In the era of social distancing, avoidance may be the order of the day. But that shouldn't be the case when it comes to advertising against news. Interpublic's UM Worldwide has become the latest agency in a procession of industry players to counsel advertisers against blacklisting news publishers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this video interview with Beet.TV, UM's chief digital and innovation [...]

STAMFORD,  CT --  The dramatic uptick in OTT viewing during the pandemic, has acelerate the medium by some 18 months, observes Andre Swanston, CEO and Founder of Tru Optik in this interview with Beet.TV The company provides an identity resolution that powers the streaming media ecosystem. The company works closely with data giant Transunion in the identity "spine," Swanston explains. Transunion became [...]

CHICAGO - Nielsen's consortium that is beta-testing addressable TV advertising technology has just got a big name broadcast tester, in the shape of Hispanic TV netword Univision. Nielsen recently began working with seven US TV networks to beta-test addressable TV advertising technology, ahead of a planned full launch later this year. A+E Networks, AMC Networks, ViacomCBS, Discovery, Fox, NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia will [...]

BOSTON - As the clock ticks down to Google's deprecation of third-party cookies by 2022, more ad agencies are seeking alternative methods of targeting audiences. Increasingly, a consensus for the way ahead looks like being "identity graphs", software systems which offer up a PII-compliant way to use profiles on millions of consumers. In the latest example, the media agency Horizon Media says [...]

The current crisis  is causing the media industry to "rethink what we do."  It is making the TV Upfront less essential versus the time when clients want to negotiate, says Catherine Sullivan, Chief Investment Officer of the Omnicom Media Group, NA, in this interview with Beet.TV TV marketplace is moving inexorably to an "audience-based" world.   It's time to move past the [...]

Through a 30-second spot for AT&T, Courageous – the branded content studio unit of WarnerMedia, was tasked with finding a way to showcase that the mobile network company was there for its customers during a time of need, the Covid-19 crisis, in a way that was authentic to the brand. What resulted was an ad that featured front-line workers and how [...]

As the media industry continues to adapt to new realities, new insights have informed how companies are approaching audience planning. In a BeetCam interview, Brian DeCicco, executive director of customer strategy at Mindshare US discussed what behaviors have shifted over the past two months. According to DeCicco, four key variables are impacting how audience planning is evolving right now: privacy and [...]

Roku has unveiled its OneView ad platform which integrates its vast subscriber data with the capabilities of the video DSP dataxu, which it acquired last year. "Identity is core to the offering," says Dan Robbins, VP Ad Marketing at Roku, in this interview today about the new solutions.

Welcome to #BeetU – our weekly educational series for advertising and media during the COVID-19 crisis, hosted by Ashley Swartz, CEO of Furious Corp, longtime Beet contributor and the Dean of #BeetU. Using Furious’s comprehensive and interactive dictionary, TV101, as our guide, these sessions will unpack the terminology of advanced TV, serving as an introduction for some and a refresher for others. So, [...]

Week by week, scale and simplicity involved in buying and selling targeted TV ads grows, as partnerships and federations come together. In the latest, Verizon Media is giving itself a stronger foothold in that world by partnering with Ampersand. The details are two-fold: Ampersand will be the exclusive seller for Verizon Fios’ addressable TV inventory. Ampersand will use Verizon Media’s demand-side [...]

CHICAGO -  The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many advertisers around the world to keep their wallets closed. But could spending be about to spring forward in a big way? In this video interview with Beet.TV, Matt Spiegel, head of media at TransUnion, says diminishing ad prices, more opportunistic ad buys and targeting technology will combine to welcome in a new tier [...]

LONDON - The UK arm of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has joined the calls on advertisers to stop cutting news publishers out of their media plan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stretching back to March, many ad buyers have been using keyword-based blacklisting tools to eliminate buying opportunities against news stories about the virus. In this video interview with Jon Watts for [...]

It was already a fast-changing media ecology, now the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing businesses to adapt to new circumstances even quicker. In Q2 2020, that seems to be the emerging wisdom from a wave of executives. In this video interview with Beet.TV, the boss of a company fresh out of acquiring a big ad-tech player says the media industry needs to think [...]

BROOKLYN -- Veteran digital media executive Domenic Venuto, who recently served as COO of Amobee and had earlier senior posts at The Weather Channel and Publicis, is harnessing his passion for bread baking, and his digital chops, to launch a grassroots bake sale to raise funds for the Biden for President campaign. He calls the movement #BakeforBiden. From his Brooklyn kitchen, he [...]

In the wreckage caused by COVID-19, marketers are having to think on their feet - but many of them don't have to move their feet at all. That is the conclusion of one video and connected TV advertising technology company leader whose platform claims to have sight of 35% of the US streaming video ad market. In this video interview with Beet.TV, [...]

Dealing with the immediate impact of  the COVID-19, with the agency's 125 clients, was a sort of "massive triage," says Bill Koenigsberg, CEO and Founder of Horizon Media, the largest privately-owned media buying agency, in this interview with Beet.TV It's been difficult, but he sees the agency coming out of the crisis stronger, as it did after the 2008/2009 financial crisis.  [...]

As more precise data becomes available, there’s a greater importance on moving away from legacy behaviors and more towards understanding audience and reach. In a Beet.TV interview, Mike Law, president of Amplifi USA, explained how this comes from a balance between audience targeting tools and contextual marketing. Amplifi is a unit of the Dentsu Aegis Network. Companies have gotten better at using [...]

CHICAGO -  If the coronavirus pandemic was killing businesses, nobody told the big tech platforms. In Q1 results posted this week, Facebook reported returning "stability" in advertising revenue after an initial steep March decline, whilst Alphabet reported a March slowdown but nevertheless a 10% growth in ad revenue year-on-year. For Aaron Goldman, what's worrisome is that brands may not be equipped. In [...]

The coronavirus is forcing everyone to think creatively. And that includes how marketers find their audiences when the delivery mechanism they expected to use just isn't available. Case in point - to find viewers who would otherwise have watched sports events that have been cancelled, some brands are turning to audience targeting, which helps them find the same audiences though they [...]

TORONTO  -  During the pandemic, many advertisers are slashing spending.  One principal reason is a lack of appropriate advertising.   Responding quickly, agencies are creating new executions. As a result, buying should come back in several categories in May and June, predicts Andrew Casale, President & CEO of Index Exchange, one of the largest independent programmatic adverting players. Getting the right creative will [...]