Digital content platforms and streamers pitch new ad formats in short and long-form video on NewFronts day two

Digital content platforms and streamers pitch new ad formats in short and long-form video

On day two of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s four-day NewFronts, digital content platforms and streamers pitched new ad formats (with a focus on artificial intelligence and shoppable content) in short-form social video and longer-form TV shows and movies.

Key details:

Snap is testing new ads with its new ChatGPT-powered chatbot. Samsung’s adding multi-screen shoppable content. Privacy discussions so far have been scant. Snap, Roku and Peacock tout their massive audience reach to advertisers. Peacock focuses its pitch on ad-supported movies and four new ad formats. Roku is bringing ads to “Roku City”. From ChatGPT to CTV, AI-powered ads are coming to Snap, Roku and Samsung.

Using “My AI” — Snapchat’s recently announced chatbot powered by ChatGPT — Snap has been testing ways to use AI to surface mobile video and testing new sponsored links within AI-powered conversations.

Other companies also announced new AI tools for advertisers. For example, Roku debuted a new “Contextual AI” tool that scans the Roku Channel content library to let advertisers automatically run messages next to relevant parts of shows and movies. Meanwhile, Samsung announced AI-powered shoppable content through a new partnership with KERV that lets viewers connect with advertisers on their mobile devices without pausing connected TV content.

Data’s everywhere, but privacy chatter’s nearly nowhere

Despite growing concerns — and increased regulation — about ad-tech’s data privacy issues, the topic hasn’t come up much so far this week in companies’ presentations. One company that did briefly mention it was Snap, with Wilk mentioning that the company will run safety checks across all sponsored links to make sure there aren’t any privacy violations.

Shooting for scale

When it comes to scale, Snap said its advertisers can now reach 750 million users on Snapchat every month and said 50% of U.S. users are 25 and older. The company also said that 350 million users watch “spotlight content” each month with fourth-quarter watch time — double what it was a year earlier. Snap’s also scaling its Spotlight product for advertisers globally. And it touted the scale of its augmented reality tools, mentioning that users engaged with AR lenses almost 2 billion times during the 2023 Super Bowl.

Peacock also touted its ad-supported scale, saying its One Platform tech stack reaches 227 million adults monthly.

At Roku, the company is adding new spots for advertisers, including a new ad placement on its “Roku City” screensaver, which VP of Ad Revenue and Marketing Alison Levin said reaches 40 million homes every month. This summer, McDonald’s will become the first advertiser to appear on the ad spot, but Levin said the company’s also reserving “a few category-specific” spots for other advertisers. (Roku’s also adding ways for advertisers to get in front of viewers looking for content through new garden and sports experiences on the platform’s home screen.)

Ads for long-form video

Peacock’s pitch to advertisers focused on ad-supported, long-form content like movies, in contrast to YouTube’s presentation on the first day of the NewFronts in which the company focused on short-form video. Kelly Campbell, president of Peacock and direct to consumer, said Peacock had doubled its paid subscribers year over year — to 22 million. Peacock’s growth could also be tied back to the investment being put into the streaming platform. In recent Q1 2023 earnings for NBCU parent company Comcast, Peacock had $704 million in losses, up from $456 million of losses in Q1 2022.