Robert Andrews

VIEQUES, PR — Once, the web was just a textual medium. Now, video volume is multiplying to occupy faster and fatter pipes. But, still, lean-forward video consumption like that pioneered by music videos from Arcade Fire are a rarity. ‘What hasn’t really happened yet is a revolution in creation – everything we see is still […]

VIEQUES, PR — LiveRail has become one of the leading vendors in the collision of programmatic advertising and video. Now CEO Mark Trefgarne says he wants to go on growing in the year ahead. “We tripled the revenue last year, we expect to double the revenue again this year,” he tells Beet.TV. “We’re expecting to see […]

VIEQUES, PR — Everyone associated with programmatic trading of video advertising seems to have had a 2013 that was full of growth. Denver-headquartered SpotXchange is no exception, releasing platform and revenue metrics today. Speaking with Beet.TV, SpotXchange’s platform VP Sean Buckley says the Q3 addition of a “full-blown” ad-server to the vendor’s product offering has […]

VIEQUES, PR — Time was, ad spots were bought against content consumed by specific audience demographics. Many buyers still buy this way, even with programmatic automation. But VideoHub‘s Anthony Risicato says deeper data can trump demographics. “The historical research tells us that specific groups of men or women will be interested or not interested in […]

VIQUES, PR — IPG’s Magna Global media agency has tried to aggressively embrace automated platforms for the online ads it trades in. And things are moving faster than it expected. “We had a goal set for 2013 of putting 5% of our total spend through programmatic,” says Kristi Argyilan, the group’s north America president. “We exceeded that […]

VIEQUES, PR — The New York Times’ recent website redesign introduced sponsored articles from brands like Dell. Next up, the paper plans to let marketers reach viewers of its video content. “A brand could sponsor one of our bigger editorial offerings – Dealbook or Bits, 36 Hours, Corner Office,” says NYT video GM Rebecca Howard. “Those […]

VIEQUE, PR — Last summer, the Washington Post newspaper launched its news video brand PostTV. Since then, the publisher has spread it across other places including Roku, Ouya and Chromecast. This opening up of video is key to WaPo senior video editor Andrew Pergam. “We know a lot of people want to see video in context- […]

VIEQUES, PR — Everyone’s talking about “content marketing”, “native advertising” or “branded content” – the hybridization of editorial and marketing materials in to a single content type of mutual benefit to publishers and brands. That’s forcing the ad agencies to offer their services in these spaces. But, for agencies as used to the traditional church-and-state […]

Many people think consumers hate it when brands advertise to them. In fact, some consumers often tend to love brands, says social video marketing insight outlet Zefr‘s Jason Kirk. “The fans and their power and their passion is something that’s undeniable,” Kirk tells Beet.TV. “If you aren’t able to tap in to that… you’re missing out. […]

If you believed the year-ahead outlooks, 2014 will be the year of the Internet Of Things, when everyday objects get wired up to the internet. Speaking with Beet.TV at the Consumer Electronics Show, media agency Mediacom‘s USA CEO Sasha Savic gets excited about the prospects for brands. “The depth of intrusion of new technologies in […]

No sooner has 4K video emerged on to the technology scene, now 8K is rising up as a future viewing option. In this insightful interview with Beet.TV at the Consumer Electronics Show, ad agency GroupM’s chairman Irwin Gotlieb explains higher-resolution TVs are being driven by a need to eliminate pixellation for close-quarters viewing on ever-larger […]

Oreos may have been dunked in the dark in 2013, but does “real-time marketing” have a real future in 2014? Sebastian Hempstead, CEO of social media marketing monitor service Brandwatch, says immediacy is vital. “The content we put in to conversations can turn up a day later… if it’s not in the right moment… when we want […]

In the movie Speed, Keanu Reeves risked his bus exploding if it stopped. In real-life, some drivers will now see digital ads if their car stops for more than three seconds. That is the one strand in the advertising proposition for Waze, the crowd-powered drivers’ sat-nav aid that also has marketing ambitions. “We give brands the […]

If 2013 was the year when publishers fretted that programmatic online ad sales would devalue their inventory, 2014 is starting out as the year of more measured appreciation of its offering, says one ad exec. “They’re wildly enthusiastic,” says Magna Global’s programmatic EVP and MD Neeraj Kochhar. “Publishers are finally beginning to appreciate the benefits […]

The internet-connected refrigerator has often been mocked as the loopiest imaginings of internet evangelists gone wild. But the emerging Internet Of Things hype is forcing the industry to ask: is that really so far-fetched? At the Consumer Electronics Show, Norm Johnston, chief digital officer of Group M’s Mindshare division, saw just such a fridge be […]

The BBC is known for its editorial integrity and, at least in the UK, its aversion to advertising. These facts would seem to make an embrace of the current “native advertising” trend difficult. But that’s just what BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s international, revenue-making arm, is doing. “We have a native advertising program, we’ve had a […]

The Guardian will soon overhaul its website to ensure ads, as well as editorial, adapt to work across the multitude of devices consumers use. The publisher first launched a “responsive design” site in 2012 – a tactic a growing number of operators are using to guarantee pages can render flexibly across different screen sizes. But The […]

Vevo still hasn’t completely settled on what it can get out of so-called “programmatic” online ad sales, but it is heartened that technology vendors are no longer just catering to cheap ad slots. “(Programmatic) inventory is typically lower-tier, lower-quality inventory,” the music video distributor’s chief revenue officer Jonathan Carson tells Beet.TV. “That marketplace is not […]

Old, TV-style ad measurement metrics are becoming vogue in the data-driven world of online advertising. But AOL Networks CEO Bob Lord says ads measured for audience reach don’t work as well alternatives. “As we move in to the ability to buy at an impression level …  you start to really question the GRP (gross rating […]

Non-human traffic was recently described as programmatic advertising’s “dirty little secret“. Integral Ad Science reckons nearly a third of impressions to be suspicious – up six-fold since 2011, according to comScore (via Adotas). AOL’s programmatic video ad tech platform Adap.tv wants to nip the problem in the bud. “We are fighting fraud that is generated by […]