Robert Williams

CES traditionally has been the domain of consumer electronics companies showcasing the latest flat-screen TVs, laptops, wearables, connected devices and smart-home gadgetry. What’s less appreciated is the growing presence of retailers that highlight the ways they’re adopting technology. “What’s interesting is you would expect to see retailers that are e-commerce pure play, such as Amazon, […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Mobile games have become a key advertising platform with their power to immerse consumers in a fun digital environment that’s conducive to brand messaging. The pervasiveness of smartphones also helps to reach a broad audience. “A core component of what we do in my team’s mission is actually to bring brands […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Smartphones became major drivers of ecommerce with high-touch interactions and portability that augmented the experience of online shopping. Connected televisions are similarly transactional with remote controls and QR codes that viewers scan with their camera phones, though consumer adoption is still questionable. “We’re in literally the first inning, not to use […]

CES serves as a major showcase for a variety of new technologies, products and services – and the ones that offer real value to inflation-ravaged consumers likely will get attention, according to a consumer technology expert. “Value is something that we’ve really seen consumers focus in on in 2024, and part of value is getting […]

CES next week is expected to showcase the ways that artificial intelligence is changing the ways humans interact with gadgets that are capable of learning how to personalize experiences. As a result, AI should be the centerpiece of any brand strategy, Amy Lanzi, chief executive of Publicis Groupe’s Digitas North America, said in this interview. […]

Women’s leadership roles are as varied as women themselves, which means they aren’t limited to a single career track or set of experiences. For Denise Colella, vice president, global digital strategy group at software maker Adobe, those circumstances were somewhat unorthodox in that she started her career as an expatriate American in Japan. “It’s interesting […]

LONDON – Technology companies that sell advertising such as Google and Facebook jealously guard their user data in their own walled gardens, making it difficult for brands measure cross-platform exposure to advertising. These walled gardens have multiplied as traditional media companies distribute video content direct to consumers through streaming apps. “Audience behavior is clearly fragmented […]

Millions of U.S. households have connected their televisions directly to the internet, and YouTube has become the most popular platform with its vast and diverse range of video content. There have been several episodes when marketers have shied away from YouTube because of concerns about placing ads within objectionable content, but newer tools are helping […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Contextual advertising has been around for years, but its role was somewhat diminished as marketers relied on tracking cookies to improve their audience targeting online. With connected television, which is a cookieless environment, contextual advertising is getting supercharged with advances in technology. “Contextual targeting is going to play a significant role […]

LONDON – Every major brand of smart television has its own operating system to run apps for connected television, but this predicament isn’t ideal for consumers who want a user-friendly experience. TiVo developed a neutral operating system intended to avoid creating another walled garden. “There’s the need in the industry for a new independent operating […]

Women in the past 50 years have steadily risen into top managerial roles in the advertising and media industries, but there’s still more work to be done in terms of equal pay and greater diversity in the C-suite. Amid these efforts, women can help each other, a key theme of the “Lift As You Climb” […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – While Publishers Clearing House is well known as a sweepstakes company, it has evolved in the past decade into a digital marketing and commerce company that has vast troves of opt-in data about consumers. This information is considered valuable as more households connect their televisions to the internet, opening up another […]

CES 2025 is expected to showcase the ways that technology companies and makers of consumer electronics are adopting artificial intelligence to improve their products and services. For AI to be effective for advertisers and marketers, it needs high-quality data. “One of the things that hasn’t been talked about enough, perhaps, is the data that goes […]

Addressable advertising is making great strides in fulfilling its promise to show different commercials to different households during the same television programming. These capabilities rely on various sources of first-party data, which advertising data and insights platform Blockgraph brings together. “Having really accurate first party data is critical for advertisers who want to reach their […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – The software tools to automate the buying and selling of digital and mobile advertising are transforming the connected television ad market. The adoption of these programmatic tools are helping startup CTV apps to sell ads and making the television advertising more accessible to marketers with smaller media budgets. Programmatic is “lowering […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Generative artificial intelligence, the technology that powers popular apps such as ChatGPT, is changing the way brands and agencies develop campaigns, and the reshaping has only just begun. “Generative AI is going to be the most transformational technology in our lifetime,” Sam Garfield, head of digital strategy for communications, media and […]

CES showcases the latest electronic hardware such as high-definition televisions, gaming computers, wearable devices and WiFi gear, but they all need software including videogames for the fullest “wow” effect. “We love going to CES. It sets the tone in a lot of ways for the rest of the year,” Gabrielle Heyman, vice president of global […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Connected television is in its infancy compared with decades-old linear television, and its ultimate success as an advertising medium will depend on a dynamic mix of influences. Two key components will be data usage and the viewer experience. “How CTV platforms use data, what integrations they’re looking at, who are they […]

CES offers a window into the technologies that will make people’s lives easier to manage, and that’s especially true as artificial intelligence makes products and services smarter or more responsive to consumers. “AI and machine learning are a hot topic in our industry. I imagine there’s going to be a lot of conversation around AI, […]

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – It’s estimated that about 400 billion gigabytes of data are created every day, challenging decision makers to find the best ways to mine this information for insights. Because data is often spread among a variety of organizations including advertisers, agencies, media companies and ad-tech companies, collaboration is needed to unlock deeper […]