Cynopsis sat down with Wall Street Journal‘s Global Head of Ad Sales Trevor Fellows to discuss what it has in store for the digital content NewFronts event on May 2. DCNF will feature 22 publishers this year, including the founding partners Hulu, YouTube/Google, AOL, DigitasLBI and Microsoft.
How do you think this year’s NewFront will be different from last year’s?
The video market is maturing, although it’s still a young market. I think everyone has a much better understanding of what the opportunity really look like, as well as what’s feasible and what is not.
What do you mean by feasible?
Media owners saw a huge demand that they thought they could satisfy with their own video, saying, “We can grow X percent and sell Y number of impressions.” But they couldn’t deliver the inventory. At WSJD, we think, “How much can we organically grow?” I think we will see more realism from publishers and buyers.
What have buyers been looking for that’s surprising or different?
Demand for more video. In the last few months, there’s been an increasing realization that not all video is great and equal, and that the context really matters. So, we are creating video for them with our custom content studios.
Who are your clients with custom content?
Core drivers are categories like tech, telecommunications, classic B to B. We are seeing early signs from luxury advertisers, though they tend to take a “wait and see” attitude.
