Big Blue’s Battle Against Bias: IBM Open-Sources Mitigation For Media

In a big research exercise, IBM had already found that digital ad algorithms can exhibit bias toward particular groups. Now it wants to open-source a solution. Last year, IBM ran its AI Fairness 360 (AIF360) toolset, which aims to uncover unintended biases in machine learning workflows, on 10 million impressions of an Ad Council campaign, […]

 
 

IBM Watson Advertising Seeking Ad Data To Prove Marketing Biases: Lord

By now, many people are aware of the concept of “cognitive bias”. Because humans are humans, it is something that can manifest in advertising creative. Now IBM’s machine learning engine Watson wants to find evidence of biased advertising, so that it can build a solution. Uncovering bias IBM Watson Advertising announces new research initiative to […]

 
 

“AI is Going to be the Single Biggest Disruptor and Enabler of Marketing,” Mastercard’s Rajamannar

For one man, the turning of a year also represents the dawning of a new age. Raja Rajamannar, in his new book, Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow’s Consumers, says the industry is emerging into what he calls “the fifth paradigm” of marketing. Rajamannar is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Mastercard […]

 
 

IBM’s Lord On Coffee & The Three Flavors Of Customer Value

Modern brands can only get on to people’s radars if they provide value – but, in a modern market, there is more than one kind of value. Customer data is the key to understanding what prospects and customers want from a brand – and that should inform how brands talk with them, according to IBM […]

 
 

IBM’s Watson Turns Dark Data Into Ad Gold, Bob Lord Says

When IBM engineers developed their artificial intelligence engine Watson to compete in the TV game show Jeopardy! 10 years ago, they may not have expected that it would, one day, also help power the targeting of TV and other ads. But that is now the prospect Big Blue finds itself with, now that Watson is being […]

 
 

AOL’s Bob Lord on Go90 App and Big Move to Mobile with Verizon

On Monday evening, AOL and its new corporate parent in Verizon, announced Go90,  a new free, ad-supported mobile video app. At the Advertising Week event, we spoke with AOL President Bob Lord about the launch, the focus on mobile, and the rapid growth of the AOL tech stack. The Go90 app will be available this […]

 
 

AOL Expands Publisher Syndication & Monetization Services with Vidible Acquisition

AOL, which has become one of the biggest digital video platforms, in large part around its syndication business, is about to expand its offering to publishers with the recent acquisition of Vidible, says Bob Lord, Global CEO of AOL Platforms, in this interview with Beet.TV He says that Vidible, which has a robust, self-service technology […]

 
 

AOL Tops comScore Rankings of Video Advertising Properties

In comScore’s monthly ranking of video advertising properties, AOL reached the top spot for the time. It  ranked #1 in video ad reach, serving ads to 53.8 percent of the total U.S. population in October. BrightRoll Platform came in second with 52.3 percent reach, followed by LiveRail with 52.1 percent, SpotXchange Video Advertising Platform with 51.6 […]

 
 

AOL Grows Programmatic Business Year Over Year, Bob Lord

AOL has seen a boost in programmatic buying from 4% a year ago to nearly 34%, says Bob Lord, Global CEO of AOL Platforms, in an interview with Beet.TV. That growth is driven by two trends — more understanding of the benefits of programmatic buying, and the availability of data management platforms to parse out and analyze […]

 
 

Next Step in Programmatic: Data-Driven Creative, AOL’s Bob Lord

COLOGNE — One of the next steps in the expansion of programmatic marketing will be with creative, says Bob Lord, Global CEO of AOL Platforms, in an interview with Beet.TV. “The next evolution is figuring out how to test the best creative, plus placement,” he says. “Instead of four treatment or versions, [I want the creative […]

 
 

Programmatic Video Ad Spending Growing in Europe, Adap.tv study

COLOGNE, Germany –  Advertising agencies are spending more and more on digital video channels – and most of the money moving from existing media is being switched from traditional TV. According to programmatic video ad tech vendor Adap.tv’s 2014 European State Of The Video Industry survey, 2014 spending on digital video advertising is up 42% […]

 
 

AOL to Expand Ad Automated Marketplace with Big Focus on Linear TV

AOL’s rapid’s development of an automated marketplace, for advertisers and publishers to buy and sell digital ads, will expand  in the year ahead with a big focus on linear TV planning and buying,  says Bob Lord, CEO of AOL Platforms, in this interview with Beet.TV. Lord predicts consolidation among tech vendors in the coming months. […]

 
 

AOL’s Lord: Optimization Trumps Reach For Advertisers

Old, TV-style ad measurement metrics are becoming vogue in the data-driven world of online advertising. But AOL Networks CEO Bob Lord says ads measured for audience reach don’t work as well alternatives. “As we move in to the ability to buy at an impression level …  you start to really question the GRP (gross rating […]

 
 

AOL’s Lord: 2014 Is All About ‘Programmatic 2.0’

AOL’s advertising chief says advertisers’ understanding of so-called “programmatic” technology improved at the tail end of 2013 – now the year ahead is about offering them the range of its benefits at integrated scale. “There’s been a lot of great progress in the last three to four months since the programmatic upfront of people understanding […]

 
 

AOL’s Lord: Machines Will Take Over Madison Ave Like They Did Wall Street

COLOGNE — Don’t call it “Rise Of The Machines”, but AOL’s new ad chief reckons real-time ad bidding algorithms will soon do much of the grunt work currently done by Mad Men and women. In this video interview with Beet.TV at the DMEXCO industry conflab, AOL Networks’ Bob Lord says: “Traders on the floor (of Wall […]

 
 

Razorfish CEO on What’s Next in Branded Content and Storytelling

CANNES – Marketers should be on the lookout for new ways to blend storytelling into branded content, says Bob Lord, Global CEO of Razorfish in an interview with Beet.TV. As an example, he points to a recent effort by Razorfish client Citibank in which the marketer helped to curate the AOL Business channel. “We bought […]

 
 

Razorfish’s Lord: Consumer-TV Interaction on the Rise

The growth of consumer-TV program interaction via platforms like Twitter reenforces consumers’ demand for “two-way communication,” and advertisers are finally starting to embrace it, says Bob Lord, global CEO of Razorfish, a digital marketing industry. Content and technology are coming together at the 2013 NewFronts in interesting ways, says Lord. “You’re starting to see a […]