Steve Ellwanger

The digital ecosystem is awash in content, but it’s not a case of more is merrier. “We think less is more,” says David Lang, Chief Content Officer for Mindshare NA and President of Mindshare Content+ Entertainment. As he looks ahead to the 2017 Cannes Lions festival, Lang talks about the importance of conducting content strategies […]

Like many other companies, Twitter uses the Cannes Lions festival to showcase its product offerings. Unlike others, it’s adopted a “feed-first” mantra as opposed to mobile-first. At this year’s festival, Twitter will spend a lot of time talking about the value of experiences, how it’s doubled down on live streaming and what it takes for […]

What the Global CEO of J. Walter Thompson believes is “incredibly interesting” about creativity is that it can exist in product utilization. This comes at a time when despite the continued expansion of digital platforms, consumer engagement is all that really matters. As she looks ahead to the 2017 Cannes Lions festival, in this interview […]

Brands can only chase new technologies for so long before they become mainstream. At that point, it’s creativity that matters. It happened in the early days of television and it’s happening all over again, says Ari Weiss, North American CCO for DDB in this interview with Beet.TV in which he explains why he looks forward […]

Finding the right context for traditional television commercials and creating platform-specific creative are challenges and opportunities for brands and their agencies. When it comes to the latter, being screen agnostic is a plus, according to NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino. “I think the creative agencies are wrestling with two things,” the media company’s Chairman of Advertising Sales […]

Sean Bryan can’t wait to get to the Cannes Lions festival this year. And it’s not just because he has high hopes for McCann New York’s groundbreaking Fearless Girl campaign and its work for brands like Godiva, Microsoft and Nespresso. “I love it every year. But this year in particular is going to be an […]

LONDON — In his first year as Managing Director of the Cannes Lions festival, Jose Papa will be overseeing a number of new initiatives. One in particular is designed to bring together some 15,000 participants in new and engaging ways under the auspices of its networking pillar. One of the things “that excites me the […]

When Wenda Harris Millard discusses the evolution of the Cannes Lions festival she does so with many years of perspective. What she sees now is an efficient venue where people gather to engage with others “who have real implications for the future of their business.” Millard is Vice Chairman of MediaLink, the strategic advisory and […]

Less than a decade ago, the creative work showcased at the Cannes Lions festival seemed to be more about technology than storytelling, in the mind of Y&R’s Global CEO, David Sable. But more recently, some of the work has been “spectacular” as the value of good storytelling has once again eclipsed tech. During the same […]

Premium video provider FreeWheel believes that guaranteed, programmatic transactions on a one-to-one basis between publishers and buyers represent the future of both video and linear television. The programmatic guaranteed world is the “next generation of programmatic transactions for premium publishers because this guarantees a safe transaction for both the seller and the buyer and it […]

Male-centric UPROXX considers itself to be a creative agency because of how it understands and caters to its audience, which perceives entertainment as more than just movies, film and TV. It’s about what’s being produced by major studios, labels and “what our audience are making in their own bedrooms,” says CEO Benjamin Blank. In this […]

Little Things specializes in creating meaningful, inspiring content for women who are part of the “nesting and nurturing psychographic.” But men might also find its content of interest provided that they fit the parameters of this life stage. This is typified by Little Things videos that range from how to keep an avocado green to […]

Videos are a powerful way to communicate health and medical information to people at all levels of literacy, but only if the content is strictly vetted. “We have a very strict process in terms of what we publish and what sources we use,” says Dr. Preeti Parikh, Chief Medical Editor of HealthiNation. In this interview […]

National marketers want “scale that’s smart” by combining the best data from digital platforms with premium television content. And to close the loop, they want to be able to transact on a currency that reflects their desired business outcomes, says NBCUniversal sales chief Linda Yaccarino. She wants to “shine a light on the need for […]

This time last year, Mashable unveiled its proprietary Velocity Technology Suite software, which uses predictive analysis to inform content creation. Since then it’s gone from “a couple hundred million video views” monthly to 1.5 billion, according to Chief Revenue Officer Ed Wise. Using Velocity, Mashable tries to identify “who’s influenced, who can influence on a […]

Most people don’t get to create one company with actor John Leguizamo. David Chitel, CEO & Founder of Hispanic-oriented video provider NGL Media, has done it twice. At the Digital Content NewFronts, the company’s production division, NGL Studios, announced two new initiatives: Latin History For Morons, featuring Leguizamo, and a new platform called EOP Comedy: […]

To cut to the chase on a clinical survey about consumer perceptions of ads on mobile phones, let’s just say that full-page interstitials are not well liked. Mobile video advertising platform Receptiv discovered this when it used 62 people as test subjects in conjunction with neuroscientists and Toronto company True Impact. “We were curious about […]

It used to be that music and music videos were the main way that artists could connect with their fans and earn money. Sony Music Entertainment wants to help artists “built a revenue stream for you that’s different” by marrying their talent with directors and content producers, says Lee Stimmel, Head of Original Programming at […]

Just as you can’t call entrepreneurism a niche anymore, Entrepreneur Magazine is no longer the “nuts-and-bolts,” small-business publication it was before Jason Feifer became Editor-in-Chief. “Everybody now talks about being an entrepreneur because you can apply the mindset of an entrepreneur to almost anything that you do,” Feifer says. In this interview with Beet.TV after […]

With traditional TV acting more like digital and digital mimicking some of the TV model, sorting it all out for brand marketers isn’t easy. That’s why it pays to be “on the ground” in New York City during the Digital Content NewFronts, according to Janine Cross of Philadelphia-based Harmelin Media. In this interview with Beet.TV, […]