While the term \u201cpremium digital video\u201d has become quite commonplace at the Digital Content NewFronts, when the event debuted 10 years ago was on few peoples’\u00a0radar screen. Now premium video can be considered a table stake for content creators who hope to get marketers\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n
One of the most interesting things that Jill Kelly, CMO at marketing and technology agency Digitas, sees as she surveys this year\u2019s NewFronts is the rise of quality programs with which brands can participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I do see is a gradual increase in the standards of which program gets created and that\u2019s really refreshing to me,\u201d Kelly<\/a> says in this interview with Beet.TV. \u201cWhen we started this NewFront 10 years ago, the notion of premium digital video was almost nonexistent.\u201d<\/p>\n This is one reason why the NewFronts aspire to be a place where storytellers and those in need of stories to attract consumer attention can mingle and let their imaginations loose amid an always expanding universe of data-enabled platforms.<\/p>\n As the founder of the NewFronts<\/a>, Digitas is the only agency that hosts its own program at the annual confab. \u201cOur event is a moment to exhale and pause and take a bigger picture of the complete ecosystem of premium digital programming,\u201d Kelly says. \u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily about us selling anything specifically. It\u2019s what are the trends, what are the obstacles.\u201d<\/p>\n Digitas has distilled this collaborative spirit into a \u201cplayful and fun\u201d video<\/a> depiction of what happens when a cave man reminiscent of GEICO commercials circa 2004 crosses paths with an astronaut in full celestial garb. Their various encounters while living together represent human storytelling melded with technology as it relates to marketers seeking to engage with consumers in new and inventive ways.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we loved about it is there is an embedded tension, opposition, but the fact of the matter is it doesn\u2019t have to be mutually exclusive. What you heard from the speakers today is that they unite. And when they unite beautifully, when they unite without ego you, will have beautiful stories well told that are informed by science and by data,\u201d says Kelly.<\/p>\n