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Online Media Companies Team Up To Pitch Advertisers On Web Shows

This April the largest web entertainment companies, including YouTube, Hulu, AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft are planning a two week event in New York where each company will take a different day to present advertisers with marketing opportunities on web programming.

Dubbed Digital Content New Fronts, the online media companies hope that the joint efforts will persuade advertisers to buy air time, product placements, and other marketing initiatives on current and future web series and online video efforts.

"We need to show there is a new game in town," said Colin Kinsella, chief executive of the North America operations of Digitas, the Publicis Groupe-owned ad agency that came up with the idea for the event.

More than 100 million Americans watched online video content on an average day, a 43% increase from the year prior, according to comScore.

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Comment by Rich Mbariket on February 19, 2012 at 3:10pm: Sounds good. Just keep me posted. :)

Comment by Sean Oliver on February 19, 2012 at 3:05pm: I really hope to be there this year. We haven't entered out series yet, but I've got my fingers crossed.

Comment by Rich Mbariket on February 19, 2012 at 2:46pm: Appreciate it, man. Are you coming to WEBFEST?

Comment by Sean Oliver on February 19, 2012 at 2:41pm: I like your POV on this Rich :)

Comment by Rich Mbariket on February 19, 2012 at 2:34pm: I hear your sentiment Sean, but ad coin is how shows get made. The ad agency behind this has a pulse on the future of web programming and I'd like to see a similar event for indie content creators. As mentioned, this event is for the big boys, however, they realize they can't go at it alone, hence the "teaming up." Let's all learn from this... we can do more together than we can apart.

Comment by Sean Oliver on February 19, 2012 at 2:25pm: I can't help but always be a bit weary when big money comes to the web. Not that I don't think creative works shouldn't be monetized, but I would hate to bring the same problems with mainstream media to us. I recently watched a great BBC documentary "The Century Of Self" which follows advertising from infancy to complete corruption. Advertising may very well be the single worst invention! But alas, we all have to do it now.

There needs to be a system of creating original content rather than profitable content. And I'm not sure advertisers really care. I just don't want to see web series turn into Web-Hollywood.

That being said my favorite directors can't get funding and my favorite tv shows get canceled all the time, so I recognize I'm on the fringe.