Robert Andrews

Digital and brick-and-mortar commerce don’t have to be strangers. Increasingly, businesses realize the convergence of online and in-store strategies offers brands enhanced opportunities to influence consumer behavior directly at the point of sale. From personalized recommendations to dynamic advertising displays, the in-store environment is becoming a valued part of a digital brand’s footprint Such is […]

Despite the rise of e-commerce, brick-and-mortar locations still offer opportunities for connection and conversion. These physical spaces offer opportunities to drive brand awareness, encourage product trials, and, crucially, facilitate conversions, according to Sean Crawford, managing director, SMG North America. “People have been too obsessed with e-commerce,” Crawfold told Beet.TV in this video interview. “Now is […]

Demand for more granular control over media placements and audience reach is intensifying, pushing the concept of supply-side curation to the forefront. This requires a new level of cooperation, according to one agency executive who argues for an “algorithm era” built on true interoperability. The goal is to ensure that all parties have a hand […]

AMENIA, NY – The long-established rules of search engine optimization are changing fast. In an advertising world increasingly shaped by conversational AI, the efficacy of familiar tactics of keyword stuffing and link-building is coming under pressure. Instead, a new playbook is emerging. With consumers turning to social platforms for discovery, retail sites for shopping, and […]

CANNES – As television advertising dollars flow into streaming environments, the programmatic machinery built to transact those ads is growing increasingly complex. A cottage industry of platforms providing aggregation and curation services is on the rise. This has prompted agency leaders to push for greater supply path optimization (SPO) to ensure transparency and value for […]

CANNES – The scramble for first-party data may have been a necessary reaction to signal loss, but it has left many brands with a new problem: a trove of information they don’t fully know how to use. For many, the promise of a unified customer view remains fractured by internal technology silos and a lack […]

CANNES – What happens when an AI identifies a perfect customer persona that doesn’t actually exist? While AI models can optimize campaigns with breathtaking speed and efficiency, some theories suggest this could make knowing a real person’s identity less critical. For Brian Silver, EVP of marketing solutions at TransUnion, that creates a need for a […]

CANNES — In a noisy marketing environment, how does a brand cut through the hubbub and deliver truly personalized experiences? Mike Ng thinks they need a holistic, 360-degree view of their customers — and predictive AI can lend a hand. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Ng, chief revenue officer, Epsilon, said connected identity fuels […]

AMENIA, NY – While the advertising industry obsesses over artificial intelligence, one veteran executive suggests its primary function is not to invent the future, but to perfectly codify the past. In his view, AI is less the beginning of a new era and more the definitive end of the old one. Rob Norman, an independent […]

CANNES – While advanced channels like connected television offer new tools for precision, for pharmaceutical marketers, success is measured not by immediate return on investment, but by their ability to reach the right audience with a vital message over time. For them, navigating this landscape is a calculated balancing act, said Erica Taylor, VP and […]

CANNES — For years, the advertising industry has often viewed data privacy compliance as a cost of doing business, a limiter on marketers’ ambitions. But could privacy be a competitive advantage? This was the consensus from a panel of executives from Kroger, Intuit, Lyft, and LiveRamp. Interviewed by Tameka Kee at a LiveRamp-hosted event in […]

CANNES – In retail media, like many trends in advertising, all roads right now are leading to AI. For Uber Advertising, that intersection represents a unique opportunity to capitalize on high-intent moments. The transportation and delivery giant has been leveraging AI capabilities for nearly a decade, initially to match drivers with riders. Now, those same […]

As audiences fragment across platforms, the industry is grappling with how to monetize and measure in a cohesive way, a challenge that is forcing a fundamental rethink of long-standing business models. For one industry executive, the path through this labyrinth of new workflows, currencies, and platforms requires a singular focus. “The ecosystem is complex, and […]

The advertising industry’s relentless pursuit of programmatic efficiency could be leading it toward an unintended, and undesirable, destination: a sea of sameness. As more brands adopt the same automated tools and data sets, there is a growing risk that they are simply canceling each other out in a marketplace built on the principle of differentiation, […]

CANNES – With the advertising industry still on a mission to simplify its notoriously convoluted digital supply chains, supply-path optimization (SPO), a buy-side-led effort to consolidate spending through fewer, more efficient intermediaries, has been a key avenue. But, in the booming connected TV space, some major publishers are starting to flip the script. Instead of […]

AMENIA, NY – These days, it feels like the established playbook for advertising is being torn up and rewritten in real-time. The rapid adoption of AI is forcing a fundamental re-evaluation of everything from the creative process and media buying to the very definition of consumer influence, leaving many to wonder what the final manuscript […]

CANNES – In an advertising landscape flooded with more than 250 retail media networks, how will contenders stand out? CVS’ own retail media division believes pairing online community conversation with purchase history can unlock high-intent moments with a “three dimensional” web of influence. Its goal is to create a “win-win-win” for consumers, brands, and media […]

For decades, television advertising has largely been the preserve of a thousand or so major brands with the budgets and know-how to navigate its complex buying landscape. Now, one of the industry’s biggest players is leading an effort to tear down the walls to the premium video ad market. Comcast’s strategy involves redesigning the entire […]

CANNES – In a move that bridges health and wellness shopping data with community conversations, CVS Media Exchange (CMX) used Cannes Lions to announce a partnership collaboration connects CVS’s 90 million ExtraCare members with Reddit’s 108 million daily active users. The collaboration aims to create new opportunities for brands to reach health-conscious consumers where they’re […]

Many have promised connected TV will open up TV advertising for smaller ad buyers. To do so will require moving away from complex, high-touch sales toward the speed and simplicity that made digital platforms dominant. This is the thinking behind Universal Ads, a platform built by FreeWheel to create a “frictionless environment” between CTV publishers […]