While Yahoo is committed to creating original programming, it will become more of a "platform" for content from  sources including major broadcasters and by user generated content surfaced via Flickr and Tumblr, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in today's earnings call. Last month in Cannes, we interviewed Yahoo video chief Erin McPherson who outlined the changing the landscape of Yahoo's video [...]

CHICAGO -- Advertisers are finding it easier to use online video like conventional static display ads - because specific targeting through video remains challenging, according to one ad data exec. "People think about display as 'top of funnel' and 'bottom of funnel' - branding and direct response," eXelate marketing chief Khurrum Malik tells Beet.TV in this video interview. "With video, it's very [...]

CHICAGO -- So-called "programmatic" online ad-buying technology may help advertisers eliminate waste by targeting specific users, but the best campaigns include a blend of programmatic and conventional, according to one advertising executive. "The combination of experiential marketing and addressable marketing is where you find the real sweet spot and the best ROI in your marketing campaigns," Chris Paul, GM of Publicis [...]

CHICAGO - Adding layers of interactivity to tablet-based ads increases engagement, says Beth Doyle, VP of Innovations at Publicis Groupe's Vivaki, in this interview with Beet.TV. VivaKi recently completed a study with 26 advertisers and publishers delving into best practices for tablet ads and concluded that adding interactive elements to various ad formats can boost effectiveness. "Rich media makes a big [...]

CHICAGO -- Media agency Starcom has placed its bet on comScore as its primary partner for online campaign measurement, and that's helping streamline negotiations for TV, video and other mediums, says Tracey Paull, Senior VP and Digital Media Director at Starcom. "As an agency we want to stand behind a single verification platform," she says, adding that the strategic partnership helps Starcom to [...]

CHICAGO  -   Having  a clear set of analytics around where video ads appear on publisher pages has become essential to advertising agencies who are demanding more accountability.   This movement has lead to the introduction of "viewability" tools from several players including Tremor Video's VideoHub, a consortium lead by TubeMogul and a product from Vindico. The new comsCore product was first introduced [...]

CHICAGO - VivaKi, the digital agency unit of the Publicis Groupe, has forged strategic alliances with about 15 emerging ad tech companies in a mutually productive relationship, explains Alyson Hyder, VP, Ventures at VivaKi, in this interview with Beet.TV Some of the companies in the program are Flite, Mass Relevance, Nativo and Visible Measures.  Hyder says the agency plans to expand [...]

CHICAGO - While the buying of selling of video advertising via automated exchanges is growing quickly, there are a number of conflicting agendas emerging between advertisers, who  are seeking effective pricing,  versus the sellers of the content who want to maintain control over rates and inventory, observes industry analyst Ashley Swartz in her wrap-up of the Beet.TV Programmatic Leadership Summit [...]

The world of advertising buying is becoming a binary distinction between classical media buys and the booming world of programmatic, real-time bidding, which sees systems automatically buy and sell space based on pre-loaded criteria. Now one of the online video display ad space's biggest players, Videology, has re-tooled its platform to offer both. Its new release, codenamed "Descartes", adds  real-time bidding. Videology [...]

CANNES -- While marketers are focused on content creation, one of the biggest challenges for brands is where to go next in this growing field, says Adam Shlachter, Senior VP at Digitas during an interview with Beet.TV. "We are all curious how we can shape the market and work together and collaborate with agency partners and clients to create the right platforms [...]

CANNES - Programmatic buying is on pace to become the default buying method for trading digital ad inventory, says Johan Boserup, Global CEO GroupM Trading in an interview with Beet.TV. He adds that while programmatic buying won't be the only way to buy, it will take a bigger share. However, he warns that digital video as a medium needs more substance [...]

CANNES -- InMobi has been known as a big name in mobile advertising for most of its five years in operation. But those five years predate the smartphone and tablet boom. Now the outfit is mulling its options for adding such services to its client offering. "We are evaluating various different strategies as to what makes sense for an ad network play [...]

CANNES -- When it comes to digital advertising: "The big trend I'm seeing is starting to think about users as opposed to buying audience," according to one ad tech service vendor. Will Price, CEO of content marketing technology firm Flite, tells Beet.TV: "It used to be that brands would buy context to get their messages across. If they were a golf site, [...]

CANNES - Addressability on mobile devices gets a bad rap because of cookies and the lack thereof in some cases, but mobile phones do offer a whole slew of useful information, says Ray Velez, Chief Technology Officer for Razorfish and co-author of the book Converge during an interview with Beet.TV. That's because phones provide a range of insight into users to make [...]

CANNES -- Real-time marketing needs to become a part of the industrial muscle of the advertising business, says Ian James, Chief Digital Officer, EMEA at Starcom MediaVest Group in the UK during an interview with Beet.TV. Great brands like Heineken and Samsung are already engaging in real-time marketing and more need to do so to keep pace with consumers, he [...]

Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire, has made a $40 million investment in Shazam, the U.K.-based software company, Reuters reported earlier today.  The company identifies music and television programming via the microphone on a mobile device and displays related information on an App.  It has been growing quickly with broadcasters and advertisers seeing to be part of the so-called "second screen." Last [...]

CANNES -- "Programmatic" ad-buying techniques are seeing "immense" adoption around the world - and can particularly save money for advertisers in smaller countries, according to one exec in the space. "In a territory market that's a much smaller population ... operational costs are a much, much bigger percentage of the overall media spend," Rubicon Project's international VP Jay Stevens tells Beet.TV [...]

CANNES -- Austin-based social marketing technology service Mass Relevance has spent the last year since scoring a $3.3 million investment building clients for its platform. CEO and co-founder Sam Decker describes the proposition like this: "There's an opportunity to connect together the paid, owned, earned (media). We think owned is the bridge." The company's platform offers brands a series of packaged "apps" [...]

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ -  CNBC's production and syndication of video clips has been primarily segments of the the network's live programming.  That is expanding with the introduction of slate of Web only video programs, says Kevin Krim SVP/GM at at CNBC Digital in this interview with Beet.TV Some of the original Web programming is being produced and distributed with Yahoo Finance.  [...]

CANNES -- Video companies are lagging behind what is now a massive consumer appetite for digital programming, according to one online exec. "In Q1, we saw somewhere north of 16 billion video views," Jon Heller, whose company FreeWheel manages video for media clients, told Beet.TV in this video interview. "What we've seen is untapped volume. There's lot of untapped audience available." At [...]