When Digitas helped launch the Digital Content NewFronts<\/a> 11 years ago, the message to advertisers was simple: pay more attention to what\u2019s happening in digital. In keeping with the turbulent times, the agency\u2019s 2018 NewFronts event is titled The #Boycott NewFront.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re not saying to brands \u2018you have to jump in and pick sides in the culture wars necessarily.\u2019 But we are saying \u2018you have to stand for something these days.\u2019 People want to deal with brands whose values align with theirs,\u201d says Scott Donaton, Chief Content Officer, Digitas US.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Digitas<\/a> executives will share a stage with a range of figures who have made headlines associated with all manner of controversies and protest movements. \u201cWe try to be very provocative and to bring forward themes and topics that we think our audience needs to care about,\u201d Donaton explains in this interview with Beet.TV.<\/p>\n

Not that long ago, the age of \u201cinterruptive advertising,\u201d brands could say whatever they pleased without having to worry about being \u201ctimely or topical,\u201d Donaton<\/a> says. \u201cWhen you want people to interact with stories, which is something they can choose to spend time with or not, you have to be relevant to them. There\u2019s this idea that brands are becoming activists and almost have to. This doesn\u2019t always mean controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s featured guests will include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Scott Hudler, SVP & CMO of Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods, who will explain how the company has changed the way it sells guns.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jodi Kantor of The New York Times, who with Megan Twohey just won a Pulitizer Prize for their reporting on the Harvey Weinstein saga.<\/p>\n

\u2022 New York Times CEO Mark Thompson, who will discuss the publisher\u2019s Truth Matters campaign.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nola Weinstein, Global Head of Culture and Experiential at Twitter, to reflect on the We Are Here Movement.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Awesomness CEO Jordan Levin on the company\u2019s coverage of the March for Our Lives student anti-gun violence movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to bring in speakers who are outside of the ad business per se,\u201d says Donaton. \u201cFor this year, a lot of it is not just how are brands reacting to all the social, cultural political upheaval out there but how\u2019s it going to change storytelling of all kinds.\u201d<\/p>\n

This video is part of a series titled The Road to the Digital Content NewFronts. It is a preview of topics to be explored at IAB\u2019s NewFronts, which begin on April 30. This series is presented by Meredith Corporation. For more videos from the series, please visit this page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Digitas helped launch the Digital Content NewFronts 11 years ago, the message to advertisers was simple: pay more attention to what\u2019s happening in digital. In keeping with the turbulent times, the agency\u2019s 2018 NewFronts event is titled The #Boycott NewFront. \u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re not saying to brands \u2018you have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":51465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[7129],"tags":[4249,6181,7162,7173,7174,7175,7176,7177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}