PHOENIX - The audio podcast, long cast aside by many news organizations, is finding a resurgence.   Says Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of Slate Group in this interview with Beet.TV While there has been new attention for podcasts with the success of Serial, Slate has been producing them since 1999.  He says "as a journalist, I have never seen such intense user [...]

PHOENIX - While data is providing greater efficiency for marketers, data tools will become widely available.  It will be the media agencies of the future who can harness creativity who will succeed, says Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategist for the Publicis Groupe, in this wide ranging interview with Beet.TV He talks about the changing demands of clients and the evolution of the [...]

PHOENIX -  The upcoming Digital Content NewFronts, a two week showcase for digital video, will represent the maturation of sponsored video as a medium, says Scott Donaton, Chief Content Officer of DigitasLBi NA, in this interview with Beet.TV Donaton says that custom creative content, coupled with traditional media, outperforms traditional campaigns.  He says what has been the nascent medium of digital video [...]

PHOENIX -- Over the last year, the reality that many web ads are viewed not by consumers but by automated scripts, or are otherwise out of view, has gained visibility. Some estimates on the topic gloomily suggest the sky is falling over digital advertising. But that's far from the truth - at least, if you advertise through a reputable publisher, says [...]

BERLIN -- In an industry long dominated by Youku and Tudou, Baidu-backed iQiyi has risen to become the most popular VOD service in China. Speaking with Beet.TV at this week's Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival), iQiyi Motion Pictures president Li Yansong said this is despite three problems that have previously inhibited the market in China: Piracy: "In the wake of the 2014 Chinese government crackdown [...]

PHOENIX -- Since founding in 2006, Outbrain has built up to serving 200bn content recommendations on publisher sites every month, most as suggestions at the bottom of online articles. Now it wants use some of that breadth to improve the relevance of those recommendations. "As publishers get smarter in content recommendation, we’re able to better understand the business needs of publishers… and provide [...]

PHOENIX -  With the "democratization" of media channels, advertising opportunities for publishers have dramatically shifted.   Publishers can partner with advertisers to create high quality, engaging content, says Troy Young President of Hearst Digital, in this video interview. Regarding the so called "separation of church and state" between editorial and publishing, he says that editors should be involved with planning and [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Layering in digital media into TV buys can lift brand metrics on the TV side, and agencies would be wise to continue to showcase the case studies reflecting that to clients, says Veena Rayapareddi, Vice President Programmatic at Cadreon/Magna Global (IPG) at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat.  "We can show the lift in brand metric on the TV side [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The emerging opportunity of connected TVs with household-level targeting capability may not be met without the kind of ad standardisation that the IAB's inception brought to display, says one ad tech exec. "Everyone does something a little bit differently - each of the (TV) operators has different decks, data," says Jamie Power, senior partner  for addressable TV  at Modi Media, Group M's [...]

FORD LAUDERDALE -- It has been a whirlwind couple of years in digital ad technology platforms, with the onset of "programmatic" quickly shaking up the sector. What are the views from one company whose input to the space endures? "We are in an uncertain time," according to Nielsen Digital MD Andrew Feigenson. "There’s a lot of fear. People in their entrenched way [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- What's a magazine anymore? A video series, an app, or a cross-portfolio digital aggregation, according to publisher Time Inc's video SVP JR McCabe. "I look at the portfolio as brands, not as magazines," McCabe tells Beet.TV. Case in point is recently-launched Daily Cut, which scoops up video from across Time Inc titles. Time Inc produced 8,000 original videos in [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Original commissions have become the creative differentiators for video-on-demand platforms. TV aggregator Hulu is taking a range of new programming to the upcoming April/May NewFronts, a week when platforms try to secure upfront ad bookings. "One of our better shows is The Awesomes, an animated series by Seth Myers," Hulu ad sales SVP Peter Naylor tells Beet.TV. "But, to be candid, [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Online video viewing that requires consumers log in is growing, now that TV Everywhere services have popularized the notion. That is according to video ad tech platform FreeWheel, which expects to observe growth in its upcoming Q4 video monetization report. FreeWheel's business solutions GM James Rooke expects "continued growth in viewing taking place behind the authentication wall": "In our last report, it was [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- "Out-of-stream" video ad tech supplier Teads is targeting global expansion in 2015, after it raised another $30m in funding in January. Speaking with Beet.TV, North America GM Jim Daily expects "more expansion" this year: "We’ve opened up in the US. We’re going to be expanding further in to Canada and some other key markets. We’ve expanded in to Asia, with Seoul, [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- MVPDs like AT&T are looking at ways to integrate more data into media buying and planning, says Chris Monteferrante, VP National Sales at AT&T AdWorks, AT&T's advanced advertising arm, at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in an interview with Ashley J. Swartz, CEO and Founder of Furious Corp. "We use data to augment buys, sell media and help agencies and [...]

PHOENIX - In effort to establish global standards around advertising technology, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has created the IAB Tech Lab and this week announced the appointment of David J. Moore as chairman of the new group. Moore is chairman of Xaxis and president of WPP Digital.  He is a past Chairman of the IAB. We interviewed him at the IAB Annual [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE -- What place creativity when ads can be scientifically created to match viewer emotions using all manner of data points? Eyeview, a vendor which helps personalize video ads according to targeting criteria, thinks the two disciplines connect. "For example, a retailer has 100,000 products in different locations, different prices," says Eyeview CEO Oren Harnevo. "We help them create 100,000 or a [...]

PHOENIX - Outgoing IAB chair Vivek Shah, who ignited the industry around  the ad fraud issue with his fiery speech at last year's IAB Leadership Meeting, says that twelve months on, the problem of fraud has improved with the efforts of both publishers and the the marketing community. But the problem persists and he feels that publishers are unfairly taking the brunt [...]

PHOENIX -  Bloomberg Media has combined Bloomberg.com and BloombergBusinessWeek.com into a new flagship destination BloombergNews.com. It has been designed with new advertising units which make ads "viewable" across screens, explains Paul Caine, Global Chief Revenue Officer of Bloomberg Media, in this interview with Beet.TV He says the Microsoft is the site's global launch partner.  The new site launched 10 days ago. [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE - As the industry continues to seek an ideal cross-measurement service, some media companies are cobbling together their own methods to track audiences across screens. For instance, NBCUniversal is selling and measuring ads on a "total audience" basis across linear and digital, says Joe Cady, VP of Advertising at NBC Universal, at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in an interview [...]