At NewFronts in New York, the event at which premium publishers tout their upcoming content roster to hopeful advertisers, BBC Worldwide executives led their pitch with a music offering.

“For the first time ever, BBC Music is coming to the US with a comprehensive commercial offering around TV, digital, social and live events,” says Aaron Tabas, director of the BBC StoryWorks content studio.

Tabas calls Live Lounge the “backbone” of the offering. “It will be living on bbc.com in a unique commercial environment where advertisers can sponsor it,” he says. “We can do branded content. We can do live launch events, something that really allows them to connect with music fans and build their brand messaging.

“We’re going to be creating this section on bbc.com and it’s going to be a really in-depth journalism proposition where advertisers can own 100% share of voice around your standard IAB advertising units. We will also be looking to create some really high-end backed branded content with advertisers.”

BC Global News’ NewFronts announcements included:

• BBC Reel: A new video strand curating BBC video content with themed playlists and mini-seasons, plus user-created playlists.
• BBC Music: The service is opening up to the rest of the world, bringing performances from the Live Lounge plus music news and festival coverage.
• The World’s Kitchen: an augmented reality app in which chefs teach users recipes.
• World of Wonder: 360-degree VR video allowing users to navigate natural wonders and historic places with BBC News reporters.
• WorkLife: The BBC is refocusing Capital, its work section for young professionals to include lifestyle elements.
• 100 Women: BBC News’ annual examination of the role of women arond the world is returning.

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.

But, elsewhere, the BBC’s commercial arm has built on its heritage of traditional ad sales by launching a sponsored content offering.

BBC Worldwide launched StoryWorks back in 2015, and it now counts a host of clients including IBM, HSBC, Huawei and Cisco, along with more than 200,000 Facebook followers.

Like everyone working on BBC Worldwide’s brand content initiatives, StoryWorks content studio director Aaron Tabas is at pains to stress the separation of church and state within the BBC.

“Trust is the most important thing when it comes to the BBC,” he tells Beet.TV in this video interview.

“We used the same standards and approach to creating content for commercial partners as we do for editorial partners.”

So, what exactly is the offering? BBC Worldwide bases its advertising initiatives of research called The Science Of Engagement, which uses facial coding technology to understand audiences’ emotional response to messages.

Tabas says StoryWorks offers advertisers deployments in three “lanes”:

1. Editorial sponsorship: “A place advertisers can surround existing editorial. But that is a pretty hands-off environment for advertisers.”
2. The branded lane: “Telling stories specifically about the brands that we work with. We can customise them to anything the brand is looking to do, but use the same integrity we have from an editorial standpoint.
3. Partnered lane: “We tell stories that have a little bit more editorial merit to them, (that) aren’t necessarily about the brand itself.”

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.