Cannes Lions Chief Jose Papa: Showcasing ‘The True Value Of Creativity’

LONDON — In his first year as Managing Director of the Cannes Lions festival, Jose Papa will be overseeing a number of new initiatives. One in particular is designed to bring together some 15,000 participants in new and engaging ways under the auspices of its networking pillar. One of the things “that excites me the […]

Tobaccowala At The NewFronts: Of Creativity, New Players And ‘Dinosaur Companies’ Coming Alive Again

Marketers all around the globe face three basic, common challenges, according to longtime advertising executive Rishad Tobaccowala. They are reigniting growth, engaging with consumers and finding the right organizational structure that can facilitate the first two. “For most countries, the number one thing that clients are looking for is how do they grow again. So […]

Fidelity’s Speros: Out Of Great Risk Taking Comes Great Creativity

BOSTON – First it was “Reach out and touch someone” for AT&T and now the ubiquitous “Green Line” for Fidelity Investments. Jim Speros had a hand in both creative endeavors, along the way refining his definition of creativity. “To create disruption, you have to start by being a curious person,” Speros, EVP of Corporate Communications […]

Undertone’s Franchi Wants Programmatic To Serve Ad Creativity

So-called “programmatic” technologies are revolutionizing the trading and targeting of online ads. But what about the content of those ads? Many ad-tech vendors, who have spent the last few years touting programmatic’s numerical capabilities, are now battling over its next wave – the chance to use programmatic in the actual construction of ads themselves. “When you think about programmatic advertising […]

TV Ad Creativity Flows from “Unlimited Time” in the Social Sphere: FCB’s Credle

By her own employer’s admission, Susan Credle is a real-life “Peggy Olson”. By all accounts, the global chief creative officer of FCB’s career bears more than a passing resemblance to that of the fictional Mad Men character, once rising from the bottom of BBDO to become its creative chief. “They said ‘we’ll pay you $11,500 to fill in […]

Creativity Is The Only Way To Survive: Advice From McCann’s Bryan

If the old age of advertising was about pushing sales messages to viewers, the current one is about involving them in conversations in which they end up really caring about the speaker or cause behind the message. That’s why the McCann agency operates with the mantra: “Creativity is the only way to survive.” It’s one Sean Bryan is on […]

Time For Data To Fuel Creativity, Maxus’ Pattison Says

After a flurry during which the “maths men” seemed to be usurping the “mad men”, every ad-tech exec these days takes pains to promise that programmatic can propel creative marketer messages. But one ad woman says that isn’t happening – now, according to the Maxus Global agency’s CEO Lindsay Pattison, it is time to finally unite […]

Targeted Ads Need Standards for Creativity, GroupM’ Tilds

The technology behind targeted media has developed robustly, but the creative side still needs work. However, that’s poised to change as the industry works on evolving standards for creative and technology within ads, says Cary Tilds, Chief Innovation Officer at GroupM in an interview with Beet.TV. “The standards [for targeted ads] that we are developing are around […]

MediaCom’s McGlashan On The ‘Progressively Exciting’ Nexus of Creativity, Technology

LONDON — What do convincing men in India to share laundry duty and selling premium headphones and speakers have in common? To MediaCom, they were opportunities to leverage technology and consumer data to inform both creative executions and content creation for major brands. In the walkup to the Cannes advertising awards celebration later this month, […]

Machine Learning Counters Human Creativity Fatigue: Krux’s Reid

SEVILLE — The ad industry has come a long way in the enablement of trading through digital pipes and automated decisions. Now a new wave in artificial intelligence is bidding to make even smarter decisions on buyers’ behalf – and it’s all about alleviating staff of the boredom of testing out different ad outcomes. “The […]

Ad Land In Catch-Up On Creativity, Measurement: Xaxis’ Martin

SEVILLE — The ad-tech world has got pretty good at finding the right audiences and executing the right media buys at the right time. But what’s left on the table? Mobile, measurement and that little matter of creativity, says one exec working at the numbers end of an ad data company. “There’s a surge in people […]

Digital Ad Creativity has Become “Anemic,” AOL CEO Tim Armstrong

LAS VEGAS – While advances in targeted digital media advertising have become increasing powerful, the creative side of has become “anemic” – and needs to be addressed, says Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL, in this interview with Beet.TV We spoke with him last night at CES about advertising and the big year of […]

Dynamic Ad Creativity Is Science-Fiction: Nielsen’s Solomon

The prospect that, in a connected era, TV ads could be assembled from multiple component parts to make up a 30-second spot that is custom-built for a particular individual viewer is getting some marketers is excited. But how viable is this idea, really? Nielsen’s precision and planning SVP Eric Solomon reckons: “Dynamic creative, at an individual […]

Creativity Must Meet Math In Tomorrow’s Ads: Vonage’s Szumowski

These days, marketers have copious data at their fingertips and can target and sequence advertising with mathematical precision. But where’s the fun in that? “Sometimes, you’ve just got to wing it; sometimes, it’s about gut,” says Vonage media VP Kathryn Szumowski. She believes programmatic advertising technology can enable more, not less, creative advertising. “We want to […]

Mobile Video Ads Will Boast One-To-One Creativity: Rubicon’s Novak

Mobile is helping push scientifically-accurate programmatic advertising technology to new heights for ad tech vendor Rubicon Project – next up, the company reckons it’s time to put creativity back in to advertising. “One of the big things you’re going to see with mobile is storytelling becoming more and more important – when you’re trying to […]

Content and Creativity Is Coming to the “Machine-Driven World” of AdTech, AOL’s Bob Bejan

Programmatic advertising has been in the spotlight for the past two years.  Now it is the integration of creativity and content into the “machine-driven”world of adtech that is essential says Bob Bejan, Global Creative Executive Director of AOL in this interview with Beet.TV Bejan, who joined AOL this summer from Microsoft, with the integration of Microsoft advertising […]

Creativity Is Essential in an AdTech World, Omnicom’s Digital CEO Jonathan Nelson

COLOGNE –  Surrounded by tens of thousands of adtech executives at DMEXCO, the creative process was not part of the conversation,  but it needs to be, says Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Omincom Digital, in this interview with Beet.TV We spoke with him about fast changes in the ad tech world, including the rise of “tech stacks,” mobile/social […]

Clients Want an Offering With Creativity, Tech and Data: Maxus’s Williams

As the media landscape continues to shift, clients’ expectations of their media agencies are also changing — and becoming more demanding in a sense. “I think it’s becoming the norm now for clients, quite rightly, to expect flawless execution and great value for money and brilliant client service, and I think now that we’re seeing […]

Constraints Will Breed Creativity in Mobile Video: Digitas’s Chen

For marketers who still have the instinct to use repurposed TV spots for their digital video ads, mobile video remains challenging. It represents a form factor many haven’t figured out. “You have to rethink how you’re telegraphing [your] message and how you’re telling a story in as little as six seconds” or keeping it interesting […]