Robert Andrews

When video ad-tech operator Tremor Video sold part of its business to Taptica of Israel in August, it meant a $50mn price tag for the sale. But, to Tremor CEO Mark Zagorski, it means more than that. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Zagorski says ad-tech platforms which count both ad buyers and sellers as […]

When IBM engineers developed their artificial intelligence engine Watson to compete in the TV game show Jeopardy! 10 years ago, they may not have expected that it would, one day, also help power the targeting of TV and other ads. But that is now the prospect Big Blue finds itself with, now that Watson is being […]

Digital media have become infinitely trackable. But what if you want to track a consumer from a web property to a bricks-and-mortar one? And what if you want to figure out whether an online ad buy really motivated an in-store purchase? These days, that kind of digital-to-physical attribution is totally achievable, and agency Mediacom is […]

It is now two and a half years since NBCU launched its Audience Targeting Platform (ATP), a way to let advertisers use data to reach specific audiences. In that time, the company has offered up viewing data from 22 million Comcast set-top boxes, combined with other data from first- or third-party sources, to help marketers […]

The complete cross-platform view of audiences’ consumption may not be fully in place today, but the industry is getting there, says a Nielsen executive responding to concern from a leading programmer. Speaking with Beet.TV, Disney-ABC Television Group’s multiplatform research director Brian West had said the current state of multiplatform measurement was not good enough, and […]

When programmatic burst on to the scene, it was mainly in the guise of real-time bidding, an auction system for remnant and low-value inventory that has since fallen out of favour with many big publishers. But, though those publishers seek higher prices normally transacted through direct or human-sold deals with advertisers, auctions are still super-relevant […]

Do advertisers need agencies anymore? As programmatic ad buying platforms have risen up and as many are now switching to a self-service online model that allows advertisers to control their own campaigns, many in the industry are wondering: is the agency about to be disintermediated? But, while brands are certainly now putting a hand on […]

In the last year and a half, yet another new tech terminology has popped up in digital advertising, as platforms try to fix and enhance some of the wonkier off-shoots that programmatic has wrought. In “header bidding”, rather than publishers entertain bids from multiple bidding sources in a “waterfall” sequence, they can see them all […]

The future of data-driven TV ad buying is moving in to sharper focus, after number-two US cable operator Charter invested in TV analytics company 605. The deal involves Charter giving 605 access to its second-by-second TV nationaL viewership data, so that programmers and advertisers can better target their material. But it also involves 605 building […]

For advertisers who want to start reaching consumers through new video platforms in the same way they are familiar with from TV, Nielsen had good news last week. The media measurement agency announced it would now provide measurement for viewing through the Hulu and YouTube TV platforms, which some see as new-look digital alternatives to […]

When it comes to the connected TV opportunity, many people are most excited about the opportunity to precision-target individual consumers using granular profile data. But that doesn’t mean demographics are done as a targeting mechanism. Tru Optik, a technology vendor that offers a data management platform for over-the-top (OTT) TV advertisers, is now partnering with […]

CANNES — From May 2018, strict new regulations governing how companies can handle European citizens’ data will pose a challenge to everyone who handles customer or audience data. Amongst other stipulations, the European Commission’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) measures include: tighter consent conditions for the collection of citizens’ data. consumers can instruct companies to stop […]

CANNES — In the last couple of years, data-driven and programmatic advertising techniques have grown in importance to ad agencies, so many of the agencies have put the processes at the heart of their organizations. For many, that has meant a promotion for the executives who once ran outlier data divisions within an agency but […]

CANNES — Artificial intelligence may be the technology flavor du jour – but some companies out there have been using AI methods for years. In this video interview with Beet.TV, ad agency Omnicom Digital CEO Jonathan Nelson defines AI, outlines how his company applies the tech, and casts a note of caution. “AI’s been in our […]

CANNES — Can artificial intelligence predict the outcome of an election? Back in November, Havas did exactly that. When the world was betting on a Hillary win, Havas deployed what, like large tech firms, it is now calling its “cognitive” technologies, on 15 million news articles, candidates’ speeches and a billion social posts by 10 […]

CANNES — Mobile is one of the biggest forces shaping digital marketing, marketers are challenged to agree common data standards, and advertising can enjoy a healthy future where commerce is taking place. Those were some of the conclusions of a panel of ad agency technology executives, who debated the topics in a session recorded by […]

CANNES — Artificial intelligence has been around for a long time – well, in theory. But one leading ad agency thinker says the technology has reach the point where executives simply must decide what their execution strategy looks like. So OMD’s Jean-Paul Edwards commissioned a Europe-wide research study to understand how companies in different countries […]

CANNES — Would you let a bot do your marketing for you? Ben Parr thinks you should – and so do the investors who just gave $1.6mn to the startup he founded to convince you. Parr, a former Mashable writer, co-founded Octane AI last year, to help brands deploy AI-powered chatbots that can interact with […]

CANNES — Depending on who you talk to, two-bit news sites that play fast and loose with the truth swung last year’s US presidential election. But they also swung advertisers’ ire toward ad-tech platforms that, for a time, seemed unable to stop brands funding the fakers. That is why Wayne Gattinella introduced a new way to […]

CANNES — Will Netflix introduce advertising? That is a question on many minds in Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Madison Avenue alike. Often, the question is framed as an “either-or” in which Netflix would have to choose between continuing its current premium SVOD model or ripping it up in favour of ad funding. Previously, Ampere […]