DigitasLBi Launches Biggest Ever UK NewFront Initiative

Global marketing and technology agency DigitasLBi is launching its biggest ever UK NewFront, the collaborative thought-leadership programme aimed at stimulating creativity within the branded content marketplace.

Now in its second year the DigitasLBi UK NewFront brings together leading artists, creative thinkers, media owners and innovators to pioneer brave and experimental new approaches to content creation.

Taking place on the afternoon of Friday 16th October at the iconic Brick Lane Backyard Market, the 2015 DigitasLBi UK NewFront will explore how technology is transforming our daily lives – from our health and wellbeing, to the cars we drive, the content we consume and the way we interact with brands.

Participants include Professor Hugh Herr PhD, head of the biomechatronics research group at MIT Media Lab and actor, writer, TV presenter and director Richard Ayoade. They will be joined by NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Commander Reid Wiseman; DJ, TV presenter and founder of The Pool, Lauren Laverne; Mumsnet founder and CEO Justine Roberts; and Nicholas Burns, the actor best known for playing Nathan Barley.

Founded in the US in 2008, the DigitasLBi NewFront initiative has gone from strength-to-strength, helping marketers harness the latest branded content opportunities. DigitasLBi first brought the concept to the UK in 2014 as part of the IAB Digital UpFronts, with speakers including entrepreneur Cindy Gallop, former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward and writer and comedian Adam Buxton. The partnership continues this year with DigitasLBi’s focus on content, creativity and marketing innovation providing the perfect runway into the IAB’s week-long series of events aimed at encouraging longer term thinking and planning for digital.

Chris Clarke, Chief Creative Officer, International, DigitasLBi, said: “As marketing increasingly shifts towards a reliance on the personal networks of its target audience it's ever more important for brands to be useful, purposeful and entertaining not just in product and services but in the way they go to market. Brands need to be interesting and yet so few really are. We've brought together a group of very interesting people to explore this idea in as entertaining and informative a way as possible.”

Gareth Jones, Chief Brand & Content Officer, DigitasLBi, said: “Thanks to the power of technology our ability to transform the world around us – whether through art, science, economics or engineering - has never been greater. With the marketing industry in the midst of a fundamental transformation, the 2015 DigitasLBi UK NewFront will help brands navigate the seismic changes impacting business, branding, culture, creativity and life.”

The DigitasLBi UK NewFront is part of the marketing and technology agency’s promise to help companies of all shapes and sizes decide what’s next … and then take them there.