Katy Charles

CANNES – “When the internet was kind of being born, I was doing a different career. But I was always really fascinated by it,” Gwyneth Paltrow said Tuesday during a panel about her company, goop, at Cannes Lions. Goop, which Paltrow said she thought up long before it became a brand, launched in 2008 as […]

LONDON – SMG and the wider Publicis group will have a strong presence at DMEXCO this year, says Steve Parker, co-CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group London. “It feels like the business, certainly our business, and probably the whole industry, is obviously a year older but definitely a year wiser – and I think maybe a year […]

LONDON – NextTECHnow (NTN), a tech solutions division of SMG which launched in January, is looking to expand into more markets, says Jim Kite, strategic development director for Starcom MediaVest Group. “The starting point is the client and the client brief, and we just want to meet as many startups as possible who can answer […]

CANNES – The growth of the scope of Cannes Lions, from a handful of categories – print; 30- and 60-second spots – to what it has become today, is, in the words of Icaro Doria, chief creative officer for DDB NY, “crazy.” “Today I come here, and it’s so inspiring because you literally can do […]

CANNES – “I think what clients are looking for from agencies now is a partner that helps them navigate,” says Lyle Tick, chief growth officer for J. Walter Thompson. “And that’s a lot of what we’ve been doing at J. Walter is restructuring ourselves in order to deliver those types of solutions to our clients […]

CANNES – “Certainly the speed of technology innovation is dizzying,” says Cary Tilds, chief innovation officer for GroupM. “Some say it would be nearly impossible to keep up with that change.” Tilds’ four tips for keeping up are to be a student of technology; to maintain a consistent framework for learning about new technologies; to […]

One of the major themes of 2015 is viewability, says Erin Kienest, SVP, innovation and activation director at SMG. “We talk about making our dollars work harder and work smarter, and viewability really is brought to the forefront,” she says. Marketers not only want their ads delivered to the right audience but also want to […]

The next revolution in media is going to have to occur in the world of creative, says Shenan Reed, president of digital at MEC. “We think there’s tremendous opportunity for more creative, more targeted creative,” she says. “We can really get granular with all of the targeting.” Digital and data, because they’ve become such powerful […]

LAS VEGAS – Television is at another tipping point, says Jeffrey Cole, founder and director of the Center for the Digital Future, a research and policy institute in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Citing HBO’s plans to launch an over-the-top service, Cole predicts television will soon change profoundly – and that content is going […]

LAS VEGAS – The content that a viewer chooses to watch may be just as, if not more, important for targeting as traditional demographic data collected about said viewer, says Kevin Lenane, founder and CEO of Veenome. This concept, which Veenome focuses on, is termed the “viewing moment.” By collecting attributes about the content itself, Veenome […]

LAS VEGAS – “Social video” – videos which viewers opt in or opt out of watching – is expanding rapidly, says Richard Kosinski, president of Unruly. The company, which helps brands get their assets watched, tracked and shared across the internet, focuses especially on this category of video. Kosinski says he predicts that 2015 will be the […]

LAS VEGAS – At CES, the amount of new technology giving consumers control – of content, of time – is ever-present and growing. “We don’t lament the control of the consumer too much,” says Rob Kabus, Global CEO of BPN. “We think that’s a great thing because it’s creating these amazing environments and moments and […]

LAS VEGAS – For years there’s been chatter about moving the video workflow to IP and multiscreen, but there’s finally a lot of real movement, says Mio Babic, President & CEO, iStreamPlanet. This noise is especially evident around the recent announcements by HBO, CBS and Sling TV about streaming and stand-alone services. iStreamPlanet’s platform enables their customers – DirectTV, Microsoft, AT&T, […]

COLOGNE – DMEXCO has reached a new standard, says Sven Weisbrich, CEO, Universal McCann Germany. This year saw much growth for DMEXCO beyond its increased scale and notable attendance figures. Now on par with conferences like CES, clients, publishers and partners can interact on a business level and discuss ideas on a deep level, Weisbrich […]

COLOGNE – Today, it has become a given that both consumers and advertisers will make use of the internet on mobile devices, says Stefan Uhl, CEO of SMG Germany. A year or two ago, the idea of the “Ice Bucket Challenge” becoming viral – in part because of the ease of uploading mobile videos – […]

COLOGNE, Germany – Now that DMEXCO 2014 has come to a close, thought leader and Furious Corp CEO Ashley J. Swartz gives her take on where the health of the digital marketing ecosystem stands – and what needs to be done. “We are this continual migration from a business that is marketing and communications driven to […]

COLOGNE, Germany – While the original concept for DMEXCO – part trade show, part conference – hasn’t changed since its inception, the digital marketing exposition and conference (from which it gleans its name) has continued to grow organically – and dramatically, says Christian Muche, c0-founder and director of business development and strategy for DMEXCO. While 2011 saw a […]

The 2014 Upfront were “slightly underwhelming” says Furious Minds’ CEO and Founder Ashley J. Swartz. “The numbers weren’t so great.” Although television was up 3.3 percent overall, broadcast volume was down by 800 to 815 million and cable volume was down by 500 million. This was largely due to cuts by major advertisers like P&G, GM […]

What some thought would bring about the death of television as we know it encountered its own major setback last Wednesday when the Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that had been in favor of Aereo. The Supreme Court’s reasoning was that the “cloud-based television antenna” that allowed subscribers to access over-the-air broadcast television […]

CANNES, FRANCE — Comedy – and content, in general – is having a renaissance due to the current wealth of user-generated content, says Kassem Gharaibeh, comedian and co-founder of Maker Studios. Comedy is a mainstay of entertainment, he says. Even without YouTube, it would still be around. “But what YouTube did was allow people who […]