For all of us missing Owen Thomas, former Valleywag editor, from writing tech blogging scene, he’s back, but a bit kindler and gentler way, and it’s not his full time gig.
He has quietly started a tech blog under the new NBC Bay Area Local,
Owen Thomas Getting Back into the Tech Blogging Scene!
Recent Videos
IAB’s Caroline Giegerich: Over-Labeling AI Use Could Create Consumer ‘Fatigue’
PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Excessive artificial intelligence disclosure labeling could be too much of a well-intentioned thing. Aside from stoking consumer burnout on one hand, the impact could potentially harm advertisers by highlighting AI usage that splits audience perceptions between creativity and inauthenticity. “The risk of transparency is if you over label everything, consumers will […]
AI will Make Agencies Feel Human Again: Carat’s Carrie Drinkwater
LAS VEGAS – If technology used to be about pipes, dashboards and apologies for latency, Carrie Drinkwater wants it to be about culture. Speaking with David Kaplan at CES 2026, the chief investment officer of Dentsu-owned Carat, said the agency’s biggest technology investment isn’t another black box, but a clearer read on cultural momentum. “The […]
Omnicom’s Duncan Painter: Five Years of Consumer Purchase History Provides ‘Granularity’ Beyond Transactions
LAS VEGAS — In order for a retail media network advertiser to accurately find consumers at the right moment, sometimes you have to travel back in time. About five years in the past, to be exact. “We can look back at the consumer level for five years of their engagement and purchase with that product […]
Industry Backs the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico in PSA Campaign
TelevisaUnivision, LG Ads and Roku are among the companies supporting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico by providing inventory to run 30-second spots on their Spanish digital platforms. It’s part of an effort to raise awareness and funds for a group that plays an essential role in the live of tens of thousands […]
Lenovo’s Rick Corteville: B2B Marketers Must Focus on ‘Quality Places’ for CTV
Connected TV isn’t often considered a primary channel by B2B marketers to target their desired audiences. But Lenovo is not only making the case for CTV as a valuable venue for B2B, it’s also touting the channel’s use for eliminating ad waste. Specifically, the electronics company boasts achieving over 90% reach against specific enterprise audiences […]
Data and Context Drive Performance in Connected TV: OMD’s Tej Desai
As brands try to make sense of a fragmented media ecosystem, performance measurement remains one of the biggest obstacles. For Tej Desai, executive vice president of client leadership at OMD USA, connected TV has emerged as a way forward, particularly as marketers look beyond narrow platform metrics and toward more holistic outcomes. Social remains powerful […]
Fragmentation Meets Focus Even as News Expands: CNN’s Guy Griggs
LAS VEGAS – If the news landscape feels like an all-you-can eat buffet with cable podcasts, newsletters, influencers and social feeds stacked high, this is not your imagination. Guy Griggs, senior vice president of ad sales and client partnerships at CNN, says the industry has splintered in spectacular fashion and he has the receipts from […]
TransUnion’s Julie Clark: AI Moves From Technology Talk To ‘Outcomes Era’
Artificial intelligence discussions are shifting from theoretical to practical deliverables as the industry recognizes strong data foundations prove critical for realizing AI’s full potential. “We’ve all been talking a ton about AI, but it’s not just the technology, it’s about what we’re actually delivering now. It’s moving into an outcomes era,” Julie Clark, SVP, Diversified […]
Spark Foundry’s April Carlisle: LLMs Use Brand Websites as ‘First Source of Truth,’ Not Retailer Sites
PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Marketers and agencies are still just scratching the surface when it comes to understanding how generative artificial intelligence tools like large language models are changing the way brands develop their content strategies. For example, brands are now rethinking the role their own websites play in informing AI programs that consumers increasingly […]
DISH Media Sidesteps IP Targeting Woes With Direct Customer Signals
As the advertising industry grapples with signal loss and the diminishing reliability of common identity markers, the hunt is on for more durable frameworks to connect with audiences, particularly in the booming connected TV space. Some think a direct, authenticated relationship with a consumer, built on deterministic data like a physical address or a verified […]
Agentic Platforms Speed Up Media Planning for CTV Advertisers: Disney’s Alex Combs
LAS VEGAS – At CES 2026, Walt Disney Co. showcased a growing push to modernize advertising workflows by combining advanced technology with its storytelling heritage. Alex Combs, vice president of product management, advertising platforms at the media and entertainment giant, said the company is focused on building products that deliver speed, ease and value for […]
Contextual Targeting Gains Ground in CTV: Magnite’s Ryan Kenney
LAS VEGAS – Contextual signals are becoming central to how connected TV inventory is bought and sold, as advertisers look for relevance at scale without relying on user identifiers. Ryan Kenney, svp of revenue for SpringServe at Magnite, said viewer choice and passion for content make context a natural fit for the TV environment. “In […]
Twitch’s Sarah Iooss Says ‘Trusted Voices’ are Key to Unlocking U.S. Live Commerce
While live shopping has long dominated Asian markets, its adoption in the United States has hinged less on functionality and more on the depth of viewer connection. As platforms integrate retail capabilities directly into video streams, the focus is turning toward the authenticity of the messenger rather than just the mechanics of the cart. For […]
Lower Costs Fuel In-Store Media Growth: Stratacache’s Ben Reynolds
The retail industry has seen rapid change over the past year, particularly around in-store media, as falling technology costs and margin pressure elsewhere push retailers to rethink where growth comes from, according to Ben Reynolds, vice president of business development at Stratacache. Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan, Reynolds said lower hardware and installation costs […]
For AI in Ads to Work, IAB Says Fix the ‘Garbage In’ Problem First
Artificial intelligence is often hailed as the solution to advertising’s most persistent measurement headaches, but could itn be doing more to illuminate the problem than to solve it? After all, AI is only as good as the data it is fed. That means the perennial challenges of fragmented platforms, data silos, and inconsistent taxonomies risk […]
From Cologne to Miami: The Brilliance & Drive of Christian Muche
The former German Yahoo marketing and sales executive stood up the wildly successful digital industry expo DMEXCO in Cologne in 2008, during the financial crisis, eventually drawing the global digerati, including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and nearly the entire digital industry. In 2021, in the aftermath of the pandemic, he launched his next act, POSSIBLE, an […]
Gaming Offers Commerce, Not Clutter, to Brands: Acxiom’s Elizabeth Donovan
LAS VEGAS – Acxiom is framing gaming as a serious commerce channel rather than a novelty ad placement. Elizabeth Donovan, global head of commerce and retail media networks, said success depends on relevance, restraint and respect for gamers. Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at CES 2026, Donovan said gaming is first a community. Brands […]
LiveRamp’s Scott Howe: AI Needs ‘Permission At The Center’ Or It ‘Can’t Possibly Be Reputable’
PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Ad success in using artificial intelligence depends on strong first-party data signals combined with consumer permission to operate reputably as the world shifts from recognition-based to permission-based systems. “How do you feel about a nameless, faceless algorithm making decisions about what offer you get, what credit score you have, even what […]
Intuit SMB MediaLabs’ Meg Beaudet: Deterministic Data Turns CTV Into ‘True Performance Channel’
LAS VEGAS — Connected TV’s real value as a performance channel happens when advertisers can know exactly who sits in front of the screen, enabling precise targeting that reaches people in their most relaxed, engaged living room state. It’s been a “holy grail” hope since CTV’s earliest days. And in many ways, that hope is […]
Index Exchange’s Andrew Casale: Containerization Brings Buyside Decisions ‘Closer to the Sell Side’
PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Buy-side decisions are moving closer to publishers. The shift, enabled by the IAB’s artificial intelligence maintenance “containerization project,” brings greater focus to where ad impressions actually originate rather than sending requests to distant infrastructure and waiting for responses. “Historically, the sell side operated at great lengths to the buy side. We […]
Ubiquitous Video Expands High-Impact Ad Inventory: VideoElephant’s Brian Cullinane
LAS VEGAS – VideoElephant positions itself as a connective layer across the video ecosystem, linking media owners, publishers and advertisers through a vast content library and distribution network. Brian Cullinane, chief commercial officer of VideoElephant, said the company manages roughly 5 million short-form video assets, adding thousands more each day, alongside hundreds of thousands of […]