NewFronts Are Just the Beginning - Michael Kassan

Art imitates lifeamp8230and the media businessSo even Bob Dylan can offer insight into the watershed moment we39ve all just experiencedDylan sang that you don39t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows and boy was that ever true this year It turns out that all you need is a NewFrontIt39s easy to compare the NewFronts to the Upfronts amp8211 to begin any story with some version of quotdigital wants to take a greater share of TV dollarsquot But I think and as many others pointed out that39s not the pointDigitas helped set the stage and the founding partners of this year39s NewFrontsamp8212Google YouTube Hulu Yahoo AOL and Microsoftamp8212were given a ripe opportunity to present to an eager audience what is to come As were Vevo and NBCUniversal and the other digital players who joined them in the presentation parade this springAt Yahoo there was palpable excitement in the room regarding the quality of programming being shown The next day I had a chance to sit down with Anthony Zuiker the creator of the Yahoo digital series Cybergeddon amp8211 and he said that it was not just marketers and brands but even the storytellers themselves who are getting more and more excited as they discover the possibilities of this new medium and how audiences interact with itThe digiplayers39 presentations weren39t even concluded before Mediapost declared quotThe NewFront brand has been established It already has meaning It has drawn the attention of industry executives the press and even Wall Street The discussion about how amp8211not if amp8211 a NewFront sales marketplace will form is a victory in itselfquotThe message of the first and absolutely not even close to the last NewFronts was as unmistakable as the sputter and growl of an automobile driving down an unpaved city street in 1910 throwing mud on the carriages and scaring the horses Shifting budgets are inevitableamp8212all that39s yet to be determined is the timing and the extentVEVO amp8211 who always puts on a show amp8211 had John Legend play a few songs on stage But as many people left talking about their shift to short and long form programming as those who focused on the live performance And the next day the performance was all but forgotten as Rio Caraeff walked the audience through the staggering growth of VEVO in the last 30 monthsBut we can39t talk about this year39s NewFronts without giving proper attention to the Google YouTube showcase announcing its 100 new channels featuring thousands of hours of content made by traditional and digital video creators Just like Apple seeded its App store using the iFund amp8211YouTube is funding a destination for repeatable viewing for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who spend roughly 3 billion hours and counting watching online video everymonth and those figures don39t even include mobileThese viewers are mostly young and they make no distinction at all between screens and very little distinction between networks Will we see the day where there is no line at all between broadcast or cable content and online video contentContent creators not unexpectedly have embraced these new platforms as well And it39s serious talent Brian Robbins Jon Avnet Sofia Vergara Ben Silverman Anthony Zuiker who I mentioned above Hearst39s editorial team Madonna and many others are telling stories on these platforms just to name a fewSooner or later some if not many of these stories and storytelling channels are going to blow up become part of the pop culture zeitgeist just like TV shows did in television39s infancy Maybe it will be The Nerdist Channel Or Machinima if their billion views per month doesn39t count as quotblowing upquot Maybe it will be Tutele or The Mom39s View or Wigs or u look haute or Smosh Animation orYoung Hollywood or Noisey or Everyday Health TV or START or Awesomeness TVWe don39t know yet But we willWe39ve been arguing in this space debating on conference panels and counseling our clients for a couple years to recalibrate achieve digital literacy and understand that we are marketing in a digital world we are not doing digital marketingJudging by the welcome the first industrywide NewFronts received that message is getting through So it39s not surprising that no one was surprised that they workedWe know which way the wind is blowingMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media LinkedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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