NewFronts West turned up the volume on the future of entertainment, calling on attendees to “take a stand” … and make a “commitment to making it happen,” (an idea brought to life with some Conference-Art, pictured below). Between the marching bands (feat. Rainn Wilson on the Bassoon), and Jukin-sponsored puppies, a few themes stood out: The power of live, cross-channel activations, real-time analytics and purpose-driven content.

Cross-Channel: Everyone’s Everywhere

How do you know if you connected with an audience that’s everywhere and anywhere? With cross-channel analytics, fueled by data that has depth, speed, and scale. Inscape and Comscore presented insights from working together -- of note:

• Cross-platform campaigns generate significant lifts 36% more often than any individual platform

• Social + TV is 50% more effective influencing purchase intent and awareness than other media mixes

• 50% of measured campaigns had one video creative that was 6x more impactful than all other creatives, regardless of platform

Xandr took the stage, reinforcing the message of data-driven, cross-channel campaigns: “We need to do advertising across platforms, at scale and with speed — AT&T’s data allows us to do exactly that.” The timeline below is a glimpse into how Xandr sees their trifecta of content, technology and distribution.

Tal Chalozin of Innovid also spoke to the power of connected TV and how it commands a different type of viewer behavior -- predicting that the biggest trend of 2020 will be connected TV and its massive growth.

Doing It Live

Several presenters touted the power of live, such as Deanna Brown of the Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group and Alex Brough of LiveXLive.Live streaming is being heralded as the antidote to society’s “we have the attention span of a goldfish” problem.  

Deanna Brown tapped into the “moments” created only by live -- and considering that Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group + Dick Clark Productions boasts the largest live distribution network in the world, that’s quite a viral library to choose from. A favorite cultural moment of theirs: this Billboard interview between Rainn Wilson and Billie Eilish.

Totally Trending

For a generation that’s increasingly concerned about being in the present, creators of all shapes and sizes need to know what’s popping-- now. That’s where real-time analytics come in. 

On the heels of announcing new standards to evaluate social video like TV, Tubular Labs’ Allison Stern took the stage. “There are no standards of measurement to truly unlock the digital video economy. Tubular Labs created the first joint publisher-brand consortium (Global Video Measurement Alliance) to co-develop and establish new video standards. With these new metrics, we can get much greater transparency in the way we look at publishers, audiences, and value associated with each.”

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Evolving measurement on an industry-wide level is crucial to building and maintaining audiences. Just as TV is moving from ratings to impressions and outcome-based measurement, digital is moving to metrics like de-duplicated audience engagement, time spent viewing across social platforms, and subscriber growth and retention.   

Per subscribers, Sam Wang of ProGuide looks at a streamer’s revenue: 80% comes from subscriptions and donations, while only 20% comes from ad revenue. #FollowforFollow #SomethingToConsider

Purpose-Driven: “Relationships matter, take a stand”

What do people care about right now? A step up from #trending, live streaming cultivates experiences, relationships, and even empathy -- which can be channeled to better the world. LiveXLive, the largest live dialogue social network with over 400 channels, is beta-testing donations for the fires in the Amazon during an upcoming “Rockin’ for Rio” live-stream, with more action-oriented streams to come in 2020.

Speaking of social good, even Oprah voiced her appreciation of immersive entertainment for creating compassion, noting “I think it’s the next level of storytelling. It’s going to change the way people see themselves and how they see others through themselves,” about Boabab Studios’ VR projects. (note: unfortunately Oprah was not in the building, simply on-screen).

Levis and Girlgaze announced that only 3% of the commercial images we see are shot by women, and how they’re looking to change that with campaigns like #IShapeMyWorld. 

To end, a humblebrag about NewFront West’s host city: Paul Bricault of Amplify and Greycroft noted that in 2018, Los Angeles raised $6.4 billion in venture capital. LA has a trillion-dollar economy and is the third-largest city GDP in the world after Tokyo and New York. Now that’s a lotta likes for the city of Influencers.