Robert Andrews

LONDON — Many marketers have heard the phrase: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” But Vodafone is trying to find the answer and eliminate the waste, using an exploratory attitude and with an ad-tech vendor in-tow. In this video interview, Vodafone head of brand strategy, […]

LONDON — Marketers have always regarded television as the big box that can reach a mass audience, the medium at the top of the funnel that fuels initial consumer awareness. But times are a-changing, and new technology means targeted television can serve advertisers just like laser-guided online ads can. “TV can absolutely be a performance medium,” according to […]

LONDON — The excitement in ad-land is all about the eventual appearance of “programmatic” advertising technology, which has already revolutionized online display and video ad sales, in to the $75 billion traditional television industry. But Caspar Schlickum doesn’t quite see it that way. While many tech vendors get excited about converting TV in to another programmatic video end point, […]

LONDON — Two years after it launched, UK satellite TV operator Sky’s addressable TV technology has hit some milestones. The AdSmart system was a long time coming, but has already begun to change change the market. Amongst the numbers, head Graeme Hutcheson revealed at a Beet.TV recorded panel: 5,000 campaigns placed to date. almost 1,000 advertisers so far. […]

The threats are mounting. With challenges like viewability, fraud and ad blocking rising, the online ad industry could risk falling, just as Rome’s empire did before it. That’s the view of Terence Kawaja, the famed digital media M&A advisor, whose just-released 100-slide deck, inspired by Netflix’s House Of Cards, lays the industry bare. http://www.slideshare.net/tkawaja/lumas-state-of-digital-media-at-dms-16 As Kawaja tells Beet.TV, Scape Of Cards: State […]

The video ad-tech roll-up continued this month, as Comcast-owned premium video ad-tech vendor FreeWheel announced it was acquiring France-based server-side platform (SSP) StickyADS. StickyADS offers premium publishers software to build, run and operate their own private exchange. So why did FreeWheel buy? “We knew we had to become a full-stack provider to enable our clients to […]

SEVILLE — By now, people know all about ad retargeting – the practice through which ads for products you have viewed online follow you around the web. But what if those products followed you out of a store, through the shopping mall and in your car home after a visit to your local shop? That’s what Bannerconnect […]

SEVILLE — Back in February, the remnants of MySpace ended up located at Time Inc,when the publisher acquired Viant, the advertising data company that was the latest owner of the once-mighty social network. But Time’s interest was about more than social. It was buying Viant because of its considerable bank of first-party data about consumers, also including in […]

If Taboola wanted to show the industry the scale it has amassed, it is certainly now using some very big numbers to do so – comScore Media Trend data it republished today suggests the content discovery tech vendor is becoming gargantuan. 200m+ mobile-only and 810m+ desktop users, totalling more than 1b monthly users. “Every American internet user sees Taboola […]

SEVILLE — When comScore launched in the 1990s, it began measuring consumers’ internet browsing habits by installing a software monitor on their PC. Times have changed. A lot. With devices proliferating, online life is no longer about the computer in the study – so comScore is making a move to capture everything, with a new product […]

SEVILLE — As consumers’ media time has fragmented across a smorgasbord of different devices, comScore is amongst the agencies racing to catch up, by allowing media companies and advertisers to track holistic experiences. “When we talk to our clients, the number one ask is the ability to be able to track and report their audiences and […]

SEVILLE — We’ve heard a lot about the supposed transition from “mad men to maths men” – but what if the real transition is straight to software? Increasingly, computer algorithms are beginning to take on many of the functions of ad targeting and buying themselves. One company where that’s happening is TubeMogul, whose programmatic video platform […]

SEVILLE — The time for playing around with small change is over – it’s time to put your hand in your pocket and put real money on the table. That’s what one ad-tech exec says about the manner in which ad buyers have thus far approached the two biggest emerging media channels – mobile and video. “Marketers […]

SEVILLE — It is a generalization to say, but the usual order of technology adoption goes: US, Europe, Asia-Pacific. In marketing-technology, Europe is certainly lagging the States, according to one analytics supplier. “Compared to US, Europe is one, two, maybe three years behind,” according to Lucien van der Hoeven, the EMEA MD of MarketShare, acquired by […]

SEVILLE — As ad-tech platforms continue to rise up, the lingering question is: Will newly-empowered brands now decide to take on many of the functions they previously outsourced to ad agencies? Whilst that appears to be happening sporadically, it won’t happen so fast in Europe, says one ad-tech exec with a read on the trend. “As we […]

SEVILLE — Data, data everywhere. But now the top priority is making sense of it all. That continues to be one of the biggest challenges for modern marketers, says an agency’s programmatic exec. Group M’s Xaxis data intelligence VP Kedar Patil tells Beet.TV, in this video interview, the top imperative is “how to capture them and tie […]

SEVILLE – Government regulation “FCC 16-18” may sound innocuous enough – but the implications of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to open up set-top box hardware will be far-reaching. The rule would compel cable companies to offer their programming not just over their own boxes but through those of third-party vendors, too. One ad industry […]

SEVILLE — The click-through rate has long been used as one of the key measures of effectiveness in online advertising. But, for some, that measure is losing its relevance in the new age. “There are some real challenges around fixation on click-through rates,” according to Damien Crittenden, analytics and insights director for Group M’s programmatic division Xaxis, speaking […]

LAS VEGAS — The number of publishers choosing to bar users running ad-blocking software is growing by the day. Ad agency holding group WPP’s digital president has asked more publishers to do the same. Vice Media recognizes the problem – but it doesn’t want to tackle it in quite the same way. “This is troubling for […]

SEVILLE — Kantar Media helps advertising businesses measure the reach of content across many media. The new challenges are measuring digital screens and tying together measurement of multiple screens. Speaking with Beet.TV, CEO Andy Brown explains Kantar Media’s approach to new TV and video platforms: “It’s a process of evolution, there’s a roadmap: “We start with ‘Extended TV’, […]