Robert Williams

SALISBURY, CT – The phrase “buy Rachel’s sweater” to describe how television viewers will one day be able to immediately order products that appear in their favorite shows such as “Friends” is gradually getting closer to reality. Digital advertising platform KERV is working with media companies and retailers to create shoppable television that’s convenient for […]

CANNES – Harnessing statistical data for marketing decisions can help brands not only decide where to advertise, but also what kind of technologies they need. For Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a unit of Colgate-Palmolive, marketing mix modeling helped to uncover the need for its own data clean room to support a more granular analysis of its […]

Consumers today divide their time spent with media among a wider range of channels and devices including mobile phones and internet-connected TVs. This fragmentation has challenged marketers to find more ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising, including people’s attention to brand messaging. “Measuring attention is extremely important because we do see it as a […]

CANNES – The media marketplace is filled with chatter about the economic outlook and its negative effect on demand for advertising. Amid this environment, brands are shifting some of their ad budgets from linear television to streaming. “We’ve heard lots of things like the market is soft, it’s a buyer’s market,” Kelly Metz, managing director […]

CANNES – Walt Disney in the past decade has expanded video distribution with the launch of streaming services that can reach a broader range of connected devices such as smart TVs and mobile phones. Each of Disney Streaming’s major brands – Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu – has uncovered consumer insights that are meaningful to advertisers. […]

CANNES – Sustainability this year got more attention at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, another watershed moment for the advertising industry as agencies develop environmental, social and governance strategies. “At the risk of sort of oversimplifying, it’s really about doing the right thing and sticking to your values as a company,” Jemma Gould, […]

CANNES – Retailers that sell advertising are in the position of supplying audiences to consumer brands that are supplying products for their stores. This dynamic calls for greater collaboration among retailers, advertisers, agencies and ad-tech companies. “I wish that as retail media networks were chatting with their clients, with the industry, that they’re talking about […]

CANNES – The value of advertising is rooted in measurement, whether it’s counting the number of visible impressions or attributing a campaign’s contribution to driving revenue. Increasingly, brands, agencies and media companies are seeking to put a value on consumer attention to advertising. “Getting to an end state where we can actually transact against attention […]

SALISBURY, CT – Shoppable video seeks to combine the reach and emotional power of television with the ability to order products and services. KERV AI aims to make these transactions more feasible for brands and consumers. “What KERV is doing is very unique because the creative process has been ancient for years,” Jay Wolff, chief […]

CANNES – The advertising industry is in the early stages of working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from marketing activities. This process includes an analysis of supply chains and classifying activities into three areas: Scope 1 covers direct emissions from a company’s own or controlled sources, such as fuel burning, waste processing or equipment leaks. […]

CANNES – Measuring people’s attention to advertising in the past few years has become a bigger part of helping marketers to shape their campaign strategies. “When we think about attention, it came from our original desire to show an improvement in the way we harness our clients’ dollars to do better outcomes,” Chrissie Hanson, chief […]

CANNES – A growing number of retailers are now selling digital .advertising, offering brands a way to reach consumers at all stages of the purchase funnel from awareness down to a final purchase. Retailers such as discount chain Walmart also offer the ability to reach target audiences based on their purchase histories. “There is no […]

The media marketplace is more fragmented than ever before as consumers divide their time among a bigger variety of connected devices and content platforms, which include social media and streaming services. This complexity challenges marketers to better understand how people pay attention to advertising. “What we have been searching for is really a way to […]

CANNES – Addressable advertising promises to help brands with their audience targeting, and it can be more effective when ad creative is optimized for more specific groups of consumers. “Before creating the TV creative itself, think about the characterization within it,” Nicola Lewis, global chief executive officer of Finecast, said in this interview with Jonathan […]

CANNES – The ad-tech industry in the past couple of years has started to become more aware of how its energy usage contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. As founder of The Alpine Project, ad-tech veteran Brian Murphy seeks to help companies take steps to reduce their carbon footprints without sacrificing their business goals. “Ad-tech in […]

CANNES – Effective leadership involves an understanding of people’s strengths as they work together on teams. Sarah Kramer, chief executive of Publicis’s Spark Foundry, said leaders also recognize when they need the help of people with unique skills. “Diversity and skill sets, hiring people that are smarter than you, that have specialist skills that are […]

CANNES – The ability to get things done is a key trait for people in leadership roles, though that competence accumulates over time. “I noticed that in my twenties as a leader, I needed certain traits. Now that I’m in a different part of my career, it’s funny how listening becomes a really critical trait,” […]

CANNES – Retail media advertising typically refers to digital media channels, but it does have ties to in-store promotions and shopper marketing. That’s especially the case in parts of Europe, where retail media networks are in an early stage of development. “We love shopping in Europe, we love going into the stores. There are stores […]

CANNES – The major shift in people’s television viewing habits has led to a need for audience measurement that covers a variety of platforms – everything from traditional linear television to video streaming on connected devices. Media companies in the past year have gained greater confidence that they can sell advertising with the help of […]

CANNES – The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year was notable for introducing sustainability criteria in every advertising award category for the first time. The new requirements come as the media and marketing industries become more aware that their marketing activities result in greenhouse-gas emissions. “For many years, we’ve been focused on climate […]