Robert Andrews

FORT LAUDERDALE — You have probably heard the aphorism that “content is king”. But what if content was actually someone else entirely? Try this catchy allegory for how not to reinvent media… “Content is like Humpty Dumpty,” Tracey Scheppach, EVP and Innovations Director at Starcom MediaVest Group, told a Beet Retreat panel. “It has fallen and it has fractured and […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — The potential to target individual TV viewers using one of an array of pre-prepared custom ads will fundamentally change the way the business works – but the people who make those ads are going to have to catch up first, a panel discussion heard. Asked if the current wave of new advertising technology […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — These days, it has become commonplace for broadcasters and advertisers to be fearful of the consumer shift from linear, live viewing to watching more time-shifted programming. Indeed, data from many countries shows on-demand viewing booming whilst old-style consumption wanes. But that’s not the full story. Broadcasters are finding some success in reeling out […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — You can have all the ad tech in the world but, in this day and age, is it really advertising that can connect with consumers any longer? Bank Of America media SVP Lou Paskalis thinks brands need to take a leaf out of the books of publishers and broadcasters they historically have advertised […]

LONDON — Two big tipping points are coming in to view that will crown two decades of analog to digital advertising evolution. “We think internet advertising will overtake TV for the very first time in 2018,” ZenithOptimedia forecasting head Jonathan Barnard tells Beet.TV in this video interview. The move will be thanks to the growth in paid […]

LONDON — ITV may be the UK’s largest commercial free-to-air broadcaster, but that doesn’t mean the home of shows like Downton Abbey and Coronation Street is getting carried away with newfangled video ad tech. In this video interview with Beet.TV, commercial content director Gary Knight cautions against getting “obsessed” by addressable TV advertising. “There’s an element of personalisation […]

LONDON — New Jersey-based addressable TV tech outfit Invidi is set to cross the pond next year, when it powers its first European client business. Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview, CEO David Downey reveals the company’s technology will underpin a launch by Liberty Global’s Belgian broadcaster Telenet and channel owner SBS Broadcasting. The European addressable opportunity […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — In an age where connected TV providers can give advertisers accurate viewing data, hot off the box, what good is the decades-old method of measuring TV audiences using panels of viewers? That is a question both Rentrak and Nielsen are hoping to address – the former by merging with comScore, and the latter by […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — By now, it is a common accepted standard. Pay-TV providers have access to two minutes per hour of ad time in local programming. But what does the future look like, now that operators are lighting up household targeting for connected TV ads? Those two minutes could either get longer, or be more efficiently used, a […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — The Weather Company has been selling ads in to its mobile apps based on specific weather conditions local to users for a couple of years now. In this video interview with Beet.TV, David Clark, who oversees the company’s TV division, explains the value to marketers. “Think of the question ‘What is the weather?’ […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — Super-targeted processes were already revolutionizing online video advertising. Now, the marriage of online with TV is bringing the same opportunity to the big screen in the living room, in the form of “addressable TV”. Once advertisers know enough about viewers to precisely target ads, will they also deconstruct their 30-second spots in to a […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — GroupM owner WPP’s CEO Sir Martin Sorrell once famously called Google a “frenemy”. So why did GroupM recently acquire a digital advertising company ensconced in Google’s world? “We’re the guys who coined the term ‘frenemy’, and we’re not big fans of the whole walled garden concept that Google represents,” Group M global chairman Irwin […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — After having purchased mobile ad analytics firm Flurry and video ad tech outfit BrightRoll, which will be the name for all its ad tech, Yahoo is looking at combining the force of each to help TV companies retain viewers with cross-screen ad targeting. Speaking with Beet.TV, Yahoo’s global TV and video partnerships chief Brent […]

Over the last couple of years, the ad industry has put itself through the wringer, when it comes to the combined threats of fraud, viewability and, now, ad blocking. One of those, viewability, is improving somewhat, as publishers pare back and focus on quality, says a top programmatic ad exec. “Publishers are being more responsible […]

So-called “addressable TV” promises to bring more-precisely-targeted advertisements to TV viewers via connected boxes and TV sets. And that is going to mean greater efficiencies, according to one ad tech exec. “Addressable TV is here,” says Rentrak CEO Bill Livek. “You have two national platforms at scale, with DISH and DirectTV. Then you have the […]

All the talk in TV ad land is about the prospects for super-targeting viewers of connected TVs with hyper-individualized ad messages. One school of thought says that kind of dynamic personalization is “science-fiction“. And a leading addressable TV advertising exec is similarly bearish. “I don’t think true personalization, where you call somebody out by name and […]

The prospect that, in a connected era, TV ads could be assembled from multiple component parts to make up a 30-second spot that is custom-built for a particular individual viewer is getting some marketers is excited. But how viable is this idea, really? Nielsen’s precision and planning SVP Eric Solomon reckons: “Dynamic creative, at an individual […]

Despite the emergence of ads networks and individual targeting that allows advertisers to reach consumers on whatever site they may be, many ad tech execs say context – the art of simply placing an ad in a related publication or TV show – will continue to prove valuable. But can context actually work against effective ad targeting? […]

The coming age in which TV adverts can be distributed to different individual viewers based on specific targeting criteria could, in theory, mean an end to the practice of buying ads against particular shows known to pull broad audience demographics. But one ad tech exec doesn’t expect a wholesale shift. “I think there’s a place for both and […]

The emerging prospect of targeting individual TV viewers with ads, no matter what show or channel they’re watching, may be real – but that doesn’t mean the industry should throw out the old practice of buying ads in shows considered to have demographic matches. That’s according to AT&T AdWorks ad sales VP Jason Brown, who tells […]