mini media company that is helping one of the big broadcasters get good at digital.
Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview at the Digital Content NewFronts, where he pitched the offering, Lerer said partnerships between Discovery and Group Nine Media will work both ways:
Specifically, tie-ups include:
Lerer recalls why he decided to partner with Discovery: “Digital platforms were starting to resemble the MVPDs of 30 years ago. Big media brands were going to be built on them the same way the cable channels got built.
“I had one of those brands … in Thrillist. It wasn’t a brand that dealt in video, but I knew it needed to become one. We could wait to get acquired … or we could build the next holding company.”
Specifically, the old company and the new one have things to learn from each other.
“Digital and TV are starting to collide,” Lerer adds. “Traditional media companies need real conviction around digital future, digital media companies can benefit from the scale that TV still provides.”
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.
]]>So while DEFY’s programming resembles traditional programming in areas like writers and talent, where it “varies a bit” is in MTV’s concept that no idea is bad, CEO Matt Diamond says in this interview with Beet.TV during the Digital Content NewFronts.
“The bar to succeed is very high but the bar to test things is very low. You can test things pretty easily and cost effectively with digital,” Diamond says.
And when you have amassed the audience sizes of a DEFY—700 million monthly views for owned and operated video, 70 million YouTube subscribers and 100 million social media followers—the feedback is fast and telling.
“We’re able to test a lot. Some don’t work. And when they don’t work, we can move on. An advertiser gets the benefit of coming along with us because we will always get big audiences,” says Diamond.
DEFY is platform and screen agnostic when it comes to promoting its content. “We are neutral and we want to make sure that the distribution partner is able to build big audiences.”
From the start, DEFY shunned the multichannel network model, as it has never represented third-party content providers. Simply repping other talent that posts on YouTube “we just didn’t feel was the value add that we were providing for both our advertisers as well as our consumers,” says Diamond.
“Frankly, those people can just post things to YouTube and YouTube can sell the ads.” With content like SMOSH that DEFY owns and produces, “we can time the social message that goes out and we can have the talent itself work specifically with our brands as well as our partners’ brands.”
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.
]]>“We want to make it easy that when they see our shows, they know how to work with us,” says DEFY Media CMO Andy Tu.
Buy consists of brands placing media at the show or channel level, while Tu likens a badge opportunity to Cold Hard Facts on ESPN. “We can do turnkey, easy integrations,” he says.
Build is for marketers interested in one of DEFY’s brands, which include SMOSH, Screen Junkies and CLEVVER. “Bring your brand to the table. We can do custom content together,” Tu adds.
In explaining the content creation process at DEFY, Tu says the company doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out the perfect label for its audience.
“We call them young people because we think it’s what’s most fair. When you talk to a young person they don’t like the idea that ‘I’m Gen Z or I’m Gen X.’ They feel individual and unique.”
It’s DEFY’s goal to create “standout worlds where they fit in but can stand out.”
Like other youth-oriented publishers, DEFY tries to keep pace with the rapid emergence of platforms and monetization options. It’s long been invested in YouTube, where it’s one of the biggest programmers, and as others pop up “our goal is one, how to we build the biggest addressable audience and how do we turn them into a business.”
The company’s biggest growth platform with regard to growth for video distribution this year has been Facebook, on which it does “a couple hundred” each month that are unique to the platform.
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.
]]>Now the company produces about nine videos each day “so we’re not a publisher that waits around for the NewFronts to bring out new shows,” says POPSUGAR President David Grant. “Content development and creation goes on all year long.”
From the style of storytelling to technical improvements like optimization for platforms, much has changed in the way publishers try to engage with audiences, Grant says in this interview with Beet.TV during the Digital Content NewFronts.
“We started with the idea that if we made regular weekly series with experts that people could recognize on camera and come to trust, that it would help our brand and build that connection,” says Grant.
What’s become clear along the way is that POPSUGAR’s value and “heart” lies in being a brand that stands for positivity and inspiration. “It’s giving us license to try a lot of new things,” he adds.
Newly formed POPSUGAR Films is developing a feature film titled Honored with Lionsgate, Untitled Entertainment and Cinestar Pictures and executive producer Zoe Saldana starring digital influencer Meghan Rienks, as ADWEEK reports.
POPSUGAR’s investment in native television production company Toy Rocket has already “brought three or four projects to us,” says Grant.
“We’re just branching out into all the different things and video content areas that a brand can go and our audience is giving us permission to do that.”
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.
]]>Astronauts Wanted’s three main formats are premium episodic series, movies and “experimental storytelling” on social platforms. It pushes its programs “across anywhere you can think of,” SVP of Branded Entertainment Christine Murphy explains in this interview with Beet.TV.
“Anywhere” includes YouTube, YouTube Red, go90, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Hearst Complex and Condé Nast’s The Scene. “Anywhere you can put video, we’re on it,” Murphy says.
“The places that people have started consuming this content have changed but the actual appetite for the content hasn’t changed,” she adds. “That TV episode, really high-quality content is still on demand. They just looking at it in different places.”
At the Digital Content NewFronts, Astronauts Wanted announced a new scripted comedy series titled AUSSIE GIRL, which is based on the real life experiences of actress/writer/director Tammin Sursok, along with the series UNDERBELLY, which features rapper and social sensation Timothy DeLaGhetto. Also unveiled was a new incubator program in partnership with Ripple Entertainment and the company’s SNARLED network for progressive, Gen Z women, and the third season of hit series HEYUSA with Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart.
Sharing the Astronauts Wanted NewFronts presentation was Rumble Yard (formerly Sony Music Originals) with a look its new original programming, including TURN TABLE, in which TV personality Al Roker fuses his love for cooking and music.
The company works with brands “in the spirit of partnership,” weaving series concepts and marketer needs together with the right talent. “Everything we make, we don’t cast talent, we create with the talent and with the brand together,” says Murphy.
This typically involves discussions about what keeps a particular brand up at night and then figuring out how to create a meaningful series that can move the needle for whatever the brand’s trying to accomplish.
Astronauts Wanted then finds the appropriate director, writer and producer, “making sure there’s chemistry. And then just blowing the roof off the house.”
Murphy says they’ve created “a ton of hits” that can continue season after season and they can live on “versus just one and done.”
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.
]]>Combine that with the highly vetted nature of the publisher’s content—accredited by the non-profit group URAC—and the ability to tie ad exposure to actions taken, and you get a library of some 2,000 educational/instructional videos in the last decade.
“By the time a consume is clicking on a HealthiNation video they’ve essentially opted in to wanting to view that specific type of content. So it’s a very qualified, very targeted audience to begin with,” CEO Michael O’Donnell says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts.
At a time when so-called fake news is a concern for consumers and advertisers, HealthiNation has a built-in safeguard. “Every video that a consumer sees has been reviewed by two physicians before it’s published on HealthiNation,” O’Donnell explains.
Among the information shared with the buy-side at the NewFronts is HealthiNation’s video completion rate, which the company pegs at 78% for pre-roll ads, compared with the industry standard 43%, and that viewers watch 76.3% of the videos that they start, as ADWEEK reports.
The lion’s share of its advertising is pre-roll video, consisting of 30-, 60- and in some cases 120-second ads primarily from pharmaceutical companies “who want to communicate with these patients as they’re evaluating what medical treatments they’re interested in and they can share with their doctor,” O’Donnell says.
Viewers who click on ads can be tracked to brand websites and their actions after viewing an ad can be noted. Regulations limit who can target those viewers.
In addition to organic and SEO-generated traffic, HealthiNation counts CNN among its distribution partners. “We can take our content and our advertising and place it on the CNN Health page,” O’Donnell adds.
As HealthiNation continues to grow its audience, it would like to expand beyond the nearly two dozen pharma brands that currently populate its site, among them medical device marketers, convalescent homes and treatment centers, according to O’Donnell.
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.
]]>With its close ties to the School of Journalism of the University of Missouri—close as in located across the street—Newsy wants to look past the headlines of the day with in-depth, contextual storytelling.
The Why is intended to be “a celebration of in-depth storytelling,” Newsy VP of News Christina Hartman says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts.
“When we started a decade ago, we were primarily focused on news of the day. The headlines, the quick-turn video content,” Hartman says.
Since then, it’s bulked up its resources for original reporting on science and technology, policy and culture.
“Being right across the street from the School of Journalism has for us been fantastic to both teach the newsy method and infuse that with the Missouri method, which is hands-on journalism,” she adds.
The Why seeks to look beyond headlines and communicate “what is it the viewer is going to ask themselves when they hear the who, what, when, where why. Very little happens in a vacuum.”
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.
]]>So what is a tech platform doing at the event?
Amongst a series of appearances last week, Rocket Fuel, a predictive marketing platform, partnered with both Integral Ad Science and IAB to deliver data-driven presentations the truth behind publisher’s claims about their inventory.
Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview, Rocket Fuel senior director Jon Stewart says legacy media still light the way to the future of digital growth.
“Despite the fact that we’ve seen explosive growth in digital TV and digital video, linear TV is still king,” Rocket Fuel’s Stewart says.
“Any digital solution for brand marketers needs to be layered on top of traditional TV. It’s the most important and largest ad format still today, by far.
“Nobody’s going to be satisfied with user-generated content and clips to give the volume and GRPs (gross rating points) that are required or expected. It’s going to take high-quality, long-form entertainment.”
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.
]]>In that time, the series of pitches has grown to sit alongside TV’s upfronts as a way to secure advanced ad sales.
And Jason Hill has seen its maturation. In this interview with Beet.TV, the global head of media for financial services company BlackRock says he was impressed with the latest procession, and spotted three trends.
“They were talked about last year as on-the-horizon,” Hill observes. “They’re now ways that publishers have said, ‘this is what it can mean for you as an advertiser’.”
Hill says he has been impressed with the production quality on video series put together by the likes of Conde Nast and Business Insider – long-form packages normally associated with full-fledged TV networks.
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.
]]>That is according to one executive whose company helps brands benefit from native ads.
“We’re watching more video than ever on mute,” says Sharethrough market development head Frank Maguire. “It’s funny how reading is becoming important to video-watching, which is a kind of weird dichotomy.”
Maguire is talking about new auto-playing videos and ads in places like Facebook and Twitter, where, to mitigate user reluctance, videos tend to begin with sound off.
That is giving rise to a new aesthetic in which creators load up their videos with clear cuts and overlay them with engaging captions.
Arguably even more than a mere aesthetic, caption-heavy video is becoming a new format in its own right. And Maguire says it is critical.
“The headline of a video becomes important to giving you context about what video is actually playing on the page right now – which is a slight deviation from pre-roll, where you have to watch this video to get to the next piece of content,” he says.
The new constraint is a factor for anyone making video for social, but particularly means a challenge for publishers or brands that may have felt compelled to shovel old, made-for-TV ad spots in to the networks.
Maguire recommends retrofitting them to bulk up on text.
“Top publishers that are winning in this muted-video world – NowThis do an amazing job … you can watch it all on mute, or Tasty from BuzzFeed,” he says.
“The publishers who have won this environment, advertisers have taken cues from them … (they) do simple things to video creatives to earn that attention.”
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.
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