Steve Ellwanger

In its early existence, Canoe paddled against a stiff technological current in its quest to deliver interactive television ads. Since its pivot in the last five years to dynamic ad insertion for video-on-demand, the current has been flowing strongly in its direction. “We’re happy to say that it’s a thriving business,” says Chris Pizzurro, Canoe’s […]

Matching data sets for video advertising audience targeting is nothing new to comScore, particularly with Rentrak under its wing. Now with “100 percent market share” of all U.S. video-on-demand transactions, the company is encouraged by what partnerships like the nascent OpenAP consortium represent. Earlier this year, after Fox, Turner and Viacom announced the formation of […]

The news media can play a major role in communicating the desperate plight of survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. “I beg you to please don’t forget your responsibility to continue to bring light into the humanitarian crisis that is happening in Puerto Rico,” Congresswoman Nydia Valezquez, D-NY, said at a news conference in […]

With all of the change happening in the television world, it’s nice to have professional sports in your portfolio. It’s one of few things “that’s keeping the old traditional ecosystem healthy,” says Turner Broadcasting’s Howard Shimmel. But it’s also nice to stay ahead of the audience targeting curve by using data science to analyze viewing […]

The barbarians of the digital age are at the gates of traditional television. The question is, can the traditional TV industry work together enough to keep out the likes of Apple and FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google)? That’s the advanced TV battlefield as sketched out by Tony Yi, who is GM Strategic Commercial/Business Development at […]

Companies in the advertising and media industry can provide relief for victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico not only by their contributions but also by raising awareness of the dire conditions on the island, says Congressman José E. Serrano, D-NY. “Use their clout to let the federal government know that this is a humanitarian […]

Snapchat’s joint venture with NBCUniversal on a new digital content studio is a sign that the media giant is “digging in deeper” with the popular imaging messaging application. “The joint venture is really sort of the next step in the evolution of the relationship with them,” says Aaron Radin, NBCU’s SVP of Partnerships & Portfolio […]

Media companies working together on advanced television audience targeting is “a nice first step.” What needs to happen faster is measurement of content on different devices—not of the devices themselves, says Lyle Schwartz. The President of Investment for GroupM North America acknowledges that advertisers know more about TV households than ever before. “The plethora of […]

The fall of 2017 has been a big season of integrations for data science and media technology provider 4C Insights. First came its link to Mediaocean on the buy-side and shortly thereafter NBCUniversal on the sell-side. With NBCU making its television inventory available via application programming interfaces, “it was pretty natural for us to come […]

NBCUniversal’s self-service programmatic buying offering powered by 4C achieves a few milestones in the linear television world. Among the biggest is that advertisers will be using the same buying console that they already use to target audiences on major social media platforms ripe with video ad inventory. The deal with 4C “allows us to juxtapose […]

Fox Networks Group has a new addressable advertising trial offering for targeting households that watch video-on-demand content using Comcast Cable’s set-top boxes, as well as in streaming content on Hulu. And while the 10 million households involved represent a small portion of overall cable TV addressability, combining that incremental reach with Fox’s linear properties tells […]

ORLANDO – We hear so much about the consumer journey and how brands need to follow it carefully. But what if it’s the brand’s journey that is the dominant marketing narrative? In the case of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, you take it one season at a time, be honest and transparent with fans and […]

ORLANDO – Marriott hotels knows a lot about what people talk about on social media and it’s become “a content machine” fueled by data and technology. “In our work for Marriott, we talk about customer centricity all the time,” says Tej Desai, Managing Partner at agency MEC. A year ago, Marriott itself comprised 19 different […]

ORLANDO – While there’s been no shortage of issues—from transparency to artificial intelligence to brand purpose—at the Masters of Marketing gathering, there’s also a galvanizing effect. “Today I think was a renewed call to action for the community,” says Art Zambianchi, Managing Director of WPP’s MediaCom agency in Chicago. “One of the refreshing parts of […]

ORLANDO – Not that long ago in the media business, 115 years of legacy publishing experience wasn’t an oft-cited attribute in the battle with the digital upstarts. But with trust at a premium, ensuring you can deliver it along with ad-tech capabilities and advertising guarantees gives you more than a fighting chance despite your age. […]

ORLANDO – Some customer journeys are longer than others. Consider the plight of Chicago Cubs fans who “stayed with us for 100 years without a title,” says the team’s President of Business Operations, Crane Kenney. That ended with the World Series in 2016, triggering a change in communications strategies for the venerable Midwest sports franchise. […]

ORLANDO – It might be hard to believe in this Age of Amazon, but not everything can be purchased with one click. For Dell, this means using dynamic creative optimization (DCO) in different ways depending on whether it’s trying to lure consumers or businesses. “The strategy that we employ for DCO is very different on […]

ORLANDO – When it comes to selling beer, there is no “linear funnel” as has been standard marketing textbook fare for decades. MillerCoors has a three-pronged approach to understanding to whom, where and when to distribute its messages. “I think a lot of marketers today start with a creative brief and the idea, ‘Here’s my […]

ORLANDO – It should come as no big shock that millennials cite Facebook and Netflix as the top brands in positive word-of-mouth sentiment among their peers. That specialty size apparel retailer Lane Bryant would rank as the most improved brand in 2017 is a testament to the company’s efforts to improve the way that the […]

ORLANDO – To reach households with addressable ads on a one-to-one basis at scale, advertisers and agencies need to do it on a one-to-many basis. This is due to the technology and infrastructure variations between multichannel video programming distributor (MVPDs) and smart TV manufacturers. Last spring, one2one Media set out to leverage an integrated set […]