What do cave men and astronauts have in common? More than either one could ever imagine, if you\u2019re DigitasLBi, which decided to help the advertising industry broaden its view of digital media a decade ago by birthing the Digital Content NewFronts.<\/p>\n
The theme of last year\u2019s NewFronts<\/a> was ad skipping, recalls Scott Donaton, Chief Content Officer at Digitas. \u201cWe were literally telling our clients not only is your audience skipping ads, but you should to. You should make stories that are worthy of peoples\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n Fast-forward a year in the fast-forward milieu that is digital media. This year \u201cwe\u2019re going a little more abstract but a step further in essence,\u201d Donaton explains in this interview with Beet.TV, with the theme of \u201cthe cave man and the astronaut.\u201d<\/p>\n This unlikely pairing represents human storytelling melded with technology as it relates to marketers seeking to engage with consumers beyond standard ad units. \u201cYou still have to make people laugh and cry and care if you want to connect with them,\u201d Donaton says.<\/p>\n He believes it is at this intersection of humanity and human-created, technological communications advances where modern communications needs to gravitate.<\/p>\n As he surveys the activity at the NewFronts 10 years on, Donaton<\/a> notes that what started as a conference has expanded into an industry wide marketplace. \u201cThe important thing here is as a moment to stop and focus on all the exciting things going on and all the things that brands can do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the players coming in and out of the marketplace, that\u2019s just a natural thinning of the herd if you will and the strongest will survive in that.\u201d<\/p>\n To view a slightly offbeat video from Digitas about a cave man meeting up with an astronaut, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n