Robert Andrews

The marketing industry may be going crazy for consumer data, but data is nothing without insight. Marketing company Y&R’s global CEO David Sable says the “digi-babble” and “BS” about data is missing something. “Data’s not new,” Sable tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “Thirty years ago, we all grew up using data. Today, we have way more sales […]

CHICAGO — What are the biggest and most exciting trends affecting advertising and communication today? Mobile, quicker time to sale, and the fusion of creative advertising by customer data, according to the boss of one of the world’s biggest ad agencies. Speaking with Beet.TV in this interview ahead of her visit to the upcoming Cannes Lions […]

Publicis’ VivaKi unit recently reorganized to thread programmatic trading throughout its sibling departments in a bid to take data-based planning to new heights and new media, according to a stablemate exec. “We are thinking not just data-centric but data-centric as it involves your entire media investment,” ZenithOptimedia activation standards, insights and technology EVP Julian Zilberbrand tells Beet.TV in […]

CHICAGO — The amount of money SMG advertisers are spending on so-called “addressable TV”, which helps buyers target unique consumers via cable and satellite boxes, with Internet precision, is on course to double this year. “We sized the addressable market for 2014 at about $300 million,” says Tracey Scheppach, EVP of Precision Video at Starcom MediaVest Group, in this […]

Facebook is this summer giving advertisers better ad targeting data so they can find better-quality ad inventory, according to the social network’s ad chief. “Adding people-based marketing, we’re taking the level of quality that markets can count on… understanding that they can deliver to real people,”  Facebook ad tech head David Jakubowski tells Beet.TV in this […]

Big media companies don’t usually buy vendors that want to rip up their historic main funding mechanism. But true[X] wants to reboot the way advertising is delivered by 21st Century Fox, which acquired it for $200 million in December. What is true[X]’s big idea? Rewarding viewers for interacting with good ads by showing them fewer ads overall, says […]

Last fall, following its acquisition of Atlas from Microsoft, Facebook announced its reboot of Atlas as a cross-device ad targeting solution. Today, the social network is switching many of its advertisings over to that system. “We’ve signed deals with five of the six holding companies. We are actively onboarding clients with all of them,” Facebook ad tech head […]

Today, Tim Armstrong is credited with having turned around one media company, as the resurrection and recent sale of AOL suggests. But, in 1993, when a 23-year-old Armstrong was embarking on his first foray in to the media business, things weren’t quite so rosy. Fresh out of a six-month stint in investment banking, after realizing the […]

Last week’s acquisition of SeriousEats and RoadFood by newcomer publishing house Fexy Media was just the start. Formed by husband-and-wide team Cliff and Lisa Sharples following Lisa’s steering, as CEO, of AllRecipes to a $175 million acquisition by Meredith, Seattle-based Fexy plans more acquisitions of its own. “We continue to build out the category in and around the kitchen table,” […]

LONDON — The upcoming Cannes Lions festival’s debut track for creativity in the booming segment of advertising technology has attracted 845 award entries in its first year. Ahead of the iconic festival starting June 21, a record total 40,133 award entries have been submitted. Lions Innovation, which will see data, technology and creativity intersect, has received 226 entries into the […]

If data is really the new oil, are media operators letting enough of the stuff run to advertisers who are craving it? A new Forrester report, “Solving Digital Video Advertising’s Premium Dilemma“, commissioned by outstream video ad vendor Teads from Forrester, spotlights a disconnect between the two camps. “Media companies talk about the user experience,” Forrester principal analyst […]

If you remember the mid-90s futuristic hype about “interactive TV”, you will know the concept goes back a long way. Maria Mandel Dunsche remembers. The VP of AT&T’s AdWorks division has been working with such platforms since 1999, helping brands try to exploit the emerging channel. But it’s only lately the reality has come to pass. “I’ve been in this […]

The recent decision of Publicis’ VivaKi to spread its Audience On Demand across the unit shows how “programmatic” methods of automating the trading of ads are becoming more embedded across ad agencies, says Rubicon Project marketplace development SVP Jay Sears. “A lot of the headlines have gotten it incorrect,’ he tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “The headlines […]

LONDON — When new screens arrive on the scene, many marketers instinctively get excited about new opportunities to deliver messages to consumers. But, whilst the new smartwatch category may whet appetites with the prospect of advertising to audiences’ wrists, the reality will have to be more sensitive, more nuanced, and may be more about input than output. […]

Just because analog media are disconnected, that doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from digital efficiencies. Case in point – programmatic, automated sales of display advertising are now gobbling up a large portion of the digital industry. Now ad tech house MediaMath is working to bring programmatic even to offline media. MediaMath‘s OPEN global media partnerships […]

LONDON — Back in January, media agency SMG announced NextTECHnow, a program to get closer to UK tech startups that can help bring innovations to brand campaigns. Since then, the programme has been kept somewhat under the radar. But the man who runs it now opens up on the rationale and its early progress. “In the […]

LONDON — Ad tech platforms need to do a better job of telling ad buyers exactly what kind of video placements they are bidding for, says an exec from one such company. “Standards like the RTB spec and the exchanges need to wake up start adding more metadata to these requests to enrich that buy for the brand,” according […]

When Martin Sorrell bought in to WPP in 1985, it was the start of a journey that would end up making the world’s largest advertising holding group. What most people probably don’t know, however, is that, along the way, Sorrell nearly made a very costly mistake. Asked by Beet.TV in this video interview to regale his biggest career setback, […]

LONDON — Thanks to the rise of advertising technology, the “Mad Men” of ad agencies have been joined by the so-called “Maths Men” of tech vendors. But these two camps need not be perceived as coming from different disciplines, says one agency boss. Pippa Glucklish, UK co-CEO of SMG, tells Beet.TV the “tension between data […]

LONDON — Like most technologies, so-called “programmatic” sales of online video ad inventory first took hold in the US. Now it is gathering pace across the pond. “We’ve seen … 40% more demand in the UK from Q1 to Q4,” according to video ad tech outfit TubeMogul’s UK MD Nick Reid. “We’ve also seen a 20% increase in CPM […]