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2018 was the year Amazon became the number-three digital ad platform in the US, according to eMarketer‘s analysis. And that tipping point coincided with a large-scale new bearishness that plagued its rival tech platforms, as concerns over ad practices, mental health and democracy coalesced to dog Facebook and Google. So, who will be winning the race […]

The year 2018 was one of considerable change for WPP, from the top of its management to its various operating companies and GroupM offerings. But it’s possible to map the road forward largely with one word: simplify. As in, make things as simple as possible for the biggest of clients and the teams within GroupM […]

LONDON — The new owner of Ooyala’s adtech unit has promised to “reinvest” in the company as it bids to embrace a continuing digital advertising opportunity. INVIVI, which facilitates addressable advertising systems for global TV platforms, is acquiring what it calls “the advertising technology division (formerly Videoplaza) of Ooyala”. That amounts to Pulse, a software-as-a-service […]

Publishers and broadcasters have spent the last year moving from a binary operating model (“digital” and “linear”) to a holistic one. But ad buyers are still split across the two traditional worlds, and that is curtailing ad spending, according to an ex ad agency boss who now oversees digital media measurement. In this video interview […]

ORLANDO – After a few years in which the advertising business seemed to get consumed by numbers and efficiency, is creativity returning the fold? If the agenda for next year’s upcoming Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is anything to go by, it certainly is. In a new addition to the advertising festival’s agenda, CLX (“Connect. Learn. […]

ORLANDO — If you thought the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was down-sizing, think again. In a new addition to the advertising festival’s agenda, CLX (“Connect. Learn. Explore”), a new mini-event within the overall programme, will add a series of curated discussion sessions. CLX is a partnership with media consulting firm, MediaLink, which has […]

Is live or on-demand TV a bigger opportunity for advanced ad targeting technology? A growing number of companies is choosing both, rather than either. Case in point – Simulmedia, which had, until now, majored on lighting up advertiser access to linear TV spots using data techniques, is now adding over-the-top TV ad inventory to its offering. Through […]

Collaboration among television networks, digital-like standards and audience buying made easier are some of the discussions that NBCUniversal’s Denise Colella is looking forward to at Beet Retreat 2018 in San Juan from Nov. 28-20. “I really think we’re at a turning point,” says Colella, who is SVP, Advanced Advertising Products & Strategy. The annual gathering […]

If over-the-top TV providers want to command a bigger share of the US TV advertising pie, they are going to need to prove their effectiveness to advertisers. That is what Roku is endeavoring to do, by launching a new Measurement Partner Program. The scheme involves a number of aspects like audience demographics, brand awareness, store visits, […]

From its roots aggregating spot cable television buys for advertisers, NCC Media has learned how to “rationalize the irrational.” This will certainly come in handy as it expands beyond linear TV into digital. “Historically, we were seen as just an ad rep organization and what we’re trying to do is build adtech underneath it that […]

To create what it calls “the largest data set in television,” NCC Media is converging the linear TV and digital data of its three owners—Charter Communications, Comcast and Cox Communications—as it broadens its inventory offering beyond local avails to OTT. One major advance is that NCC is marrying set-top box data showing content consumption and […]

Don’t call it a comeback but, after coming through a period in which a slowdown was capped by new regulation, MarTech consolidation may be back in-play. So says Terry Kawaja, the M&A advisor who has had a hand in many of the biggest media and advertising tech deals of the last decade. Despite fears that […]

COLOGNE – Now that AppNexus is part of the AT&T advertising, content and communications universe, AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley says that making advertising matter is the overarching mantra. Central to that theme is relevance to consumers, and the world will learn exactly what that means when AT&T convenes its Relevance conference in California later this […]

In the most significant manifestation of its desire to offer one-stop advertising, Walt Disney Co. is consolidating ESPN and Disney/ABC properties under Rita Ferro while announcing that longtime ESPN sales chief Ed Erhardt will retire in early 2019. In addition to ESPN and Disney/ABC, Ferro’s domain as President of Disney Advertising Sales will include Disney’s […]

Longtime WPP executive Mark Read, who has been serving as interim co-COO in the aftermath of the departure of the April Martin Sorrell, has been selected as the new CEO of WPP.

Nielsen’s Gracenote unit has a new Mobile Video Analytics solution embedded in mobile phones that provides a range of information on the quality and performance of the most popular mobile video streaming applications. It uses a combination of proprietary video quality and performance testing with real-time usage data from thousands of people in more than […]

Matt Spiegel, managing director at MediaLink, has joined the giant data company TransUnion to head its new formed media vertical, focused on addressable solutions. In a press release, the company explains:  “His expertise will further TransUnion’s ability to deliver the addressable solutions required by enterprise marketers and media companies to make informed modeling, strategic investment […]

With 78% of its viewing happening on living room television sets, Hulu has a big stake in solutions like comScore’s soon-to-launch Campaign Ratings tool for measuring de-duplicated, cross-platform audiences. “I would say that there has been a lot of progress” in cross-screen measurement, says Hulu’s Julie DeTraglia. “I will give the industry all of the […]

As it prepares to launch “a new kind of advertising company,” the AT&T Advertising and Analytics unit is doubling down on the attention economy and how marketers and publishers must harness data and technology to attain relevancy amid an explosion of consumer content choices. “There is almost infinite information fighting and competing for finite human […]

When Roku’s CEO told The Vergecast podcast last week the company wasn’t a hardware company but an advertising one, it seemed to surprise watchers. But he wasn’t kidding. Roku, which has been making streaming media players for TV for a decade now, generated $225 million in platform revenue last year, which includes advertising. According to this Motley Fool analysis, whilst […]