One of the most popular sessions at our annual VideoNuze Online Video Advertising Summits is our fireside chat with senior agency executives debriefing the NewFronts and Upfronts and what’s ahead for the year.

At our 8th annual Video Ad Summit on June 12th, this 2:45pm fireside will include Maureen Bosetti (Chief Partnerships Officer, Initiative) and Mike Law (EVP, Managing Director of Video Investment, Dentsu Aegis Network U.S.) with Matt Prohaska (CEO and Principal, Prohaska Consulting) as interviewer. In this “In Focus” session preview, I share what I hope you’ll learn and why I think the session is important.

Traditional broadcast and cable TV networks, digital pure-plays and platforms are all vying for video ad dollars these days, making the ad buyer’s job more complicated than ever. Every opportunity has its pros and cons in terms of cost, targeting capability, reach, measurement, brand safety, viewability and more. So what did agency executives learn from the NewFronts and Upfronts presentations that will inform their campaign planning in 2018?

This year’s session will address questions such as: How viable are TV networks’ new data targeting tools and how do they contribute to upfront decision-making? How effective were digital pure-plays and platform in addressing brand safety and measurement issues? What is the right balance between targeting and reach? What role does upfront buying play in a world where linear consumption is declining and programmatic buying that enables dynamic ad insertion is growing? How are the lines being blurred given the rise of lean-back consumption on connected TVs plus out-of-home viewing on mobile devices?

Importantly, how will the TV ad experience be re-invented to compete with ad-free SVOD services like Netflix and Amazon? In the end how will all this translate in 2018 for all the traditional and digital networks, plus the platforms in budget allocations? Who will gain and who will lose?

For anyone whose business model depends on a healthy video ad ecosystem, these are among the most pressing questions that Maureen and Mike will address, plus lots more. As always, this fireside promises to be packed with insights that can help shape strategies for the remainder of 2018 and beyond.