Dust off that blazer and start practicing your small talk. Next week, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) kicks off the industry’s annual dog-and-pony-show season with the NewFronts, where digital platforms like Meta, LinkedIn, Snap, TikTok, Tubi, and YouTube show off their snazzy new toys ahead of traditional studios and broadcasters.
Marketing Brew spoke with Cintia Gabilan, SVP of the IAB’s centers of excellence and industry initiatives, about what it’s like throwing an advertising party during so much economic uncertainty and how that might interfere with negotiations.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
We’re teetering on a global recession, and advertisers are obviously not immune. What conversations do you expect to dominate the NewFronts this year?
I think NewFronts will be different this year. I think it’s going to come with opportunities, as it always does, but also with a little bit of pressure.
Economic uncertainty is definitely on everybody’s mind. Given the rising cost of energy, the new tariffs, there is a lot of US household debt—the cost of doing business in video advertising isn’t just about media budgets anymore…Buyers, brands, and agencies are trying to make every single dollar work as hard as possible and are pushing partners [into] more measurement and transparency, so they see exactly what is going on and happening to every single dollar they invest.
What do you plan on focusing on in your keynote?
I’d say it’s around three major things that are happening—how the video ecosystem itself is evolving…how formats are evolving, how the metrics are shifting because of economic uncertainty, and how the buying process has changed.
Second, not surprisingly at this point, I can do a drinking game about AI in my world [laughs]. This unstoppable rise of AI that is not only fundamentally changing how media is created, is bought, is measured, but also what it’s doing to the ecosystem at large. And of course, I will touch on economic uncertainty…and how digital video is more expensive to operate than ever before.
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Forecasters are anticipating a less robust ad economy. How do you see that impacting negotiations between buyers and platforms?
Because of this rising cost of doing business, I think people might expect higher CPMs…I think sellers will see more aggressive negotiation behavior from brands because, again, they are rethinking where and how to spend…I was telling someone on my team today that all this video innovation and AI are pushing the industry forward, but in a way, the economic uncertainty is pulling back a little bit, so we will see that dance during the event, for sure.
Economic uncertainty often makes big ad commitments hard to stomach. Are you expecting an emphasis on more flexibility in ad buys this year?
Flexibility is the name of the game. Now that we have this 24/7, 365-days-of-the-year real-time optimization bidding, the idea of the NewFronts and upfronts still sounds funny to people. If we can buy everything everywhere at every time, why do we need this notion of committing dollars? [But] with live sports, live events, these types of things, you need to commit dollars.
Yes, brands want more flexibility, but at the same time, they also want to understand, from a technology standpoint, context, data, what is crucial for them to have…You will hear much more throughout the day [about] data-driven solutions, audience insights, creative usages, and measurement solutions for that very reason—that people are [feeling pressure] to do more with less.
Are there any first-time presenters this year? Tell me about why they’re additions to the show this year.
Yes, we have LinkedIn, which is super fun. They are investing heavily on their video solutions, which will be fun to watch. Tubi is back, which is great.
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