Lots going on: Among the highlights will be Joe Marchese, president/revenue FOX Networks Group, returning to the Freewheel/Comcast stage Tuesday morning for another Festival highlight.  We have reposted this video of Joe from last June's FreeWheel/Comcast cabana gig.  Welcome back Joe! Big Plans: We have several programs of partnerships set for this week.  Our home base is the Carlton, on the ground [...]

Publishers and ad agencies have spent years adding new channels to their overall content mix. But, whilst that strategy has undoubtedly allowed marketers to reach consumers in new places, a growing school of thought holds that it has also created a whole new array of silos. That's the view of one ad agency man at the sharp end of making decisions about [...]

Business at the Dentsu Aegis Network has been revolutionized by an earlier shift in the way it spends money on video and TV. In 2018, many buyers are struggling to bridge the chasm across multiple media channels like these, which they nevertheless need to deliver through. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Dentsu Aegis Network's product and innovation president Doug Ray says his [...]

After years of talk and wishful thinking about data-driven audience targeting, “I think we’re getting down to the nuts and bolts,” says Anupam Gupta, Chief Product Officer at 4C Insights, the data science and marketing technology company. “A lot of the conversations now are not such much about the promise of all the stuff we talk about. Data-driven, advanced TV, whatever. [...]

David Dworin, VP Advisory Services, FreeWheel highlights findings from a very deep data dive by FreeWheel into the complex subject of creating the optimal video advertising experience for viewers: “We’re realizing that ad experience is more complicated than just cutting the number of ads.” But while there's plenty of complication, “There’s actually a lot of other levers that programmers can pull and [...]

Even as digital and traditional media compete for advertising dollars, some traditions remain resilient. A good example is the ongoing Upfront negotiating season, which began in the last quarter of 2017, during which media buyers make long-term spending commitments. “Time has proven that making the long-term bet is a good idea for both sides in the equation,” says Chris Geraci, President, [...]

One of the more compelling presentations at last week’s Beet Retreat in the City was given by Nancy Reyes of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York. To show how data can not only inform creative but also actually constitute it, Reyes walked the audience through two campaigns from the Netherlands that sought to comfort lonely people and reduce the incidence of domestic violence. In [...]

Video engagement advertising pioneer true[X] is looking to leverage the utility of voice-activated assistants and the power of live programming as it rolls out the next generation of attention-based video capabilities. “Engagement advertising is just the beginning,” says Pooja Midha, who recently joined true[X] as President. At last week’s Beet Retreat in the City, Midha—whose background includes ABC, Viacom and Dow [...]

When TiVo and Rovi merged in the fall of 2016, one priority was to pool all of the set-top box viewing data from TiVo’s own hardware and combine it with data from cable and satellite operators. But the combined data were useful only to the extent that software could extract insights. “So when we first came in we took this decision [...]

In the quest for addressable television with greater scale, brand uptake is accelerating concurrent with the efforts of companies like LiveRamp to educate the marketplace. Automation through software is lagging this uptake, according to Allison Metcalfe, GM of LiveRamp TV. “People are still pretty confused about what’s possible and how it works,” Metcalfe explains in this interview with Laura Desmond at [...]

Many in the advertising world are shifting their goals for TV marketing. No longer is the format just about building brand - in the connected TV era, attribution can also help marketers close the loop, all the way through to purchase. But Ben Tatta doesn't think marketers should focus only on a single goal. He wants to ensure they can measure [...]

We have seen new TVs come with curved screens - but what if the next shape in TV was hockey-stick? That is the growth trajectory the industry is now seeing in the realm of advanced TV advertising, the practice of serving TV ads targeted to individual viewers. "I think that the conversation has really shifted to advanced TV, whether that is even [...]

Armed with more precise viewer insights, cable television providers are well positioned to help not only their advertisers but their network affiliates as well by raising the value of their inventory. “So the days of us confronting each other I think from an advertising standpoint are over and I think we really are going to start working much more closely [...]

Former Starcom CEO Laura Desmond perceives a “full-scale crisis of confidence in marketing” not due to a lack of advertising accountability but to the complicated nature of brand building. “We see it play out with the holding companies and how they’re doing and how they’re under pressure, and that impacts every other part of the ecosystem,” says Desmond, who is Founder [...]

A Puerto Rico devastated by last year’s Hurricane Maria is on the verge of its next hurricane season. “And there are still problems,” says GroupM’s Phil Cowdell. There will be more storms and “people are still living under roofs with plastic tarpaulins…there are still people who don’t have power. So what we have to do is help to sustain relief to [...]

The TV industry is looking at outcomes and attributions “in a unique way right now” to fend off digital and social competitors that have claimed advertising results for which they’re not always responsible, says NBCUniversal’s Mike Rosen. “There’s that old movie expression don’t bring a knife to a gunfight,” Rosen adds. Yet so far, that’s exactly what the TV industry has done [...]

As an advertising medium, TV has traditionally been all about attaining the biggest audience reach possible. Now that connected TV has the ability to reach individual consumers based on refined targeting criteria, some in the industry want it to become a one-to-one medium. But there is a third way. For Jonathan Steuer, Omnicom's chief research officer, the two tactics can co-exist in a [...]

Giving people choices when it comes to television advertising sounds pretty straightforward, but it’s complicated by the fact that many viewers want an effortless experience. “This is why voice activation is working so well, because it’s actually the only thing easier than picking up a remote and pressing the buttons,” says Ben Winkler, Chief Investment Officer at OMD. So while Winkler [...]

As someone who is responsible for television advertising sales, Joe Marchese is bullish on the medium. But as a viewer, he wants a lot more in return for his investment of time. “I love what advertising affords and supports content and storytelling,” but the current "incarnation of the market" has just been between publishers and advertisers and forgetting the viewer, Marchese [...]

If storytelling will be over “when the world is perfect” is true, advertisers would seem to have nothing to worry about. However, storytelling is everywhere and it’s very easy for consumers to avoid. There is a parallel here to the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. While there is a category for Brand Experience & Activation, there isn’t one for [...]