Robert Andrews

At the Digital Content NewFronts, which began on April 30, big digital publishers are pitching ad agencies on how their upcoming content rosters can provide a space for advanced-booked advertising. But which space that is, exactly, and how big it might be, is now open to question. For PHD Media chief operating officer Stacy DeRiso, […]

The two companies may be at the center of the current swirl of media consolidation chatter, but that hasn’t stopped them making a tie-up of their own in the meantime. This week, Comcast saw its FreeWheel video ad-tech unit partner with Viacom to improve the future of advanced TV ad advertising. That adds Viacom to […]

As media companies, Meredith and Bloomberg may seem to have little in common. But the lifestyle publisher has just taken a leaf out of the business network’s playbook – by launching a new streaming video partnership on Twitter. At the same time as turning its PeopleTV in to a full24-hour linear TV channel through FuboTV, […]

Header bidding, the technology tactic through which publishers can entertain multiple bids for ad inventory simultaneously in order to maximize the chance of higher bid prices, has grown in momentum over the last couple of years. But Criteo didn’t anticipate this kind of demand. When the ad-tech company launched Criteo Direct Bidder, one of its header […]

If, in a few years’ time, there is a book called “Who Killed The Ad Agency?”, rival direct-buying platforms, the ad fraud scandal and decades-old pricing structures are likely to have significant chapters. In recent months, many agency holding groups have reported revenue trending down and share prices have fallen, after challenges including the rise […]

The upfronts, the season in which US TV companies tout their upcoming roster to advertisers, is now in full-swing. But do things look any different this year from previous years? One key question on everyone’s lips, according to one ad-tech exec: “Will audience-based and cross-screen transactions become a key part of how the upfront negotiations […]

Over the last year, some of the big national US TV networks have been rolling out advanced advertising capabilities allowing advertisers to plan a more targeted campaign, and measure the cross-screen effects. But the local market doesn’t have to be left on the sidelines, says one ad-tech provider. Alphonso‘s offering brings the ability to retarget […]

MIAMI — In changing times, when advertisers are being invited to buy media directly with platforms, rather than continuing to go through their traditional agencies, is the writing on the wall for the incumbent intermediaries? In this video interview with Beet.TV, Havas Media Group North America president Shane Ankeney acknowledges “everyone is a little intimidated” by the […]

MIAMI — Kathleen Brookbanks knows the future is mobile – she just has to hire for it. The chief operating officer of Omnicom’s two-year-old agency Hearts & Science says the future of advertising depends on finding the right people. “Being that we’re in a world where we have to figure out mobile, I think I would […]

MIAMI — Advertisers now have an arsenal of tools with which to make and buy ads, and a plethora of platforms with which to measure them. But one outcome that is sorely lacking, according to the man who speaks for big-brand marketers? Advanced ad tools are not driving actual business growth. In this video interview […]

After a year in which it acquired Teads (video ads), miLibris (digital publishing), Audience Partners (ad-tech), Placemedia (advanced TV ads) and more, multi-national cable company Altice is making a step change to unify its ad offerings. In April, the Netherlands company’s USA division, which bought Cablevision in 2015, launched a4, a business allowing advertisers to build […]

MIAMI — As the name of an organization, it may evoke memories of 1950s cop TV series – but, whilst the Advertiser Protection Bureau (APB) fights misdemeanors, it isn’t a crime-busting agency and its members don’t carry badges. Launched at the 4A’s Accelerate conference, APB is a new body through which ad agency groups will […]

MIAMI — Bitcoin isn’t the only beneficiary from blockchain, the underlying technology that powers decentralized cryptocurrencies and, potentially, a whole lot more. That same kind of infrastructure is getting people in several industries excited. In particular, blockchains’ ability to store an immutable, public ledger of every system activity. In the advertising world, that capability has […]

On the spectrum of ad-tech bold moves, it has to rank high. Last week, NBCUniversal announced it would create nothing less than “the industry’s first unified advertising metric”. So-called CFlight is a new measurement metric that aims to give advertisers a total sense of campaign viewership across screens, creating a new currency and offering guarantees […]

Ad-tech provider Mediaocean will soon begin deploying the technology that underpins decentralised cryptocurrencies as a solution in the fight for ad transparency. In this video interview with Beet.TV, company CEO Bill Wise says Mediaocean will be making a blockchain announcement in the next few months, though initial activity in entered on discussions with potential partners. […]

What do you get when you mix the largest TV ad-monitoring service with one of the crop of TV content recognition vendors? 4C Insights calls it “enhanced audience targeting and analytics for premium channels including linear television, over-the-top (OTT) television, social, and digital media”. Back in January, the ad intelligence company, whose Teletrax unit monitors […]

The TV world is engaged in a long-running effort to upgrade its measurement systems, which, traditionally, have involved viewers completing a questionnaire to indicate their weekly viewing habits. If TVs could automatically log viewers’ behaviour and report it back to measurement agencies, wouldn’t that be easier? It’s already happening. Automatic content recognition (ACR) happens when […]

As the rolling stone of digital privacy concerns has gathered more moss over the last couple of years, could TVs become the next device to worry consumers? In the practice of automated content recognition (ACR), a television set analyzes a viewers’ current viewing behavior to turn habits like viewing time and channel in to actionable […]

NBCUniversal’s TV inventory is about to become available to more advertisers thanks to an expansion through Adobe’s Advertising Cloud TV suite. The pair are announcing that NBCU’s Audience Studio, its suite of audience buying tools, will now plug in to the Adobe system, effectively creating a programatic private marketplace comprising NBCU’s broadcast and cable TV […]

The ability to target TV audiences with granular data, going beyond traditional age- and gender-based contextual matching, may have existed for a couple of years now. But history will likely show that the opportunity is still just getting started. “The opportunity is huge,” says Erica Schmidt, the global CEO of IPG Mediabrand’s ad-tech unit Cadreon. […]