IAB Reformats NewFronts Once Again With Eight-Day Event, Breakout Sessions For ‘Audio’, ‘Influencers’

Tubefilter’s coverage of the 2020 IAB NewFronts is brought to you in partnership with– an entertainment AI company that integrates brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music, and film content. You can check out all our NewFronts coverage right here. 

The NewFronts have undergone a restructuring once again.

After halving the formerly two-week marketplace — where publishers and platforms convene for high-octane showcases of their latest programming ventures and ad offerings in a bid to drive sales — to a one-week event in 2018, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), which hosts the event, has announced further changes for 2020.

Cheekily dubbed the ‘New NewFronts’, this year’s event will take place from April 27 to May 6 — a total of eight days of programming (sandwiching one weekend in between). In addition to the standard showings by publishers and platforms, the ninth annual NewFronts will comprise — for the first time — a two-day conference called ‘Streaming Week’ from May 4 to 6, as well as two all-new ‘Spotlight‘ sessions for ‘Influencer Marketing’ (on April 29) and ‘Audio’ (on May 1).

Streaming Week, produced by the IAB in partnership with Hulu, will seek to unpack the industry in a two-day, single-venue conference headlined by various thought leaders. Entrepreneur Media and Samsung Ads will also take part in the festivities, per the IAB, with Hulu closing this year’s NewFronts with its presentation on May 6. (All of the other publisher and platform presentations will take place the week prior). During ‘Spotlight: Influencer Marketing’, attendees will be able to interact with influencers, while ‘Spotlight: Audio’ will see podcast leaders like iHeartMedia, NPR, and Pandora take the stage.

Publishers slated to present this year include Amazon, BBC News, Condé Nast, Digitas, Ellen Digital, Hulu, Meredith Corporation, The New York Times, Roku, Twitter, Verizon Media, VICE Media Group, YouTube, and Vudu. You can check out the full schedule as it stands — with additional presenters to be announced — right here. All of the events — including the new breakout sessions — are invite-only, and interested parties can request invites to Streaming Week, Spotlight: Influencer Marketing, and Spotlight: Audio on the IAB website.

“This year’s event is an entirely ‘new NewFronts’,” IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg said in a statement. “Digital video, streaming, and audio is no longer the future; it is happening now and demands an entirely new program…This is the only event that brings digital, streaming, and audio together to make opportunities for brands and the entire ecosystem clear.”

IAB says that the new format is the brainchild of its NewFronts Advisory Board, which comprises execs from ad agencies, brands, technology companies, and publishers, and which also helped it devise programming for the nascent NewFronts West event in Los Angeles. Members include Twitter’s head of U.S. content partnerships Laura Froelich, Hulu’s SVP and head of advertising sales Peter Naylor, and YouTube Originals’ global head of brand partnerships Marc Weinhouse.

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