“Commerce Is Coming To The NewFronts,” Says Wavemaker’s Content Head Noah Mallin

“Commerce is coming to the NewFronts,” says leading ad exec Noah Mallin.

In an interview with Tubefilter, the head of content and experience at top ad agency Wavemaker — which reps clients including L’Oréal, IKEA, Paramount Pictures, and Colgate-Palmolive, for a total of $38 billion in billings — noted more and more publishers are integrating commerce ventures into their presentations. “We’re seeing partners start to bring commerce into their experiences,” Mallin said, “and even having a partner like Target here is a sign that we’re bringing content and commerce together.”

To this point, Target made its inaugural presentation at the NewFronts this year, where the company also revealed that it re-named and re-branded its three-year-old in-house media agency, which is now dubbed Roundel

— a synonym for Target‘s signature bullseye logo. Target’s media efforts are centered around developing campaigns that connect shoppers with pertinent information and offers, it says. it (Last week, Target also announced that it had tapped longtime digital vet Karyn Spencer to head up talent partnerships and influencer marketing).

Mallin also remarked that the most disruptive technology he observed at this year’s NewFronts revolved around artificial intelligence. AI can be applied to scan images that point out, for instance, whether a brand is contained in a post. Mallin said he’s also impressed by new tech that purports to measure viewers’ emotional intensity when consuming images and sounds.

You can check out our conversation with Mallin in full below:

And you can check out the rest of Tubefilter‘s interviews from our ‘Insights from the 2019 Digital Content NewFronts’ video series right here.