NewFronts Day 3—Twitter shows up after all and inside TikTok’s invite-only event
Welcome to Ad Age’s NewFronts 2023 newsletter. We’ve been sharing a daily roundup of events, interviews and sessions from Interactive Advertising Bureau's dog-and-pony show throughout the week. You can find all of Ad Age's NewFronts coverage here.
Twitter went from NoFronts to NewFronts—kind of
Well, Twitter showed up at the NewFronts after all. But rather than put on a buzzy presentation like its peers, the social platform held a private event at its New York office to talk about its ongoing relationship with NBCUniversal and other media partners, Garett Sloane writes. The company announced it is bringing back livestreaming, à la Periscope, the video app it once owned and then shuttered.
Read more about Twitter’s private event here
Inside TikTok’s private event
TikTok will also host an invite-only event today. The viral platform announced deals with major media partners, including NBCUniversal, Condé Nast and BuzzFeed, to get more professional videos on the app to entice more ad dollars, Sloane writes. The new publisher and advertising program, dubbed Pulse Premiere, gives “advertisers control and predictability to place their ads directly after content from premium publisher content of TikTok’s For You feed,” TikTok said in an announcement.
Revry werks the main stage
LGBTQ+ streamer Revry surprised advertisers with a presentation far more fabulous than the typical pitch, Ad Age’s Parker Herren writes. The media programmer showcased its content through a “Wizard of Oz”-themed musical, called the “Wizard of Yaaaaas,” on the NewFronts main stage. The performance took advertisers down the Revry-brick road, on which CEO Damian Pelliccione (as the “Good Bitch of the West”) introduced Revry’s top shows personified by a cast of voguing dancers who spun, split, duck-walked, back handspringed and death dropped across the stage. The number, which included humorous asides to assure advertisers Revry includes brand-safe programming and plenty of branded content opportunities, featured performers Madison Rose as Dorothy and Mila Jam as the “Wizard of Yaaaaas.”
Read more about Revry's ad network here
Measurement remains center stage
As measurement remains a defining topic of this year’s upfront negotiations, measurement companies had the opportunity to showcase their offerings yesterday.
Innovid announced it would offer its connected TV attribution metrics for Disney’s streamers, starting with Hulu. And Comscore and Samba TV shared new research aimed at proving the strength of digital platforms over traditional TV.
“No matter how you look at the data, the story is the same—on any given day in America, one in two adults are completely unreachable by traditional TV advertising,” said Dallas Lawrence, senior VP, head of communications and brand at Samba TV, during the company’s presentation.
Similarly, Comscore presented findings that linear TV is no longer enough to reach audiences on its own. Danan Ren, Comscore’s senior VP of client insights, shared research that the entire media ecosystem is the only way forward for advertisers, particularly with the Gen Z audience. Research from the measurement company showed that brand lift for advertising on TV alone versus on TV and digital combined provided a 10 point increase in brand lift metrics.