Cannes Lions

LONDON — The upcoming Cannes Lions festival’s debut track for creativity in the booming segment of advertising technology has attracted 845 award entries in its first year. Ahead of the iconic festival starting June 21, a record total 40,133 award entries have been submitted. Lions Innovation, which will see data, technology and creativity intersect, has received 226 entries into the […]

Women’s lifestyle digital content company PureWow is aiming to expand deeply into video, as well bolster its work in mobile this year, says Ryan Harwood, CEO of PureWow, in this interview with Beet.TV. Thanks to a recent venture round, PureWow is investing in its mobile infrastructure as well as video content and data science. With […]

If you remember the mid-90s futuristic hype about “interactive TV”, you will know the concept goes back a long way. Maria Mandel Dunsche remembers. The VP of AT&T’s AdWorks division has been working with such platforms since 1999, helping brands try to exploit the emerging channel. But it’s only lately the reality has come to pass. “I’ve been in this […]

The recent decision of Publicis’ VivaKi to spread its Audience On Demand across the unit shows how “programmatic” methods of automating the trading of ads are becoming more embedded across ad agencies, says Rubicon Project marketplace development SVP Jay Sears. “A lot of the headlines have gotten it incorrect,’ he tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “The headlines […]

LONDON — When new screens arrive on the scene, many marketers instinctively get excited about new opportunities to deliver messages to consumers. But, whilst the new smartwatch category may whet appetites with the prospect of advertising to audiences’ wrists, the reality will have to be more sensitive, more nuanced, and may be more about input than output. […]

Just because analog media are disconnected, that doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from digital efficiencies. Case in point – programmatic, automated sales of display advertising are now gobbling up a large portion of the digital industry. Now ad tech house MediaMath is working to bring programmatic even to offline media. MediaMath‘s OPEN global media partnerships […]

LONDON — Back in January, media agency SMG announced NextTECHnow, a program to get closer to UK tech startups that can help bring innovations to brand campaigns. Since then, the programme has been kept somewhat under the radar. But the man who runs it now opens up on the rationale and its early progress. “In the […]

LONDON — Ad tech platforms need to do a better job of telling ad buyers exactly what kind of video placements they are bidding for, says an exec from one such company. “Standards like the RTB spec and the exchanges need to wake up start adding more metadata to these requests to enrich that buy for the brand,” according […]

LONDON — Thanks to the rise of advertising technology, the “Mad Men” of ad agencies have been joined by the so-called “Maths Men” of tech vendors. But these two camps need not be perceived as coming from different disciplines, says one agency boss. Pippa Glucklish, UK co-CEO of SMG, tells Beet.TV the “tension between data […]

LONDON — Like most technologies, so-called “programmatic” sales of online video ad inventory first took hold in the US. Now it is gathering pace across the pond. “We’ve seen … 40% more demand in the UK from Q1 to Q4,” according to video ad tech outfit TubeMogul’s UK MD Nick Reid. “We’ve also seen a 20% increase in CPM […]

LONDON — Back when SMG’s Pippa Glucklich was a university student writing her dissertation about women in advertising, just 14% of senior executives in the ad industry in the UK were women. Now, two decades later, the percentage has increased, but only to 25%. “Our industry in the UK is absolutely split 50/50 at entry […]

LONDON – Adoption of programmatic video advretising is moving more quickly in Canada, a number of European and Asian markets than in the U.S., says Ryan Jamboretz, Chief Revenue Officer of Videology, in this interview with Beet.TV He says that more than half of the company’s revenue is now coming from outside the U.S. We […]

LONDON — By the time Steve Parker gets to Cannes, he will have earned a glass or wine or two on a yacht. The UK joint CEO of media agency Starcom MediaVest will have completed a 500km, multi-day bicycle ride from the center of France, across a series of mountains and down to the Cote D’Azur. It’s a […]

LONDON — Digital ad systems referred to as “programmatic” have revolutionized the targeting and trading of online inventory. Next up, they are going to need to get creative. “Technology has really focused on the area of targeting and direct response and unfortunately has left the creative industry behind,” Marco Bertozzi, global clients president at Publicis’ VivaKi […]

LONDON — In the pantheon of first-party data competitors, ISPs surely wield the biggest sword. After all, they automatically know exactly which of their many services their broadband customers are subscribed to. Marketing the missing services using video is something video ad tech firm Videology is helping one UK telco do, according to UK MD Rich Astley, who would not […]

From the MediaLink suite at the top of the Carlton hotel, to the stages and hall of the Palais, innovation around advertising technology will be more prominent than ever, says Michael Kassan, CEO of powerhouse media consultancy MediaLink.  We spoke with him in April about the upcoming Cannes Lions Festival. MediaLink will showcase a number […]

Digital-first content companies such as Netflix, Hulu and AOL are well-positioned for the transition to addressable buying in TV, says SMG programmatic SVP Mac Delaney in an interview with Beet.TV. The recent Digital Content New Fronts mark a transition point in the shift to programmatic buying in TV. “We have jumped over a significant hill, and it […]

Looked at the ad tech lumascape lately? It’s not pretty; it’s confusing. But it may not be that way forever. The boom in advertising technology is just a natural, cyclical response to a world of complexity, says one of the sector’s top execs. At times, it’s pushed to the background as an enabler. And at […]

The transformation of television and the emergence  “convergent TV,” will take front stage at the Cannes Lions Festival next month, predicts Terence Kawaja, co-founder and CEO of LUMA Partners, a prominent investment bank in the media and adtech sectors. The discussion of addressable TV, and the emerging opportunities for advertisers to deliver targeted advertising to individual cable and satellite […]

LONDON — So far, The Guardian division that produces branded content for marketers has published that content only on The Guardian’s own properties. But that could change soon, MD Anna Watkins tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “At the moment, we are looking to confirm one of our first global deals, which will mean Guardian Labs […]