essence

LOS ANGELES — It is an irony of the modern media age that, in an era of abundant data, so much of it remains out of reach. That leaves agencies like Essence striving to knit together solutions for advertisers using the data streams they can get their hands on. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Mike […]

YouTube is now the most-watched living-room digital video platform in the US after Netflix, according to Nielsen. So why aren’t advertisers taking it more seriously when it comes to developing a connected TV advertising plan? In this video interview with Beet.TV, media agency Essence’s Mike Fisher explains the value of YouTube. Shifting viewing “Within the […]

Suddenly, whether an ad impression was viewable on-screen is table stakes. In the new world, the emerging medium of over-the-top TV is going to need to convince marketers that their ad was truly effective. That’s the view of one ad agency leader charged with plotting the course to the OTT future. In this video interview […]

LONDON – Social media usage has surged during the coronavirus pandemic as homebound consumers rely on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter to stay connected with the outside world. As marketers seek to reach those consumers, they face the daunting task of creating omnichannel campaigns among “walled gardens” that aren’t readily transparent and have […]

In a medium where more of the ad inventory is sold by the people who actually make the content, the software they use to facilitate transactions will have an increasingly important role. After a decade in which so much display ad inventory was traded through open programmatic exchanges, the emergence of connected, over-the-top (OTT) TV […]

SAN JUAN — It is the technology that can laser-target an ad at individual TV viewers or households, and then control how many more ads get seen across TV and other media. But what is the state of “addressable” television? A Beet Retreat panel convened by Beet.TV in Puerto Rico discussed that topic. Slow addressable […]

2018 was the year Amazon became the number-three digital ad platform in the US, according to eMarketer‘s analysis. And that tipping point coincided with a large-scale new bearishness that plagued its rival tech platforms, as concerns over ad practices, mental health and democracy coalesced to dog Facebook and Google. So, who will be winning the race […]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—Anyone can sympathize with traditional television networks given the transformational challenges they face. But to empathize, one has to have been there, as has Adam Gerber. In this interview, the ABC and agency veteran details the responsibilities for change of each constituency—from media to measurement companies, marketers and agencies—as he assays the […]

Just because consumers have lots of video delivery choices—whether it’s VOD or one of several other acronyms—doesn’t mean advertisers should think of those platforms as silos to be filled with ads. They should think holistically when balancing unit-based ads with impression-based ads while working to improve the ad-viewing experience, says Adam Gerber. Everything starts with […]

As the market capabilities for addressable advertising continues to grow, it might best be considered a tactical balancing act whose ultimate utility resides in a perceived value exchange for individual brands. In the right situations, addressable can be “a fantastic tool,” says Adam Gerber of GroupM’s Essence agency. Whether to employ addressable depends on a given […]

Defining the term “advanced TV” is complicated, but that’s just a reflection of reality right now. Because it’s going to be awhile before there’s uniformity in understand how people engage with video content and measuring the impact of that engagement, says Adam Gerber. As the President of Global Media for the Essence agency surveys the […]

CANNES — Many in the ad industry are pointing the finger inward, blaming the sector for alienating audiences through the over- and extreme use of targeting technology. That kind of consensus is forming, with executives promising to rebalance the audience relationship through better messaging. Still, even as the industry looks to correct itself, it is […]

CANNES — Several years after the term was first coined, “omni-channel marketing” – the process through which brands reach customers in a unified fashion despite that being through multiple devices or places – is still far from ubiquitous In this video interview with Beet.TV, Essence president Jason Harrison says the roll-out of the omni-channel approach is […]

CANNES – Two highlights at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for true[X] President Pooja Midha are some “very promising conversations” about the company’s engagement ad formats and positive response to measuring brand lift. “People really appreciate that the engagement ad format, which is the core of our business, has the power and […]

In the weeks leading up to this year’s Digital Content NewFronts, we interviewed a number of industry leaders about what matters most: They cited quality storytelling, data and insights, authentic integration, accountability and brand safety. This video is a highlight compilation our several of our conversations. The first three are a related trio of concerns. Quality […]

MIAMI-Even as digital-based audience targeting techniques grow in the television medium, there still needs to be a balance between one-to-one marketing and broader advertising efforts. “I think the two have to work together and you need to be careful that you don’t optimize toward specific audiences and optimize yourself out of business,” says Jason Harrison, […]

Consumers may be driving the expansion of television viewing options, but publishers still face a balancing act between reducing ad loads and meeting financial goals. Ad buyers, meanwhile, are going to want to see demonstrable results for their investments in return for increased prices due to inventory reductions. “I think it’s a really complicated challenge […]

MIAMI – Structural barriers. Organizational barriers. Silos. All of these play their part in retarding the progress of advanced television for all parties involved. While pursuing these topics can lead to circular conversations—everyone agrees on the need for change but no one thinks it won’t happen soon, if at all—such discussions actually help to clarify […]

There is no shortage of horror, in digital media circles, that it is big platforms which are gobbling the lion’s share of ad spending. The latest Zenith figures estimate Google and Facebook took 96% of spending outside of China last year. But one of the world’s biggest media-buying agencies says there are bigger problems than […]

FORT LAUDERDALE — GroupM owner WPP’s CEO Sir Martin Sorrell once famously called Google a “frenemy”. So why did GroupM recently acquire a digital advertising company ensconced in Google’s world? “We’re the guys who coined the term ‘frenemy’, and we’re not big fans of the whole walled garden concept that Google represents,” Group M global chairman Irwin […]