The NewFronts are returning this spring with marketing pitches from more than 30 digital media companies — and, like last year’s event, the four-day series will be entirely online.
The 2021 NewFronts will run May 3-6, 2021, with presentations to held from 12-4 p.m. ET each day. Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade group that manages the NewFronts, announced the slate of companies scheduled to make their virtual presentations to ad buyers.
However, absent from the NewFronts this year is Hulu, which was one of the founding members of the marketing series back in 2012. Instead, Disney — which now controls Hulu — is integrating the streamer into its May 18 upfront event.
The 2021 lineup includes first-time NewFronts presenters A+E Networks, Amazon, Entercom, Estrella Media, Penske Media Corp. (parent company of PvNew) and Vizio.
The full list of NewFronts presenting companies is: A+E Networks, Amazon, BBC News, BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, Crackle Plus, Digitas, Ellen Digital, Entercom, Estrella Media, FuboTV, Meredith, Penske Media Corp., Roku, Samsung Ads, Snap, TikTok, Tubi, Twitter, Verizon Media, Vevo, Vice Media Group, Vizio and YouTube.
NewFronts 2021 week also will feature research insights sessions from Channel Factory, GSTV, OpenAP, Oracle Advertising, Quantcast, Charter’s Spectrum Reach, Tegna and Tremor Video. Content.23 Media, which produced the 2020 NewFronts, is returning as producers for the 2021 edition.
The trade group has launched the cross-industry Tele://Vision campaign, part of the IAB Media Center, aimed at aligning companies in the current video marketplace around a consistent set of principles, standards, practices, products and technologies. At the 2021 NewFronts, IAB will release its “Digital Video Ad Spend” report. The group also is working on a “CTV Creative Best Practices Guide” to make it easier to transact traditional ad experiences as well as newer formats like shoppable video and choice-based ads.
“This new reality — where streaming is at the center of everything — demands a reset of how video is bought, sold, measured and optimized,” IAB CEO David Cohen said in a statement.
As previously announced, the week after the NewFronts, IAB will present the Podcast Upfront (which it has held in the fall) from May 11-13, where it plans to release the annual “Podcast Ad Revenue” report.
