By Marketing Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
The NewFronts are a series of presentations in the same style as the upfronts but for digital media platforms. (Because when it comes to upfronts week, who says television giants get to have all the fun?) They were first called the Digitas Digital Content NewFront when they were held in 2008 as a way to highlight some of the digital content available for brands to sponsor and advertise against—and to help legitimize the growing category. “It was, let’s show that digital is the real thing,” Paul Kontonis, Digitas’s former brand content head, recalled to Digiday. “It wasn’t about the brands in the room.”
What the NewFronts entail
By 2012, companies like Google, AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Hulu were all signed on as partners, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau trade group had stepped up to manage the whole kit and caboodle.
Like the upfronts themselves, the NewFronts have undergone a considerable evolution since their founding. The slate of presentations, which typically takes place just ahead of upfronts week, at one point swelled to become a two-week-long crush of presentations.
After that point, though, there were some cutbacks, as the media landscape continued to shift—and, in some cases, condense. Stalwarts like Hulu exited the NewFronts and now present during upfronts week as it competes more directly for TV advertising dollars along with its parent company Disney; tech and media companies that were once the digital belles of the ball, like AOL and BuzzFeed, have also bowed out.
The event has also been condensed in recent years to be held in one place, instead of requiring brand marketers and agencies to race around New York City from presentation to presentation. But, as is so often the case, other tech companies have regularly moved in to take the place of outgoing presenters, like TikTok, which in 2020 presented at the NewFronts for the first time.
