Publishers and ad agencies have spent years adding new channels to their overall content mix.

But, whilst that strategy has undoubtedly allowed marketers to reach consumers in new places, a growing school of thought holds that it has also created a whole new array of silos.

That’s the view of one ad agency man at the sharp end of making decisions about where brands’ spending should be allocated.

“We are starting to stop talking about ‘digital’ and ‘linear’ TV or ‘print’ and ‘online’ magazines,” says Lyle Schwartz, president of investment for Group M in North America.

Instead, he says, the agency is getting “to just the mere fact that there’s ‘video’, there’s ‘audio’, and there’s ‘image’ – ‘image’ being pages or it could be a billboard”, he says.

Variety previously called Schwartz “a new sheriff who would like to shake up the way advertisers pay for TV”.

That’s because Schwartz wants to break down the barriers which see buying agencies pay for campaigns in a different way depending on which devices are used. Schwartz thinks differently.

“It’s not the device the consumer’s interested in, it’s the content that they want,” he says.

“I think what we really do need to get is to holistic. Forget about the devices, forget about the ways which we do this, and understand what is working and at what levels with the consumer.”

The interview was conducted at the Beet Retreat in the City by Ashley J. Swartz, CEO and founder of Furious Corp.

This video was produced at the Beet Retreat in City & Town Hall on June 6, 2018 in New York City. The event and video series are presented by LiveRamp, TiVo, true[X] and 605. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews