We’re a sucker for you, Jonas Brothers. But, no offense here, your appearance at Samsung Ads’ NewFronts event to announce your upcoming tour on Samsung TV Plus was outshone by David Letterman himself. Letterman joined Sang Kim, svp at Samsung Electronics, during the presentation to chat about his new FAST channel on Samsung TV. This month marks the 10th anniversary of Letterman’s Late Show exit, and the legendary late-night host noted that having a curated experience on Samsung TV was more ideal for the series than simply having people watch random clips floating around the internet. Deadline captured part of the chat, so you can see why this would always make our Top 10 List. — Bill Bradley
David Letterman discussing the logo for his new FAST channel at Samsung’s NewFronts presentation in New York pic.twitter.com/LiTqgUWSwI
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) May 6, 2025
Google Trades Cookies for Pizza
At its NewFront event this week, Google went all in on Display and Video 360, bringing new generative AI tools and a retail media solution into the advertising platform. One feature enables advertisers to describe target audiences in plain language and receive curated inventory recommendations. Built on Gemini models, the updates also include AI-powered reporting and support for live event inventory like NFL Sunday Ticket. The NewFront presentation, held at Google’s St. John’s Terminal location in Manhattan, culminated with Bill Reardon, gm of enterprise platform for Google Ads, demoing DV360’s new AI tools with an example of a fictional Chicago deep dish pizza company building its own campaign.
Wrapping up the event, Reardon joked that while Google didn’t have pizza to share with the audience, it did have cookies—an apparent joke about the tech titan’s recent U-turn on cookie deprecation on Chrome. Staffers then appeared in the crowd, passing out pizza-shaped cookies to attendees. — K.B.
Where’s Waldo-Mart?
The big question on ad buyers’ minds going into Vizio’s NewFront presentation this year was how much Walmart would be a part of Vizio’s pitch. But by the looks of the bright, light-filled space at New York’s The Penn District, where the event took place, the quick answer was: not much. Vizio seemed to be running its own show with a handful of Walmart ad executives sprinkled into the audience. Walmart chief growth officer Seth Dallaire briefly chatted with Vizio CEO William Wang about why America’s largest retailer acquired the smart TV manufacturer.
“There’s a lot of adjacency with advertising at Walmart,” Dallaire said. — Lauren Johnson
