Robert Andrews

The realization that as many as 40% of video ad views may be faked by publishers has given rise to systems measuring true “viewability” for advertisers. But one ad tech vendor says ad buyers shouldn’t trust “viewability” numbers when they are produced by publishers themselves. “The key for viewability is to make sure that the measurement […]

AOL is touting 16 new video series to advertisers at its 2014 NewFronts event in Brooklyn. Leading the slate, Making A Scene With James Franco will see the actor-director and friends re-make much-loved scenes from old movies. “They’re going to re-do them with a twist – it’s going to be highly social,” AOL’s video president […]

AOL says it will become the first digital publisher to use Nielsen’s TV metrics to quantify its video shows for advertisers – a move that may expose it to comparatively lowly perception by comparison but which could allow it to seek a slice of the $70 billion US TV industry. “We are the first non-TV-originated […]

While the online media landscape is highly fragmented , some in the advertising chain are beginning to piece to overcome the disparate ecosystem by taking advantage of platforms that put technology niceties in the background, says one vendor. “It is a very fragmented market,” interactive video ad tech firm Innovid‘s co-founder and CTO  Tal Chalozin tells […]

It may have taken some time, but now ad tech platform operators can sell advertisers on identifying the proportion of their ads actually viewed by humans with a degree of industry backing, says one such operator. “The MRC (Media Ratings Council) and IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) have now defined a standard,” says BrightRoll‘s marketing operations […]

Media measurer comScore will syndicate its ambitious program to track audience consumption across five device types with a common currency later this year. “We’re about to deliver the product (Project Blueprint) to CIMM, that’s phase two,” says comScore chief research officer Josh Chasin, referring to the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), a group of leading […]

Breakfast cereal maker Kellogg’s is a big advertising spender – and it plans to spend a bigger chunk of money in online video, now that new technology is finally proving just how many people really view its video ads. “It was very important to consistently measure viewability and how we can make improvements in the […]

Nielsen will launch a new system for advertisers to measure the audience for mobile content and video properties this coming summer. “It’s all about mobile – it’s explosive,” the company’s global product leadership president Steve Hasker tells Beet.TV. “We have developed and are now testing the first industrial-strength robust measurement system for video and other types […]

Innovid has, for the last couple of years, developed its iRoll format – pre-roll video ads that let viewers click and engage with content more than simple 15- or 30-second linear spots. Now it is opening up its platform in a bid to recognize the many, many ad tech vendors in the video chain and […]

When it comes to Yahoo, critics will often ask, rhetorically: “What is it nowadays, anyway?” The company’s Americas head Ned Brody has a clear answer: “You need to start thinking about Yahoo as both a publisher and a network.” That means Yahoo doesn’t just want to be an owner and operator of its own web properties on […]

Programmatic video ad platform BrightRoll is integrating its systems with Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, enabling buying of video ads on Google’s YouTube via “programmatic” methods from the BrightRoll end. “The DoubleClick bid manager has been a buyer on our marketplace for over a year – now we’re becoming a buyer in their marketplace,” BrightRoll CEO and […]

LAS VEGAS — Can Dolby do for eyes what it’s done for ears? The San Francisco-based firm is best known for its audio developments, but recently unveiled Dolby Vision, its system for encoding pictures with more colors, brightness and more dynamic range than the current TV grading standard. “The way that content being graded today […]

A single currency for measuring the impact of social interactions with brands would help eliminate confusion in the marketplace, says Viacom Media Networks’ integrated marketing EVP. “There’s a collection of third-party data reporters in addition to first party,” Dario Spina tells Beet.TV. “There’s a lot of confusion on … the data results you want to […]

LAS VEGAS — America’s patchwork TV provider landscape means linear’s move to data-driven digital ad trading is not happening as quickly as in some other parts of the world, says video ad tech vendor Videology. “We’re very complex (in the US), there’s a lot of people involved in that change,” says the company’s north America development […]

LONDON — More advertisers may soon buy synchronized video ads on multiple digital screens to continue reaching TV viewers distracted by secondary devices. Group M’s data and audience unit Xaxis has already operated the scheme, dubbed Xaxis Sync, in the Netherlands, buying social mobile ads corresponding to TV spots identified by data partner Civolution. Now […]

Publishers and brands spend a lot of money trying to draw audiences from other sites and services, whether through social awareness-raising or through marketing efforts. But what audiences do on your site depends very much on where they came from, says an exec from a content discovery engine. “Referral-based information can have a really big […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Programmatic ad trading techniques could eliminate costs and cut time by bringing ad buying in to the digital 21st century, says one ad tech vendor. “The way that TV is bought has been the same way since the Mad Men days – I pick up the phone, I do a deal,” says […]

SAN FRANCISCO — IPG’s insight agency Magna Global is using the current TV upfronts, the annual process by which TV networks sell advertising inventory for the year ahead, to push cable networks to adopt programmatic trading techniques. Says Magna Global USA president Kristi Argyilan: “We are pushing for our planning teams to reconsider cable television and think […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Data-driven buying processes beget data-centric advertising. At least, that’s how the evolution of the collection of automated and algorithm-heavy trading techniques dubbed “programmatic” has played out so far. But are things changing? “We’ve put it in to a box of it only being performance-driven – that was a mistake,” says programmatic SVP […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Automated, “programmatic” trading of digital ads in linear television may have a long and bright future ahead – but it will need some adoption victories in the here and now before that dream becomes a reality, says an ad tech exec. “It’s about what can be done today,” says David Miller, VP Product […]