Robert Andrews

Only one company spent more on US TV ads during the winter holidays, according to iSpot.TV – but Target is still looking for the box in the corner of the living room to prove its worth. One of the retail giant’s  top execs says TV is still performing for the chain – but that doesn’t mean times are not […]

LOS ANGELES — Trying to target an individual consumer when people’s breadcrumb trails are scattered across a plethora of devices feels like a headache for many marketers today – but those data trails can be united to piece people back together. Started seven years ago, Tapad was one of the first of what is now a rash […]

When people think of advertising analytics vendors that offer an insight in to the viewability of ad inventory, Moat is often top of most minds. Now it is also part of one of the biggest IT companies on the planet. New York-based Moat, founded seven years ago, has signed an agreement to be acquired by Oracle in […]

VIEQUES, PR — Around the world, television sets are getting connected to the internet – and that is creating a huge new opportunity for a new breed of gatekeeper. But the new broadcast contenders should not just assume they will become all powerful. One executive brokering the future of connected TV advertising thinks quality of […]

VIEQUES, PR — Already this year, several of the big US TV networks have declared they will make moves to let advertising buyers use granular and first-party viewer data, over and above traditional Nielsen data, to target ads on linear TV. Speaking on this Beet Retreat panel, representatives of the networks explained their strategy. The recent announcements […]

VIEQUES, PR — Digital advertisers need a common metric for what constitutes user-viewable video inventory – but they shouldn’t rely on it as the prime driver of their strategy. That is according to a trio of ad-tech execs whose companies help bring some visibility to the problem, but who say the challenge is greater than that. Almost […]

VIEQUES, PR — Age, gender and demographic just don’t cut it anymore. In the new age of advertising super-powers, marketers want to target consumers with more more granularity and certainty than traditional measurements allow. Fortunate, then, that a whole new raft of data sources is coming on-stream to help them do that. In a panel discussion convened […]

LOS ANGELES — For TV advertisers eager to see the effect of their campaign more quickly, a US- and India-based company claims to have the answer. Alphonso, which offers the ability for buyers to serve ads on to digital devices based on an understanding of consumers’ TV viewing behaviour, also this month launched closed-loop attribution. The […]

LOS ANGELES — At a time when publishers’ spoils from relying on social platforms for distribution are coming under scrutiny, the man responsible for brokering Twitter’s deals with news organizations says the busy current news environment makes the platform perfect for publishers and advertisers alike, In its last-published quarter, Q4 2016, Twitter made $638mn from advertising, slightly less […]

VIEQUES, PR — The IAB may have a list of standard ad formats, the hymnsheet that the online advertising industry sings from. But ad formats are changing every day. Publishers and platforms go on tinkering with offering new ad experiences in a never-ending quest to push the boundaries and increase consumer attention. But what happens when […]

VIEQUES, PR — It operates what is becoming known as one of the world’s leading addressable TV advertising systems. Now the UK’s Sky is launching AdSmart in to Ireland. Speaking at the Beet Retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico, in the middle of March, the satellite platform’s advanced TV director Jamie West said: “Sky AdSmart launched in […]

VIEQUES, PR — Video ad-tech vendors have spent the last couple of years sniffing around the TV industry, hoping to start processing even a fraction of the $75bn US TV advertising industry in the same way they have begun gobbling up online video ads. But a new rationalism has recently dawned on the vendor community, and ad-tech […]

LOS ANGELES – After a month in which advertisers, agencies and publishing platforms have been pilloried in the press for allowing ads to fund shady content like terrorist recruiting videos, the world’s largest media agency is asking platforms to make a simple change it says could solve the problem. “We think we can catch 99.9% of […]

VIEQUES, PR — In the traditional marketing funnel, TV and video ads were commonly used to spark only initial consumer awareness of a brand. But video ads are gaining new powers, and targeting was just the start. Now new technologies claim to be able to follow the actions of video ad viewers all the way through to product purchase, and […]

VIEQUES, PR — Recent moves by US broadcasters to begin selling some of their TV ad slots by making more digital-style data available are likely to bear fruit at the upcoming US TV ad sales season known as “upfronts”. Earlier in March, Fox, Viacom and Turner teamed to form OpenAP, a system in which they will allow ad buyers […]

VIEQUES, PR — Two years after being acquired by Fox for $200mn, true[X], an ad-tech vendor helping advertisers to deliver non-intrusive interactive TV ads, has been awarded for its work. Work touched by true[X] received four wins at the Internet Advertising Competition awards. Awarded work included a commercial for Warner Bros’ Suicide Squad movie, one for auto […]

VIEQUES, PR — One of the world’s largest international TV operators is three years in to an addressable advertising roll-out that has to happen differently across 14 markets but has to be innovative nonetheless. But Liberty Global’s advanced advertising MD thinks he has found a way to keep things simple whilst also being disruptive and going […]

VIEQUES, PR — Once upon a time, click-through rate (CTR) ruled supreme, and all marketers wanted to see was a completed click. But CTR is undergoing an assault, as brands worry that a simple click is no longer the whole story and search for an alternative. Put simply, the foundational mechanisms of digital marketing effectiveness are in […]

VIEQUES, PR — TV companies are trying to adapt to a world in which the sale of their advertising is being up-ended by new possibilities – but doing so involves challenges as incumbent workflows are not up to the job. That is according to one ad exec turned software founder, hoping to help solve some of those problems. […]

VIEQUES, PR — It is fair to say Neustar sees value in the future of television – the data and marketing services firm is currently in the process of being acquired by a private equity outfit for $2.9bn. That deal was announced on December 14, but the company expects the conclusion of its sale to Golden Gate Capital by the […]