Advertisers are pushing for greater flexibility from their media partners as effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy pressures them to be more resourceful with their spending. That dynamic is disrupting this year's network upfront advertising marketplace, magnifying calls for changes to the way media outlets sell commercial time. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), a trade group for marketers [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has up-ended all the norms of traditional TV ad buying, with the usual upfront ad sales season largely suspended. That is what happens when brands, uncertain about their future prosperity, decide against making hefty upfront ad purchase commitments. But, in their pursuit, instead, of agility and flexibility, could those brands be accelerating the adoption of programmatically-sold connected TV advertising? [...]

Until recently, the common understanding of connected TV services was that they were mostly popular with younger cord-cutters and the typical view of addressable TV ad targeting was that it worked mostly at the local level. But ad agencies are now enjoying recent developments which are widening both of those apertures - audience breadth and geographic scale. In this video interview with [...]

Fox Corp. this year bought video streaming service Tubi to expand its reach outside of linear TV, an acquisition that ended up being exceptionally well timed. Millions of people stuck at home during pandemic lockdowns have had more time to watch video on every screen, including advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) services like Tubi. Marianne Gambelli, President of FOX Advertising Sales, [...]

Just two months after merging, programmatic ad platform Rubicon Project and video management platform Telaria are taking on a new name, Magnite. It is a rebranding that involved hundreds of staff from the companies operating under lockdown. But now president and CEO Michael Barrett says he is looking forward to reconnecting with those staff in person. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Barrett [...]

By now, ad buyers have become sorely aware of the impact of ad fraud. A study for the ANA last year pegged the problem at $5.8 billion globally. But, even though that is declining on previous years, ad fraud has primarily been seen as a problem in the display and online video arenas. When it comes to connected TV, many people have considered [...]

With resources constrained and a new importance placed on sure-fire customers, marketers are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by using data tools and data to find more bankable targets through advertising. In recent weeks, we have heard from several executives who have suggested ad buyers are moving further down the marketing funnel, looking to improve the efficiency of their spend by [...]

While he says that his colleagues have been supportive of his work,  he and others Black executives carry the weight of not being able to fail.   "We have to be perfect," says Cavel Khan, Chief Revenue Officer of Tumblr, in this interview with Beet.TV A veteran of Vice, Twitter and Microsoft, earlier this month Khan joined Tumblr, which is now a [...]

As advertising technology evolves to serve a world that is increasingly about video and TV, traditional methods will fade to black, leaving a new class of vendor in charge. That's the view of one ad-tech executive trying to bring about the change. "In the world we're living in today, where you have parallel auctions, header bidding, millions of QPS in real time, [...]

Advertisers for years have sought to reach young adults who are in the early stages of forming brand loyalties and setting up their own households. However, they shouldn't neglect efforts to reach older, higher-income households that will help drive the recovery from this year's pandemic slowdown. That's the one of the key messages from Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. advertising sales officer [...]

Over the last few weeks, we have heard from a range of broadcasters that have responded to the coronavirus pandemic with a single watchword - "agility". But software vendors, too, have learned to think on their feet and find new customer categories. Case in point - Cisco's WebEx has been supporting video calls and presentations for years. But recently it has also [...]

The coronavirus pandemic led many advertisers to pull back on media spending in the past few months, but broadcasters have found pockets of strength in their streaming media platforms. Discovery forecasts that it will end the second quarter with higher ad sales than a year earlier for its streaming apps, which are a key part of its strategy to help advertisers [...]

Streaming platforms are investing billions of dollars in original programming every year, raising the stakes for linear TV channels that aim to deliver audiences to advertisers. While linear TV has key strengths in sports, news and events, it also has the power to reach audiences with other kinds of original programming. Rita Ferro, president of Disney Advertising Sales, said investments in [...]

Diversity is not about token gestures, it has to be more:  it has to be woven into everyday decisions, says Alvin Bowles, Vice President, Global Marketing Partnerships at Facebook, in this interview with Beet.TV We spoke with him about his journey from Detroit to Wall Street to Silicon Valley and how mentors have helped shape his career.  He speaks about his [...]

SAN FRANCISCO  --  Inscape's addressable TV data consortium is kicking off with nine programmers this week, the latest cooperative to try bring scale and simplicity to the targeted TV ad opportunity. Fox, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, E.W. Scripps and AMC Networks will begin their tests of Project OAR, on June 24, while Disney Media Networks, Discovery Networks, Hearst and WarnerMedia will start their [...]

SAN FRANCISCO - The number of  black women in Silicon Valley is small.  For some, it means suffering through racial stereotyping - not being able to fully be themselves, explains Kenya Hayes, a veteran Valley executive, now head of comms for North America at AppsFlyer, in this interview with Beet.TV Wanting to be productive, but self filtering what she says is [...]

Buffeted by the pandemic and civil upheaval over racial injustice, marketers are "going back to drawing boards" as the "tried and true" marketing strategies are not necessarily useful now, says Kristen Colonna, Chief Strategy Officer of OMD USA, in this interview with Beet.TV She calls for great flexibility from media owners and a greater focus on optimization and business outcomes. These will [...]

Addressable advertising promises to give marketers more focused targeting of audiences while cutting spending on wasted viewer impressions. That data-driven approach requires more insights about consumers and their openness to seeing messages from sponsors. Sean Muzzy, president of North America for addressable advertising company Matterkind, discusses the potential for its audience-based approach in Beet TV's latest installment of "Trust in Partnership [...]

Powered by the wholesale consumer migration to OTT devices, the stratagem for TV investment is at a turning point:  Buying linear first is "backwards," says Catherine Warburton, EVP and Chief Investment Officer at 360i, a Dentsu Aegis Network unit. Digital and streaming video is no long just about reach she notes, in this interview with Beet.TV The move to OTT will be [...]

Historically, women and other marginalized groups tend to bear the brunt of crises, says Nadine Karp McHugh, president of SeeHer, the ANA's initiative to increase accurate portrayals of women in advertising. This could lead to a reversal of the limited success we've experienced around gender equality, she says, citing a study by the United Nations on the impact of COVID-19 on [...]