How do you reboot an agency to take on more of marketers’ problems in a world where consumer change is fast and furious? In the case of GroupM’s Wavemaker, it’s thinking far beyond simply combining agencies Maxus and MEC. “It has to be more than a merger. If all we did was take two great brands and cultures and teams and [...]

Earlier this month, Rocket Fuel's new owner made a second splash after the acquisition, when it offered ad buyers "total transparency" in to their campaign spending. Sizmek's move followed a year in which transparency became advertisers' biggest concern - and vendors rushed to profess their transparency credentials. So what exactly is the solution to transparency concerns? Take a pinch of ad server, [...]

Will new data protection legislation coming May 25 prove apocalyptic or just a bump in the road? With less than 100 days to go to the European Commission’s new General Data Protection Regulation, the US advertising sector seems split on the issue. On the one hand, expert ad-tech deal-maker LUMA Partners CEO Terence Kawaja says GDPR will simply hasten changes that were [...]

Roku is going all in on measurement of both streaming and linear television with a suite of tools called Roku Ad Insights, which includes the ability for advertisers to quiz viewers on-screen. “Measurement is essential to moving OTT forward within the media and advertising space,” says Dan Robbins, Head of Ad Research & Insights, Roku, in this interview with Beet.TV. “Our [...]

Europe has become a "hostile" environment for digital ad tracking - but, even so, ad-tech companies must comply with the European Commission’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to one ad-tech firm which says it is "struggling" to cope with the new legislation. "About six months ago, I would say that perhaps the industry had not really had a moment of reckoning [...]

For such a young concept, header bidding, the technology which now allows publishers to entertain bids from multiple demand sources simultaneously to achieve higher yield, seems to already have enjoyed a long and fulsome life. From beginning as a technology which required execution on the client side, now there are also many server-to-server header executions. And Intermarkets, one ad-tech vendor, is exploiting [...]

LAS VEGAS – Verizon’s Oath is intent on spreading the love in 2018 as it ramps up to offer advertisers alternatives to more unified competitors like Facebook and Google. “Build brands people love” is the mantra of the amalgamation of AOL and Yahoo that is Oath. Fittingly, the company has decided to share its “love” with advertisers and consumers at its [...]

The new law has been in black and white for more than two years - but, still, the proof of its pudding will only be known after the final deadline for compliance comes in to effect this coming May. That is according to one ad-tech company exec thinking through the effects of the European Commission’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The new law [...]

Europe's looming new data protection rules, which strength consumer protections and will require data handlers and processors to gain explicit consent from users, are scaring a lot of businesses that hold data on people. But GDPR, whose final deadline comes on May 25, doesn't have to be scary, and companies don't have to look at it as a negative. "It's actually a [...]

LAS VEGAS -- In 2018, a lot of ad-tech firms will tell you they apply "artificial intelligence" to digital advertising trading. For Irwin Gotlieb, GroupM's veteran - and visionary - chairman, the collection of practices that underpin AI have been around for decades. But that doesn't mean they can't be revolutionary, all the same. Fundamentally, AI allows advertisers to turn what his [...]

LAS VEGAS – When Brian Wieser looks at The Walt Disney Co.’s desire to buy certain aspects of 21st Century Fox, he sees the impact of both shifting viewing habits and the intrusion of big digital players. For Disney, it’s the appeal of a big, quick deal and the options here and overseas it will deliver for testing various direct-to-consumer offerings. [...]

LAS VEGAS -- Amid the growing consumer awareness - and, in some quarters, discontent - over digital ad tracking and targeting, one TV ad-tech firm may have just one-upped the rest in the race to provide control. This month, Tru Optik, a data management platform which facilitates ads for connected TV platforms, launched OptOut.TV, giving consumers a one-click way to refuse [...]

LAS VEGAS – With all the pressures that most marketers are facing, being at CES 2018 can actually be a bit scary. Which is why many agencies are here with their clients, trying to guide them through all of the promotional smoke and noise to what really matters. “There is fear in the unknown. What we’re tying to do is educate [...]

LAS VEGAS – Contrary to what some might think, John Osborn didn’t leave the creative world behind when he decided to shift from heading up BBDO New York to running the media side at OMD U.S. He feels he’s gotten even closer to the real action. “I don’t look at it as leaving anything behind,” says Osborn, who made the move [...]

LAS VEGAS -- Brands which use the media agency Horizon to buy ads on connected TVs are about to get smarter placements, following a partnership with 4C Insights. As AdExchanger reported, on top of its Pivot advanced TV platform, Horizon is building a custom planning tool to marry behavioral, attitudinal and purchase data with viewership data. 4C Insights chief product officer Anupam Gupta [...]

LAS VEGAS -- When Spotify was growing up, its founder Daniel Ek often talked at length about the gravitational force of the playlist. Where albums once dictated how consumers accessed music, and MP3s atomized the album, playlists would be the new unit of consumption. But, even as it dives more heavily in to podcasts, now Spotify no longer thinks of itself [...]

LAS VEGAS -- All the chatter is about Amazon building an advertising business that could rival the biggest platforms in ad sales. But Amazon could be an advertising partner, too. Earlier this month, SpotX, the digital video ad tech vendor, announced a deal with the retail giant to make video ad deliver more seamless. And, in this video interview with Beet.TV, SpotX strategic [...]

LAS VEGAS – To Simulmedia, which has about a decade head start in optimizing linear television ad targeting, it’s a good sign that large network groups have decided to adopt data-optimized, audience-based campaigns. “It’s critical to get their adoption to move a market because the TV ad market is one where demand exceeds supply,” says Dave Morgan, the company’s CEO [...]

If the health of the advertiser business is a bellwether for the state of the economy, then listen up to the world's largest media investment group. In this video interview with Beet.TV, GroupM chairman Irwin Gotlieb sounds a worrying call. "The troubling aspect of it is that we see more and more clients who are businesses are in distress, many of the [...]

The deployments are different in every market around the world but, slowly but surely, addressable TV - technology which helps advertisers target individual viewers - is rolling out globally. But don't bet on this granular-targeting super-power usurping the traditional construct of TV ad-buying - wherein the goal is to reach a mass audience, measured roughly - any time soon. In this video [...]