There was a new kid in town at NewFronts this year.
On Monday evening, LinkedIn hosted its first-ever NewFront presentation, helping to kick off the annual gathering of media and tech companies working to woo advertising execs with new product announcements, celebrity appearances, and eye-catching content.
The kind of content that’s typical on LinkedIn, though, tends to look a little different than what is common on platforms like YouTube and TikTok—meaning the kinds of advertisers LinkedIn is courting are a little bit different, too.
“There’s a handful of platforms that have a billion users that can drive really concrete results at scale—you can count them on probably one hand,” Matthew Derella, VP of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, told Marketing Brew the morning after the presentation, which was closed to the press. “LinkedIn is the only one of those…with a platform that’s purpose-built for B2B advertisers.”
Link up
In addition to emphasizing LinkedIn’s ins with B2B professionals, Derella said the company largely focused its presentation on its newly rebranded video ad platform, BrandLink. BrandLink, previously called the Wire Program, is designed to connect advertisers with content from publishers like Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal, he said.
Derella, who joined LinkedIn in December, said he’s been hearing from CMOs that they’re increasingly focused on using B2B creators to connect with “younger decision-makers.” That’s in part because younger people are increasingly becoming B2B buyers: The majority of them, according to a 2023 Forrester survey, are millennials and Gen Z, Derella said.
“They are approaching the buying process for these big, high-stakes, multimillion-dollar, multi-year contracts in a radically different way than the old guard,” he said. “If you’re trying to reach these folks, it’s harder than ever…So what does one do?”
CMOs have told Derella “that video is the love language of the new B2B decision-makers,” so LinkedIn is aiming to find ways to facilitate creator and brand partnerships. Last week, LinkedIn announced that it had expanded its publisher program to include creators who post about topics like AI, small businesses, and women’s leadership. The initial slate of creators includes Steven Bartlett of The Diary of a CEO, Guy Raz of How I Built This, and angel investor and AI expert Allie K. Miller, all of whom Derella said participated in LinkedIn’s NewFront.
Growing the network
Advertisers using BrandLink can choose from different collections of video content from publishers and creators, all focused on topics chosen based on the general interest of LinkedIn members and marketers. The initial slate of topics includes the “CEO playbook, AI and innovation, starting and scaling a business, female entrepreneurship, and small business stories,” according to LinkedIn. Participating brands can show up in formats like pre-roll ads and in-video signage, with the opportunity for category exclusivity, Derella said.
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The content is meant to be “highly curated,” but it might eventually expand to include more creators and topics, Derella said. While it was too soon for him to have received direct feedback about the NewFront, he said that “demand for working with creators is very strong from the market,” and that attendees seemed to appreciate LinkedIn’s focus on B2B marketing.
“The focus of LinkedIn is to directly connect with that audience,” Derella said. “That’s an industry that is in the middle of a lot of disruption and excitement, and I think collaboration between us and our customers is going to be more important than ever as we go into this next chapter of B2B marketing.”
He’s not “ready to make any commitments” to next year’s NewFronts yet—but less than 24 hours after LinkedIn’s first one, who could blame him?
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