Digital Advertising 'NewFronts' 2019: Balancing TV's Legacy And Promise

Last week officially began the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s “NewFronts” for marketers and agencies in New York City. The NewFronts are filled with presentations, promises and prognostications for marketers to weed through, from Verizon and its understandable mobile-first approach, to a dwindling but hearty crew of digital-native publishers such as Studio 71. With a heavy if not exclusive focus on video offerings at the NewFronts, what I found most intriguing was how differently-situated presenters positioned themselves in drawing upon the best of video’s past while shaping its future.

The laser focus on video was perhaps the most consistent element of the NewFronts presentations I attended. Display advertising, despite all of the brash marketer complaints of brand safety, transparency and bot-infected fraud, remains a significant foundation of the digital advertising business. But you didn’t hear a lot about cool new display opportunities for advertisers. The “traditional” faith in the sight, sound and motion of video remains a powerful lure. This is was evident even for Bombas, a company that has quickly become one of the market-defining direct-to-consumer brands. Kate Huyett, the Bombas CMO, stopped more than a few pulses at the IAB’s research symposium by noting: “We don’t do any programmatic.” Well, that had to warm hearts among more than a few sales people!

Everyone accepts that publishers can’t simply roll out the old playbook and expect everyone to follow their lead. But I saw some fairly ironic distinctions among different NewFront presentations in terms of how they struck the balance between rich history and exciting transformation.

Hulu presented itself as an institutional pillar of the present and future of not only ad-supported digital video, but TV as a whole. Remember when HBO said “It’s Not TV, It’s HBO?” Well, Hulu entirely embraces the notion that it is TV, just “Better TV.” In featuring not only their head of sales Peter Naylor – a NewFront veteran – but their relatively new Chief Data Officer Jaya Kolhatkar, Hulu certainly provided a set of interesting data about how it is changing the face of TV, with over 26 million paid subscribers (most of whom still receive ads), a significantly younger average viewer than cable (31 vs. 53), 80% of Hulu viewing time taking place on the “TV set,” and a jump in total hours viewed of 75% in just the last year.

But Hulu also made a very clear point that there are “tried and true” things about TV that still work. The company’s head of product Jim Denny said Hulu is actually bringing back an on-screen grid, because consumers still get it and like it. When it comes to content, although Hulu has invested heavily and successfully in original programming such as The Handmaid’s Tale, Shrill and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the vast majority of their subscriber watch time is with legacy media content. Hulu noted that the average CSI: Miami binge viewer watches 5.25 hours at a time! Hulu doesn’t run away from such “old fashioned” programming, but embraces it and the audience that consumes it.

Close to the other end of the “institutional” spectrum presenting last week was Tubi TV. Tubi sits among the plethora of vowel-heavy emerging connected TV apps such as Philo, Xumo, Fubo, and Pluto. The company pitches itself as “the free Netflix,” with all revenues derived from advertising rather than subscriber fees. Tubi programming spending is “only” $100 million, a mere fraction of Netflix’s estimated spend of $8-12 billion per year on new programming alone. But it boasts of over 12,000 titles on their service, nearly double that of Netflix. And at their NewFront presentation, what did Tubi feature from their vast array of content choices? One of the most tried-and-true franchises of broadcast TV, The Bachelor, even bringing original participants Trista and Ryan in tow. Success in connected TV may depend upon a jazzy snazzy algorithm, but Tubi demonstrated the perception that legacy content brands still matter.

Somewhat ironically, one of the true warhorses of the major media ecosystem, Viacom, probably emphasized TV’s legacy less than either Hulu or Tubi. Viacom’s still-relatively new Digital Studios is the hosting entity of their NewFronts presentation, and clearly Viacom has fully embraced recent investments in the digital world such as Awesomeness. Viacom prominently featured PlutoTV, its recent $340 million acquisition in free, ad-supported connected TV and its most prominent leap into the direct to consumer market. Pluto contains live streaming channels drawn in part from legacy media companies such as CNN and NBC, so even inside of this new platform there is an appreciation for legacy media content value.

Alongside these digital platforms, Viacom still, even in a ratings-challenged environment, has audience scale and deep-seated legacy media brands such as BET, VH1, MTV and the Paramount Network. But other than a new talk show from a BET host, I saw little emphasis on programming innovation inside of these brands on the still-scaled linear TV platforms. I know the term “synergy” may have lost its sheen, but if you’ve got it, you’ve still got to figure out how to flaunt it.

There’s someone I’m missing…oh, yeah, YouTube. The digital giant held its “Brandcast” event at Radio City Music Hall and the after-party at the traditional home of NBC, Rockefeller Center, which seemed an apt metaphor for the powerful presence looming over all of the TV marketplace. Although of course YouTube delivers many of the most well-known cable network brands through YouTube TV, it delivers most of its scale on its “legacy” YouTube site, with 2 billion monthly users and the highest share of reach and watch time among all ad supported OTT platforms. It’s still good to be Google and for all of its competitors, it’s best not to ignore Geena Davis’s words of wisdom in The Fly: “Be afraid, be very afraid.”