Steve Ellwanger

Starcom’s Kristina Lutz is leaving the Digital Content NewFronts 2018 impressed by the quality of content in the marketplace and excited by the potential of the merged Meredith Corporation and Time Inc. “I’ve been really impressed with the content that I’ve seen. I think over the last number of years we’ve seen the quality of […]

The re-grouping of content on YouTube continues apace, upending the playing field for some content creators and raising concerns about content discovery amid the platform’s “tunneling effect,” says iCrossing’s Jeff Ratner. “I think YouTube is creating their own stratification of their content. Obviously, they took to heart a lot of the brand safety challenges of […]

Many people in advertising and media think they’re swimming in too much consumer data. John Hancock’s Lindsay Sutton disagrees, particularly with regard to statistics that can be used to divine people’s emotions when serving them the most appropriate content and advertising messaging. “I don’t think we’re yet in a place where we think it’s too […]

There seems to be no shortage of publishing partners for Twitter, which unveiled 16 of them at its first Digital Content NewFronts last year. This year, led by new content deals with NBCUniversal, Disney/ESPN and others, “We doubled it,” says Stephanie Prager, Head of Global Agency Development at Twitter. The content partnerships represent a pool […]

Cell phones, tablets and other portable devices will continue to be the best way to reach the under-35 content consumer, says Studio71 President & Co-Founder Dan Weinstein. An early pioneer in working with social media talent, Studio71 just signed content creator Hannah Hart along with a host of other multichannel-network partners. In this interview with […]

Always known for its male reach, ESPN’s audience is now 30% female. This diversity, combined with programming that’s nearly 100% live, is helping the sports juggernaut broaden its advertiser mix while making it a big player in real-time marketing. Meanwhile, its audience targeting capabilities can be based on outcomes of sporting events and their impact […]

Since 2010, WHOSAY has been pairing brands with influencers to help brands engage with audiences. When the company was ready to permanently link itself to a major media industry influencer, it engaged with Viacom. “We always wanted to be able to participate with our services alongside the power of a television Upfront and the distribution […]

Twitter has crafted new content deals with NBCUniversal and ESPN that the social platform says will extend the reach of those partners’ original shows. The company is also expanding its existing relationship with Viacom with offerings like Comedy Central’s Creator’s Room, BET Breaks and MTV News. Video views on Twitter have nearly doubled in the […]

Ever since Verizon formed Oath from AOL’s and Yahoo’s digital assets, it’s touted a “mobile-first” approach to engaging with consumers. The latest and perhaps most significant manifestation of that vision is a deal with Samsung that will pre-load Galaxy S9 phones with four apps populated by Oath content. In addition to the Samsung pact, Oath […]

The IAB says that the consumer economy is in the middle of a revolution that’s as significant as the Industrial Revolution was 150 years ago. The organization calls this phenomenon the Direct Brand Revolution and at its core are consumers being able to trust companies with their data. “Companies can not afford to breach the […]

Fairly soon, few if any media companies will know more about female consumers than Meredith Corporation in the wake of its purchase of Time Inc.’s publishing assets and the accompanying trove of user data. “We’re working hard to combine and collect that across all of our properties, all platforms, and have one unified identity database […]

Viacom Digital Studios was unveiled this week at its first Digital Content NewFronts. It’s the latest in a series of “really big investments” by Viacom that include WhoSay in the influencer marketing space and the VidCon talent and fan event. “What we really want people to walk away with is that Viacom has amazing capabilities,” […]

Like many agency television buyers, Todd Gordon spent a lot of time on the telephone buying inventory for clients that they didn’t necessarily want but that came in packages. “If you wanted to buy prime, you quite often also got late night and daytime,” says the Director of Programmatic TV for Adobe. “What’s remarkable about […]

Every brand looks at the television business differently when trying to target specific audiences. But when they consider addressable TV advertising all of them see “a very fragmented marketplace,” says one2one Media President Mike Bologna. “We’re a one-stop-shop for national addressable scale,” Bologna adds in this interview with Beet.TV. “We package everything together.” To improve […]

Meredith Corporation was a pioneer in offering print advertising sales guarantees, something it subsequently extended to digital and cross-platform media. Now it’s set to offer guarantees on video advertising ROI. “Just like we’ve done in print and just like we’ve done in digital, one of the things that we’ll be talking about with brands this […]

That addressable television will increase from 63 million cable and satellite households to 70 million by the end of 2018 is a big number. But behind the scenes, smart TV’s have the potential to optimize addressable campaigns in-flight. These trends will help to change the TV business “more in the next two years than it […]

At the new Meredith Corporation, the term “so what?” isn’t a reference to the song popularized by the singer Pink. It’s the desired nexus between the “persistent and dynamic data” that America’s largest magazine publisher collects on its consumers. “It’s great to have data, but you need to turn it into the so what?” says […]

When Digitas helped launch the Digital Content NewFronts 11 years ago, the message to advertisers was simple: pay more attention to what’s happening in digital. In keeping with the turbulent times, the agency’s 2018 NewFronts event is titled The #Boycott NewFront. “At the end of the day, we’re not saying to brands ‘you have to […]

What’s the difference between someone perusing social media content and navigating one of Meredith Corporation’s digital assets? “When people come to us, they come with purpose and intent,” says Matt Minoff, the publishing giant’s Chief Digital Officer. “When I’m on Facebook, I’m in browse mode. I’m scrolling through a feed and I’m looking for things […]

What do you do when you’re the “800-pound gorilla” aggregating advertising inventory from some 200 MVPD partners? In the case of Cadent, you extend your reach to local television broadcasters to become a one-stop shop. As advertisers increasingly seek better audience targeting and efficiency, “The marketplace has kind of come our way,” says the company’s […]