Robert Andrews

LAS VEGAS — The New York Times has intrigued many with sponsored articles it has run under the “Paid Posts” scheme it launched in 2014. Now it is finding that branded articles carrying video are consumed most. “A lot of our best-performing stories have had video as part of them; many of them are multi-media,” Times […]

LAS VEGAS — Always ready with an insightful view on the state of modern media, New York Times media columnist David Carr tells Beet.TV over-the-top TV services are further fragmenting the landscape – and that makes live sports more valuable. “The (cable) bundles started to become unbundled last year,” he says in this video interview […]

LAS VEGAS — Three months after launching its direct-to-consumer subscription internet TV service, the $5.99-a-month CBS All Access, CBS is finding age an early differentiator from its core TV audience business. “It’s a small base and growing,” CBS Interactive GM and SVP Marc Debevoise tells Beet.TV in this video interview at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las […]

LAS VEGAS – Advertising and communications agency holding group WPP’s CEO Sir Martin Sorrell says the company has invested in new sports marketing firm Bruin Sports Capital to unify its broad offering for a live sports entertainment industry that will continue to boom. “The rights prices around (global) sporting events …  have continued to rise… much […]

CHICAGO — “Native” advertising gathered a head of steam in 2014 but, with as many definitions as there are people trying the technology, what do some leading ad tech execs think makes the concept tick? “There are a lot of different definitions of ‘native’ advertising,” according to outstream ads technology vendor Teads’ US GM Jim […]

CHICAGO — Mobile attracts different consumers in a different mindset than traditional digital media. So how can agencies get out of the “shovelware” mindset and give mobile users something more likely to yield results? A Beet.TV panel discussion heard executives’ answers: Maxus strategic planning director Jill Langan: “There are opportunities to use mobile as a […]

Brands that previously let their ad agencies get on with the business of advertising are increasingly using available new technology platforms do do some of the work themselves. So is the very existence of the media agency under threat? Not according to one agency exec who has just crossed to the other side. “More clients […]

Dynamic ad insertion – through which, video channel owners can swap in and out ads as content reaches viewers – is a growing phenomenon. Just before Christmas, one such technology provider, Elemental Technologies, scored a $14.5 million investment for the prospect. “What’s really driving a lot of DAI (dynamic ad insertion) – at least in […]

Advertisers reared on a generation of scientific online targeting and measurement may pour scorn, nowadays, on the relatively imprecise medium of TV – but new television techniques with a digital flavor may change that, says an ad tech exec. “Buying television has always been about buying audiences – but the measurement hasn’t been there,” David Miller, […]

CHICAGO — For many, it is a forgotten medium that never quite fulfilled its promise. But podcast publishers who have done well tend to have done really well. Webzine Slate, a veteran talk podcast show producer, had six million downloads last month, publisher Anthony DeMaio tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “We think there’s a huge […]

In a big year for video technology vendor Kaltura, the company acquired Tvinci, an outfit that helps content owners create over-the-top TV experiences. But more customers than just TV companies want to use video nowadays. “Visual experiences are becoming part of our lives, transforming the way we learn, entertain, work,” Kaltura president and co-founder Michal Tsur says […]

The social TV app formerly known as “Zeebox” has ambitions to offer advertisers new experiences, after rebranding to “Beamly” earlier this year. First launched in 2011, Zeebox helped viewers learn and talk about shows during live broadcast. But it expanded to VOD and a greater female focus this year in its pivot. “When a drama […]

CHICAGO — Webzine Slate may be producing some video of its own nowadays but, as a text specialist, the outlet may never make enough to satisfy booming advertiser demand for video ad inventory. That’s why the publisher is using InRead, an ad format from vendor Teads which allows sites to inject video ads between text […]

CHICAGO — A couple of months after US news publisher Gannett finalized its purchase of the remainder of Cars.com, the autos classified site is revving up to combine data points and its new owner’s heft to sell ads. “There’s a lot of data … our advertisers would love to have the ability to work across […]

If you are tired of trying to distinguish one “end-to-end, full-service video targeting and decisioning” vendor from another, imagine how people from outside the digital video industry must feel. LUMA partners CEO Terence Kawaja says 2015 will see ongoing video tech momentum after the “inflection year” of 2014: “We’ve just seen 28 transactions across the video Lumascape, […]

CHICAGO — DigitasLbi’s “Perceptions Of Care” video campaign for Whirlpool has won rave reviews from ad watchers, after the agency worked with popular web publisher Upworthy to craft the campaign as a pair of videos. The campaign has generated some hefty social media views. So what was the secret? “It has a real brand product […]

CHICAGO — Digital ads can begin to reach individual consumers with specific messages based on unique characteristics – but only if computers know enough to target them, says one ad agency exec. “When I think about the future of video, I think about more personalized experiences,” SMG publishing platform and partnerships VP Lindsay Lichtenberg tells […]

CHICAGO — It’s only natural that online video advertising takes after television advertising – after all, both media are about moving pictures. But, whilst the forms may be similar, advertiser results can vary across each, according to a tech exec. “It’s a similar experience to what we see on TV,” North America MD Jim Daily […]

The sale of TV advertising is about to go a lot more “programmatic” early in 2015, when advertisers via Magna Global start buying slots in Cox Media programming via a new platform. Powered by planning, buying and reporting optimization platform AudienceXpess, the new system will help Magna Global agency clients advertise on Cox Media cable […]

So far in the history of advertising, marketers have had to satisfy themselves with measuring the effectiveness of their spending against relatively soft outcome metrics, like clicks, views or consumers’ propensity to buy. But now some marketers are beginning to demand publishers and networks charge them only when ads have generated an actual sale. “The […]