Digitas's 'The Boycott NewFront' Kicks Off in New York City
*By Christian Smith*
Companies need to take a stand on social issues if they're to remain relevant with their customers and have a place in the media landscape. That's the takeaway from this year's Digitas NewFront, where more than 200 marketing and branding executives met to discuss the issues facing their industries.
"It's no longer enough to just say 'Hey two pizzas $9.99.,'" said Scott Donaton, the chief content officer of Digitas, in an interview Thursday with Cheddar. "The brands that try to sit on the sidelines right now are are actually being dragged into these debates whether they want to or not."
Those debates include gun control, gender equality, and police brutality, topics that were on the agenda at the NewFront this week in New York.
You don't typically hear such discussions at most conferences like this, where content providers usually present new ideas for advertisers to decide where best to position their brands. But the Digitas NewFront is different. Each year organizers choose a theme affecting the marketing industry.
Michael Kahn, the global brand president at Digitas, said the company picked "The Boycott" as this year's theme because the internet "is no longer neutral."
"We are now in such a different world with digital communications and channels, and always being on," said Kahn. "People can't afford to sit on the sidelines anymore."
Digitas put on the first NewFront in 2008, when broadcast TV still reigned supreme and digital content was beginning to grow. Since then, Digitas has pulled in partners such as Hulu, Google, and OATH, which now hold their own NewFronts.
Surprise, surprise: tech is still the sector to watch, according to Karyn Cavanaugh, Chief Investment Officer at Carolinas Wealth Management. Learn how to properly diversify your portfolio.
Facebook and Instagram users will start seeing labels on AI-generated images in their feeds. Hopefully this will save time for everyone zooming in each picture to see how many fingers someone's hand has.
Seth Schachner, Managing Director at StratAmericas, weighs in on Spotify earnings and why that headline-grabbing deal with Joe Rogan could be worth that $250 million.
Mitch Roschelle, Managing Director at Madison Ventures, shares why investors may be waiting longer than expected for those interest rate cuts, and why he’s watching tech, oil, and homebuilder stocks.
Amazon saw 24% growth in their Thursday Night Football audience in 2023. Subscribers will be rewarded with even more sports, but not without enduring more ads — unless they pay extra, of course.
Low unemployment + 350 thousand new jobs in January = ...more layoffs? A bunch of tech and retail companies have laid and are laying off employees after a nationwide hiring surge during the pandemic.
The most magical place on Earth wants a protective order to keep Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees from knowing how the magic happens. A federal judge dismissed a separate Disney lawsuit last week.
