In a digital media world that is 25 years old, it's no wonder the relatively recent upstart of mobile is still considered a single new channel for planning against. But now ad group Starcom Worldwide's mobile SVP has an unusual goal - to kill her job. "If my job exists in six months in its current state, then I'm not doing [...]

Based on consumer behavior on mobile devices, the next advertising playground will likely lie in custom mobile ads, says Stephanie Sarofian, Executive Director, Brand and Agency at mobile platform InMobi  in this interview with Erick Schonfeld, Co-Founder of TouchCast, at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The former Digitas exec and founder of the New Fronts recently joined the mobile technology [...]

Today online there is not enough quality video to satisfy advertisers' demands. TouchCast, a startup co-founded by former TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld, is aiming to change that. "The editing bay is very much a bottleneck for large-scale video production," he tells Beet.TV. "You can't make enough video, even if you tripled your staff. "If I can arm reporters or brands with a [...]

Online video giant Dailymotion is aiming to expand further in the programmatic field with new data projects in 2014, says Roland Hamilton, Managing Director North America for DailyMotion, in this interview with Ashley J. Swartz at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Already, the company has been growing its audience buying offering since 2012, both in the U.S. and internationally, and the next [...]

Call it: the best of both worlds. Publishers who baulked at real-time bidding, the first incarnation of programmatic ad-buying, may be more drawn to a version of the technique that affords them both traditional-style control and super-controlled selling. Video ad tech firm SpotXchange's platform VP Sean Buckley explains programmatic direct it to Beet.TV: "It's a better way to serve ads. "When I [...]

Desktop devices took an early lead when team-based sports news publisher Bleacher Report launched its video initiative two and a half years ago. Now the handheld has drawn level on points. "Mobile has caught up," video VP Bill McCandless tells Beet.TV, adding that mobile traffic sometimes trumps desktop for Bleacher. "Because it's weekend-driven, we see mobile explode on weekends and around larger [...]

Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer will be among the publishing, marketers and agency execs to speak at  the annual meeting of the 4A's, the advertising agency's trade group.  Organizers expect 1000 attendees at the Beverly Hills Hilton on March 16-19. For a preview of the conference and some the pressing issues facing the industry the ad biz, we spoke with Nancy Hill, [...]

There's still life yet in the old dog that is the US TV industry. And by introducing digital-style targeting to this analogue medium, Simulmedia CEO Dave Morgan is trying to grow the $74bn sector still larger. "We can deliver, in one campaign in a day, on TV with normal linear 30-second spots, more targeted reach than YouTube can deliver all day," [...]

Once a facilitator of dynamic ad insertion for video downloads, Tel Aviv-based Hiro Media nowadays now offers a range of video distribution and monetization services, leading on its supply-side content platform (SSP). Product VP Oded Napchi says the company is going after slices of the industry left on the table by most others. "The online content market was very centralized ... (but) the [...]

Many online ad buyers who are now using so-called "programmatic" trading techniques for video are getting excited about the idea of old-fashioned TV using the same digital processes. But  not so fast, says one experienced ad exec. "We can't have real-time ad deliveries in linear TV - the infrastructure doesn't support it - that's many, many years away," says Simulmedia CEO [...]

As online video's advertising growth gathers steam, the two disciplines from which the format is drawn are converging, according to one ad tech exec. "TV buyers really want to learn from digital, and digital buyers really want to learn from TV," says Turn emerging media general manager Chris Smith. "You're starting to see more hybrid roles between digital planner and TV planner." Turn, [...]

As marketing becomes more reliant on programmatic buys, agencies are needing to hire more technically-minded people, says Kristi Argyilan, President of Magna Global North America, MediaBrands, in this interview with Ashley J. Swartz at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico. "We are starting to profile more like a financial portfolio management mindset. We are hiring more data scientists, more math people, people with [...]

The last year has seen an evolution in how publishers and broadcasters view the so-called "programmatic" sale of online ad inventory. "Just 12 months ago, a lot of publishers were just viewing programmatic as a remnant solution," says Mark Trefgarne, CEO of video ad tech platform LiveRail. "The transition we've seen is a view towards programmatic being more than that - [...]

Comcast has finalized its acquisition of digital video ad services company FreeWheel, according to this report by Peter Kafka up on Re/code.  The deal could be worth as much as $375 million  In August we spoke with FreeWheel co-ceo Doug Knopper about the company and it's plans for growth.   Knopper will stay after the deal, Kafka reports.  We have [...]

Brands will be most successful in online video if they can approach budgeting from a "share shift" point of view, says Lisa Giacosa, SVP Global Social Media Director and Video Lead at Starcom MediaVest Group, in this interview with Erick Schonfeld, co-founder of Touchcast, at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico. "I don't mind how I reach a person as long as I have [...]

Personalized ads can deliver better results for brands when it comes to awareness as well as intent to purchase, says Oren Harnevo, CEO and co-founder of Eyeview, a personalized video ad platform, in this interview with Ashley J. Swartz at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico. "The performance of brand favorability is much better," he says, adding that auto, retail and CPG [...]

The problem with the new native advertising concept, according to some display ad veterans, is - how can the format ever hit display's heights when each new deployment may need to be customized for editorial fit? But Adam Singolda, CEO of a content discovery network that is also trying to deploy native ads, says things will improve - perhaps even leading [...]

BARCELONA -- The move to native mobile advertising formats will give a much greater say to one of the most important participants in the mobile app ecosystem, according to mobile ad network InMobi. App developers, until now, didn't have a say," says the firm's head of publisher-side products Krishnendu Majumdar. "If they have to monetize, they're saying 'You're throwing me a banner' [...]

BARCELONA -- The so-called "native advertising" opportunity, which sees straight-up display ads replaced by sponsorships that look like content, may be young - but mobile ad network InMobi is moving aggressively in its direction. "We're going to break up the banners," InMobi global strategic partnerships VP Pankaj Bengani tells Beet.TV. "Instead of showing banners to users, we're going to show native advertising. The [...]

Depending on the ad format, brands will want to use different metrics and KPIs to measure effectiveness, says Jim Daily, General Manager US for Ebuzzing, an online video technology platform based in London  that's been expanding in the US in the last year, in this interview with Ashley J. Swartz at the recent Beet.TV executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The company's product set [...]