As the U.S. addressable linear television footprint continues to grow, OTT is “here and now and scaled, and we are definitely seeing dollars flow in that direction,” says Magna Global’s David Cohen. “Whether it’s Roku or whether it’s Amazon, it’s a very, very big growth engine for us.” Amid the TV Upfront negotiating season, consumers are embracing streaming video options on [...]

Almost 12 months to the day after Group M merged its MEC and Maxus agencies, the combined entity finds itself starting up just as everyone talks about the prospect of the sun setting on ad agencies. But Wavemaker, which started up in September, is responding to the talk of agency disintermediation with a clear plan. In this video interview with Beet.TV, its [...]

For at least as long as there has been a Lumascape, consolidation has been the check and balance on ad-tech proliferation. But could we be about to enter another wave of merger and acquisition? One platform exec thinks so. In this video interview with Beet.TV, OpenX's senior director of buyer development says the new practice of header bidding, combined with a drive [...]

When The New Yorker writer Ken Auletta decided to take a hard look at companies that are dependent upon advertising, he came away seeing “frenemies” everywhere—all of them facing "existential assault." The resulting book, being released today after three years of research, is titled Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else). Auletta interviewed 450 people, some of [...]

Just because you can reach a consumer through super-targeting, doesn't mean you should. That is the new advice from one leading marketing analyst who has worked at an ad-tech platform but who also benefits from reams of consumer insights. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Forrester VP and principal analyst Joanna O'Connell says many marketers are guilty of using the tools available to [...]

When David Cohen first attended the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity about a dozen years ago, it was as a “digital media guy and I was so honored to go to an environment where was all these creatives and the best creativity in the business.” Fast forward to the present and Cohen, like other advertising and media professionals, is glad [...]

Like many people attending Cannes this year, Doug Ray is looking for a return to the “core” of what the International Festival of Creativity was meant to celebrate: creativity. “Cannes has changed so much since the first year I went, which was 2006. It has become the new CES in some respects. It’s become an ad tech, media-owner-palooza if you [...]

The #DeleteFacebook campaign may have reached fever pitch - but Facebook's Q1 daily active users were up 13% over the previous year. With performance like that, it is enough to make observers wonder, did the Cambridge Analytica scandal even happen? That scandal, coupled with Europe's new GDPR legislation, has put the digital marketing industries on notice - they are now being watched [...]

If you thought ad-tech companies weren't taking seriously the prospect of GDPR-style privacy legislation coming to the US, consider this - in March, MediaMath hired a State Department official as its VP of government policy. Daniel Sepulveda had been deputy assistant secretary at the department, and had served as its "ambassador" on international communications policy. The reality of GDPR, which affects all [...]

What started at Advertising Week last year—a movement called Creative Spirit that helps people with intellectual or developmental disabilities enter the advertising and marketing workforce—moves to the main stage at this year’s Cannes International Festival of Creativity. As Creative Spirit’s Co-Founder and President, OMD CMO Laurel Rossi sees the move to Cannes as a sign of real action rather than [...]

FreeWheel is “very happy to be heavily investing in Cannes again this year” as it looks to broaden its footprint on the buy side and find more strategic partners to tackle industry issues like attribution and measurement in television. As is the case in the ongoing TV Upfront season, there will be lots of discussion about advanced audience targeting, says [...]

At last year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Omnicom Group’s Tiffany R. Warren participated in a “beachside conversation” about the importance of diversity in hiring. Reflecting on that panel discussion, “I thought this is a topic that needs to be in the Palais,” the main building at the international event, Warren recalls. This year at Cannes, the Palais is exactly where [...]

It may be a law conceived in Europe to protect European citizens - but many ad-tech companies, whose data processing capabilities may be impacted by GDPR, are now operating on an assumption that similar considerations should apply more broadly than just Europe. Over the last couple of years since GDPR passed, we have seen a spectrum of readiness from ad-tech suppliers, [...]

Having crafted more than 10,000 of its interactive, consumer-engagement ads, true[X] is going all in on the “connected living room” to offer advertisers the best options to leverage things like co-viewing, 4K screens and surround sound. “We’re standing up an entire CT innovation lab around that concept,” says Pooja Midha, who recently became President of true[X]. “Today we are on most [...]

It was one of the latest steps in a series of ad agency reconfigurations. But what are the founding philosophies of Wavemaker, the agency formed from the merger of Group M's MEC and Maxus? In this video interview with Beet.TV, global CEO Tim Castree offers three pillars... Marriage of media content and technology: "Media is not just about the distribution of paid messages anymore. [...]

As more Dentsu Aegis Network clients dedicate budgets to addressable or audience-targeted television, Doug Ray envisions a future in which only advertising avails on live TV will be negotiated the old fashioned way. “All other TV, particularly all the long tail of cable, will be bought through programmatic or audience targeted terms,” says Dentsu’s President of Product & Innovation. “I think [...]

There are "point solutions" - and then there are "what's the point?" solutions? In ad-tech, many software vendors are risking ending up in the last category, as a dizzying array of function-specific tools risks confusing buyers. That is according to one agency boss communicating how technological complexity is actually working against buyers and their vendors. Oleg Korenfeld, chief platforms officer at Wavemaker, was [...]

Like some people with a long background in media, Janet Balis tries to parse the semantical nuances of what constitutes “advanced advertising,” particularly when the term is applied to television. What’s more important right now is that the sell-side and buy-side come together to craft uniform audience targeting and measurement solutions, says EY’s Global Advisory Lead, Media & Entertainment. In this [...]

Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation sees new requirements for consent placed on the collection and use of EU citizens' data That would seem to mean a hefty challenge for ad-tech techniques that, in recent years, have grown so fast that users cannot keep up. But Tom Kershaw relishes the challenge. As Rubicon Project's chief technology officer, Kershaw helps run one of the [...]

Europeans and companies that hold data about them woke up in a new world this morning. May 25 was the final deadline for compliance with the new GDPR. For ad-tech and marketing, GDPR seems to represent a threat to many of the advanced targeting techniques that have grown exploded in the last five years, many of which have involved piecing together [...]