Robert Andrews

CANNES — When the Media Ratings Council specced out what truly constitutes a “viewable” ad impression, in a world increasingly falling victim to fraudulent ads, ad buyers rejoiced. And then the whole system began fragmenting. Now, it seems, some customers are getting confused about which viewability trackers are right. “As viewability becomes more and more a transitionary […]

CANNES — During a panel discussion at Cannes Lions, disagreement broke out over how much ad buyers should know about the so-called “transparency” in ad network and programmatic practices. “If the agency and the client can have a very clean discussion about what is the value of the offer and what is the fee they charge, […]

CANNES — Many brands are now beginning to take the opportunity to buy ads through programmatic platforms purely under their own steam, rather than enlisting ad-buying agencies. But what is the experience like? Whilst such a feat is eminently possible, Michael Brunick, partner in programmatic ad advisory service Unbound, says: “Several brands we’ve been working with have been doing programmatic […]

CANNES — Heineken may not be able to take advantage of everything programmatic ad buying techniques offer – but that doesn’t mean it can’t use programmatic technology to better understand its customers. USA region senior media director Ron Amram tells a Cannes Lions panel discussion: “We are not big users of data, we don’t have a lot of […]

CANNES — In the ad tech arms race, a plethora of platforms claims to be “full-service”, “end-to-end”, or “full-stack”. But their dream of providing the entire solution to agencies and buyers may be wide of the mark – more likely, customers like to mix and match the tools they use. “There’s no one-size-fits-all,” Carat Global executive […]

CANNES — We have heard a lot this year about how SMG’s VivaKi has moved much of the functionality of its distinct Audience On Demand programmatic division out in to sibling agencies. That has been the internal reorganization story. But what do clients think? “MediaVest has completely rethought staffing on our business. For the most part, it’s been […]

CANNES — What is the sound of $25 billion changing hands? It’s enough to prompt a sharp in-take of breath from ad agency execs. That is the amount at stake after many of the world’s biggest brands recently began reviewing their long-held agency relations. Why are the brands putting agencies on notice? Because times are a-changin’, say industry […]

CANNES — After Philips bought out its part-owned UK video watermarking company Teletrax in 2008, it rolled it up in to a new unit called Civolution, which also offered TV event audience measurement and second screen functionality. Now Civolution has sold off the latter pieces to Kantar, it is returning to the original brand, Teletrax, which will focus on TV […]

CANNES — Social platforms have made some big announcements in recent weeks, with both Twitter’s Project Lightning and Snapchat’s 3v Advertising due to usher in auto-playing, full-screen videos. You might expect that vertically-oriented video would present a challenge to advertisers, who, traditionally, have redeployed ad creative first designed for TV’s landscape screen. But GroupM chief digital officer […]

CANNES — A common theme out of the recent Cannes Lions advertising festival is advertisers’ quest to turn messages in to actual ecommerce sales. That’s what agency Omnicom’s digital CEO Jonathan Nelson is shooting for, too, with big partners. “We’re huge partners with DoubleClick, we’re big Atlas partners,” he tells The Weather Company CEO David Kenny in […]

CANNES — TV ads aren’t as effective as they could be online because viewers instinctively want to be able to exert choices over otherwise passive content. That’s according to an ad exec whose company enables that functionality. “We have incredible budgets for television commercials. What we haven’t really seen is incredible production budgets for digital […]

CANNES — The rise of automated, super-targeted advertising known as “programmatic” has been complex and fast. Sometimes, ad tech players have not helped themselves by obfuscating their offering in obtuse language. But one of the key execs in the space says he observers advertisers increasingly wrapping their head around the prospect and its potential. “We’ve […]

CANNES — After a couple of years of estimates that upwards of 30% to 50% of online ad impressions may have been fraudulently served by nefarious bots, it has begun to seem like platforms have gotten across the problem. Try telling that to Lou Paskalis, who holds the marketing purse strings as Bank of America’s global media […]

CANNES — For businesses that have often preached the dangers of operating in “silos”, it’s ironic how siloed ad agencies’ programmatic ad tech operations have been within their own companies. But that is now changing, with a couple of big agency initiatives to reboot how their dedicated programmatic divisions operate in their wider groups. Publicis’ VivaKi unit […]

CANNES — The ongoing digital explosion is shaking up operations for publishers and broadcasters around the world, and that means recalibrating the skills you need in your team. What does that mean for one of the world’s biggest business information media companies? Asked by Mindshare NA Chief Stategy Officer Jordan Bitterman for Beet.TV, Bloomberg Media global chief revenue […]

The whole of the communications business is being shaken up – and yet, one thing will remain exactly the same. “In 10 years time, as today, ideas will be king,” according to ad agency holding group Publicis’ CEO Maurice Lévy. Speaking with Beet.TV, he envisages a future industry in which digital technology will play a bigger […]

CANNES — If you thought it was just media companies that were selling automatic online advertising, think again. Retailers are also becoming media companies, and they are using programmatic to do it. Programmatic ad tech vendor Rubicon Project’s international GM Jay Stevens tells Beet.TV he anticipates the “confluence” of database marketing with display advertising. “Some of […]

CANNES — Vox Media‘s portfolio of eight sites may be pretty popular on their own. Together, the publisher claims around 170 million monthly uniques for the collection, to which it recently added Re/code. But CEO Jim Bankoff is thinking bigger. He wants to spread that content off from just owned and operated sites, on to […]

CANNES — Brands buying ads that drive traffic to wholesale retailers will push ecommerce to new heights, according to the marketing chief of Oreo and Toblerone company Mondelēz International. Bonin Bough reckons a coming fusion of media buying and ecommerce opportunities will fuel massive business expansion. “We saw a unique opportunity in the marketplace right now to build […]

CANNES — Almost exactly a year after the president and chief operating officer of BuzzFeed was named to lead MailOnline’s US expansion as the online paper’s north America CEO, now Jon Steinberg is already enjoying getting a toehold in to the TV business. At Cannes Lions, DailyMail.com (as the site is called in the States) and Dr […]