NewFronts: Bringing Order (and Orders) to Digital Video

At this year’s NewFronts, the IAB marked its 30th anniversary.

“If there’s one thing that the last 30 years have taught us, it’s this: Every time we think that we have a collective handle on what’s going on in the video marketplace, it reinvents itself, and that’s exactly where we are today,” said IAB CEO David Cohen as he opened Wednesday morning’s session.

Complexity was one of the words of the week and a problem many in the audience were hoping the folks on stage could solve.

Cohen said the IAB was trying to do its part.

“That is the challenge that the IAB Media Center is focused on. In 2026 our goal is to bring clarity, consistency and confidence to the digital video marketplace, with clearer definitions, strong frameworks for CTV, streaming, retail media and creators, and, of course, smarter measurement across platforms,” he said, “because innovation without standards and interoperability creates friction and friction, as we know, slows growth.”

Cohen said, “Our industry moves fastest when we move together. Standards accelerate innovation, shared frameworks reduce friction, clarity and simplicity unlock investment.”

Trust is another issue that needs to be addressed, particularly as AI weaves its way into how the industry does business.

“Agentic systems that place the power in the hands of specialized agents on the buy side and sell side are showing incredible promise, but it is still early days,” Cohen said.

Digital video is growing fast, particularly connected TV. In 2026, CTV is projected to grow 45% faster than total ad spend,” said IAB VP Jamie Finstein.

“With that kind of growth, advertisers need something just as powerful: confidence that CTV can actually drive business outcomes,” she said.

Finstein added that the IAB will launch a new best-practices playbook later this year, which will help advertisers navigate the convergence already reshaping the market.

# # #

Amazon didn’t have a NewFront presentation, and it’s Upfront isn’t till May. Nevertheless, Amazon couldn’t have been more ubiquitous if it had been responsible for delivering speakers to the event.

Actually, it did deliver one speaker to two events. Kelly MacLean, Amazon Ads’ VP, engineering, product and science, spoke at Samsung’s event Tuesday morning and then crossed 11th Avenue to address Tubi’s Tubitopia.

“This is a big step forward as we continue creating advertising experiences that are just more relevant, more actionable and ultimately more measurable for brands. So, by bridging content, commerce and performance. This launch really allows our shared customers to connect those Samsung TV Plus campaigns through Amazon DSP and directly connect them to real purchases,” she said at the Samsung presentation.

“We found that 10% of Tubi’s household reach is unique and incremental, across all of Amazon's open internet streaming TV supply, which makes Tubi one of the largest breach publishers in our third-party CTV supply,” MacLean said at Tubi’s event.

MacLean wasn’t at Comcast Advertising’s presentation on Wednesday, but Comcast Advertising President James Rooke told a bemused Seth Myers in a simulated talk show that he had an announcement to make.

“We are announcing for the first time, a partnership with the Amazon ads business, and that partnership is going to enable our local advertisers to be able to access the breadth and depth of the Amazon Video business, including trying video and make it as easy as possible, fulfilling our promise as a one-stop shop to bring that ecosystem into our video offerings, and enabling that to be bought seamlessly alongside everything else we provide,” Rooke said.

# # #

Joke of the Day: Why did the advertising executive break up with her boyfriend of 10 years? Lack of engagement,” said Mikey Day of Saturday Night Live, making a 9 a.m. appearance.

Jocks of the Week: Big men scoring big at the NewFronts included Walmart and Vizio spokesman Shaquille O’Neal, estimated he’s appeared in thousands of commercials, and Cal Ripken Jr., who threw out the first pitch to Mikey Day during the Comcast Advertising presentation.

# # #

Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like many of the male execs taking part in the presentations during the week were showing off some serious sneaker game. Below is a picture of IAB CEO David Cohen’s Nikes.

On the other hand (or maybe feet), it looked like the guys from Samsung collectively forgot their socks.

I wasn’t looking at what the women had on their feet. Really.