The TV ratings giant is prepping to add mobile ratings to its product mix. The goal for Nielsen? To weave mobile into TV ratings in time for the fall season, said Steve Hasker, President of Nielsen Global Products, in an interview with Beet.TV this spring. The addition of mobile to the TV ratings set can potentially give a more holistic view [...]

LONDON -  He told us he would buy companies - and today that guidance came to pass. Charlie Muirhead's Rightster is taking a big step to consolidate the video ecosystem by buying two of its biggest protagonists. Eight months after going public to raise £22.4m, the firm is acquiring viral video management firm Viral Spiral for up to £4.1m ($7m) and is proposing [...]

CANNES, France -- New innovations in video technology are enabling more dynamic forms of storytelling, says Jon Anselmo, Head of Innovation at Starcom MediaVest Group, during an interview with Beet.TV at Cannes. Companies like video startup Jaunt, with its virtual reality technology, are poised to play a big role in advertising creative, he says. That type of technology allows for [...]

CANNES, France --  As video becomes more ubiquitous in brand arsenals, marketers are hunting for ways to innovate in their video content, says Rori Duboff, Global Head of Strategy at Havas, during an interview with Beet.TV about video at Cannes. That could range from partnering with established or emerging artists on content, pushing out new formats, or creating video with [...]

CANNES, France - While the predominant consumption of video still takes place on the television screen, the industry is moving to a world where the delivery of commercial-free  services like Netflix and Amazon will grow as will the consumption of short form video and mobile. All this presents advertisers with a new set of challenges.  The industry "still has the [...]

CANNES, France -- Brands from around the world still have different perceptions of video and how it fits in the media mix, says Mainardo De Nardis, CEO of OMD Worldwide, during an interview with Beet.TV about video at Cannes. "We had a meeting with some clients from Latin America, including Brazil, and it was clear there was a separation between [...]

CANNES, France -- Some of the biggest brands in the world are now expecting agency partners to make and distribute mobile content, says Nikki Mendonça, President of OMD across EMEA, during an interview with Beet.TV. Brands such as McDonald's, Pepsico and Walt Disney had looked to the agency to deliver short-form content. "Not only are consumers demanding more content, but this also [...]

In a big move to expand its video advertising capabilities, Facebook has acquired video ad services company LiveRail, both companies announced today.   Earlier this year, LiveRail CEO Mark Trefgarne explained the company's business model and plans in the video session with Ashley J. Swartz at this year's Beet  Retreat.   We are republishing that video today.    

CANNES, France -- Ads on a mobile phone have to pull off the twin feats of being both smaller and more engaging than their desktop forebears. MediaCom's global media head Ben Phillips tells Beet.TV mobile ad formats have moved on significantly over the last decade: "We’re seeing a lot more branding opportunities come in, like rich media advertising. Consumer are expecting us [...]

CANNES, France -- View-through rates for Google's skippable ads on YouTube have been rising significantly since first introduced, says David Benson, Google Branding Solutions Lead for Northern and Central Europe in an interview with Beet.TV. The benefit of these skippable spots is that, over time, consumers begin to tune out the ads that aren't relevant, and to tune in the ads [...]

What some thought would bring about the death of television as we know it encountered its own major setback last Wednesday when the Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that had been in favor of Aereo. The Supreme Court's reasoning was that the "cloud-based television antenna" that allowed subscribers to access over-the-air broadcast television was acting as a cable [...]

CANNES, France -- Real-time marketing campaigns like those now being executed during the World Cup are now a mature opportunity; next, they must become a regular fixture, says one agency unit online boss. "There’s been a year or two of euphoria over it - Super Bowl, Oreos, these things," Mindshare chief digital officer Norm Johnston tells Beet.TV "It’s about how do you [...]

CANNES, France -- To reach its full potential, video advertising still needs to cross several hurdles surrounding viewability, measurement and cross-screen viewing, says Scot McLernon, Chief Revenue Officer for video advertising company YuMe, in an interview with Beet.TV. "We have a lot of advertisers that have tried video, and advertisers that want to get into video that think we need get [...]

CANNES, France -- Forgive him if you think "the year of real-time marketing" was 2013, when Oreo dunked in the dark - but Mindshare's north America strategy chief thinks 2014 is the real deal. "Real-time has been about owned and earned," Jordan Bitterman tells Beet.TV. "Tent-pole events like the Superbowl - 'how do we get someone to retweet our creative tweet?' That’s all [...]

CANNES, France -- The blurring of editorial and advertising remains a hot topic. Now that implementations are commonplace, the opportunity needs to scale up to become easily repeatable, just like conventional ad formats. "Native is growing up," says industry news site Digiday's editor-in-chief Brian Morrissey. "Custom things don’t scale. Advertising is a scale business. We’re seeing native figuring out a way to marry [...]

CANNES, France -- As brands chase engagement, a number of social publishing platforms are offering more tools to both drive and measure interaction of branded content, says John McCarus, SVP Social Content at Digitas during an interview with Beet.TV at Cannes. "Brands are starting to get help from a more evolved social structure and we now have partners providing tools," he says. For [...]

CANNES, FRANCE -- Comedy – and content, in general – is having a renaissance due to the current wealth of user-generated content, says Kassem Gharaibeh, comedian and co-founder of Maker Studios. Comedy is a mainstay of entertainment, he says. Even without YouTube, it would still be around. "But what YouTube did was allow people who didn't have access through the front door [...]

CANNES, France -- How will the relationship between media agencies, brands and TV networks evolve as underlying media and marketing platforms continue to be disrupted? The incumbent TV industry remains in a strong position, a Beet.TV panel heard. "There’s been a sea-change in the attitudes but, more importantly, the confidence of the broadcast and major cable network groups," according to Nielsen [...]

SAN FRANCISCO -  Television is the next big thing where video is naturally migrating, says Doron Wesly, head of market strategy for digital ad tech company Tremor Video. "It's where the connected TV is still very much in its infancy," he says. "But we know there's a huge audience there." Americans are streaming an average 12 hours of television per week, he [...]

CANNES, France -- What are the pros and cons of scale and consolidation when it comes to programmatic advertising technology? One major marketing figure is worried about the possible effects. "The thing that concerns me the most as we go in to programmatic is the neutrality of exchanges," Mondelēz International's VP of global media and Consumer engagement, Bonin Bough, tells Beet.TV "As media owners also [...]