The Most Memorable Moments from the 2022 NewFronts

After a bumpy start, the IAB successfully pulled off its first in-person NewFronts week since 2019. In case you missed any of the two-dozen-plus presentations, both virtual and in-person, Adweek has rounded up the most memorable moments—the good, the bad and the glitchy—from the week’s in-person events. (And if you missed any of our NewFronts coverage, you can find it here.) YouTube The first hybrid NewFronts stumbled out of the gate Monday morning when the livestream was inaccessible to all users, keeping the virtual audience from watching the start of YouTube’s kickoff presentation. Two hours later, the IAB sent out an email proclaiming “Our livestream is up and running!”—just as it went down yet again ahead of Peacock’s presentation. Not a great start for a NewFront whose motto was, ironically, “Stream on.” (Thankfully, the rest of the week was free of major glitches.) —Jason Lynch Peacock The NBCUniversal streamer’s NewFronts presentation introduced the Peacock In-Scene Ad, which will customize advertisements within a show down to individual targeting. The technology is wild, but perhaps not quite as wild as Girls5Eva star Renée Elise Goldsberry coming out at the end of the presentation and dramatically singing about key takeaways for everyone to remember. It was very inoooOOOooooOOOvative. —Bill Bradley Vizio It may have been the connected TV company’s first in-person NewFronts presentation, but Vizio’s been around for 20 years. While folks at home streamed a 40-minute, pre-recorded presentation from the Vizio “House,” in-person attendees headed to just-opened Moonlight Studios in New York to hear a 20-minute pitch from executives, chat with the sales, tech and other teams, and explore the interactive Vizio Bus—fully outfitted with all the latest products. But before any of that, the crowd joined in on a champagne toast celebrating the brand’s 20th anniversary. —Mollie Cahillane Tubi Tubi doubled down on originals and technology during its NewFronts presentation, but the most memorable part was when host Vivica A. Fox doubled down on promoting her own movies on the AVOD service. According to the host, you can watch anything on Tubi from Vivica A. Fox in a romance to Vivica A. Fox saving the world from aliens. She also didn’t skimp out on the puns. It was great "Tubi" there live. —B.B. Amazon If you attended Amazon’s event at Lincoln Center, you walked away thinking that Amazon is all-in on the AVOD game—and that Amy Poehler really is that funny. The actress/comedian/writer/director/producer/jack-of-all-trades hosted the company’s first in-person NewFronts presentation, but told the crowd the biggest news is Amazon is going back to selling only books. During the company’s Twitch segment, Poehler joked that the streamer is “the best place to watch people watch people watch people play video games,” and was joined by her long-time friend Paul Scheer, who helped “teach Amy Twitch.” —M.C. Samsung Ads Samsung Ads had an impressive setup at 837 Washington Street in New York, creating a space that felt like a mini arena with a giant screen and everyone looking down on a stage. Among the highlights, the company announced a Total Media Solution to optimize streaming buys and a clever Office joke: panel moderator Evan Shapiro introduced Michael Scott, head of North American sales at Samsung Ads, as Dwight Schrute’s best friend. —B.B. Roku The connected TV platform is only a year into the original content game, but you wouldn’t know that from their NewFronts pitch. The presentation was full of celebrities and highlighted its slate of upcoming content, including new originals from Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse and Christopher Kimball, who all appeared on stage, as well as Chrissy and Pepper Teigen. But Daniel Radcliffe stole the show when he and a (virtual) Weird Al Yankovic unveiled the first trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (which quickly began trending on Twitter). “I learned the accordion for this—and that instrument is a nightmare,” Radcliffe told the crowd. —M.C. Condé Nast Every NewFronts presentation faces the same dilemma: How do you herd attendees from the professional space of the business portion into the casual arena of the networking session? For Condé Nast, the solution was simple: Hire the Brooklyn United Marching Band, a drum line of around 30 performers ranging in age from 9 to 26. As marketers, media and press descended a series of escalators, four different groups of young musicians and dancers soundtracked the journey with a variety of percussion instruments. Needless to say, everyone was in high spirits for the cocktail hour. —Mark Stenberg Snap While some companies are just starting to dip their toes into the in-person events pool, Snap Inc. dove right into the deep end, bringing several personalities to the stage of Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. There was Queer Eye host Karamo Brown along with several big Snapchat and social media stars, including makeup artist Manny Mua, fitness trainer/blogger Katie Austin, model/singer Loren Gray and boxer Ryan Garcia. But that was just a warmup for the closing act: co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel had a long conversation with Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles about her new Snap Original series, Daring Simone Biles, in which she tries new activities such as beekeeping and DJing. —David Cohen Meta It was all performatory during the late evening hours at the Fotografiska Museum, where Meta tried to impress upon the audience via live shows by mega influencers. One would expect a product launch or a collaboration, but these performances by the influencers stole the show. From a live baking shindig with Samah Dada, stand-up comedy by Daphnique Springs and a mini concert by Spencer Ludwig, the small room with nearly 80 lit up on a mid-work week. The hero of the event was the superfluous amount of chocolate chips poured into the cake batter during Dada’s act. Better yet, the audience got to have their cake and eat it too. —Trishla Ostwal Digitas This wasn’t about selling or wowing with big-name celebrities. Instead, the agency’s presentation focused on brand storytelling and Black voices and creators. The panel discussion had the virtual crowd cheering in the chat function after uplifting quotes like, “Black Beauty to me means choice. Honestly, it means the freedom to be who we are, to be who we want to be in all of our beauty and all of our glory,” from Sephora’s Candace Payne. —Kyle O’Brien TikTok The career of Canadian pop singer Jessia took off when she released "I'm Not Pretty" as a TikTok video in early 2021, so it was only fitting that she took to the stage to close out the platform’s NewFronts presentation at New York’s The Glasshouse. After praising TikTok during a panel earlier in the session that featured several creators, Jessia belted out the song that got her started, as well as the title track to her Republic Records EP, “How Are You.” The latter tells the story of a visit to the coffee shop where her ex works, and one livestream viewer noted in the comments that they would never view interactions with their barista in the same way again. —D.C. Twitter Twitter's vp of global client solutions JP Maheu skirted talking about one of the biggest business stories this year—that Elon Musk will be buying the company—with a casual "It's been a quiet month at Twitter. Not much going on lately." The company disappointed advertisers hoping to learn how the ownership change would affect ad inventory by not mentioning Musk at all. —Catherine Perloff Vevo Vevo didn't disappoint on its promise to deliver exclusive music content. Chloe performed her new single "Treat Me" for the first time at the Vevo NewFronts, according to the star's Instagram. Not only did she treat the audience to a four song set—including hit "Do It" and a cover of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good"—she re-shared one lucky advertising executive's excited video of the performance to her 4.9 million Instagram followers via her story. —C.P. WMX By the time Megan Thee Stallion took the stage, global chief revenue officer Erin Moran had all but lost control of the audience. The megawatt hip-hop phenom snaked down a series of three staircases as hundreds of onlookers raised their phones in anticipation. The performance, a half-hour montage of her most iconic hits, turned the staid unveiling of a first-party data platform into the most raucous NewFronts event of the week. —M.S.

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The Most Memorable Moments from the 2022 NewFronts

From a big livestream glitch to Amy Poehler learning about Twitch

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Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch