Beet Retreat in the City

Put Rob Norman, Doug Ray and Lyle Schwartz on the same stage and you’re going to get some entertaining and sobering dialogue about the future of television in all of its varied permutations. So it was at the recent Beet Retreat in the City as the veteran trio talked about the promise of addressable TV […]

For most people, it’s easy to forget that before Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico last fall, the territory’s economy was already a disaster. But not Olga Ramos, who took over as President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico just two months prior. With a successful 13-year career at Walmart and having spent […]

There’s so much enthusiasm expressed for the convergence of digital media and traditional television, it’s easy to wonder why targeting and measurement aren’t light years ahead. But given individual business demands, “everybody’s trying to get an edge,” says TiVo’s Walt Horstman. Meanwhile, because linear television hasn’t given up the Upfront negotiating mainstay, it’s still going […]

Widespread change requires “a lot of experimentation for people to change dramatically,” and that process has just begun in the quest for more advanced television targeting, according to LiveRamp’s Allison Metcalfe. Then there is complexity, which can inhibit change when not all entities are committed to changing at the same pace, notes Mike Rosen of […]

The 2018 television Upfront “is a marketplace with more moving parts than ever,” says media agency veteran Chris Geraci. Still, the age-old dynamics between supply and demand for linear TV advertising inventory endure. Overall, this year’s Upfront is “not all that different from a marketplace that’s reflective of a relatively healthy economic backdrop,” Geraci, who […]

Ben Tatta recalls the early days of addressable television experiments at Cablevision as “really just 100,000 households in Brooklyn” New York. Now there’s more than 35 million homes nationwide capable of receiving addressable ads, but David Kline, who gave Tatta his start at Cablevision, says it’s not enough. “National advertisers don’t want 40 million. It’s […]

Cloud-based media inventory yield management specialist Furious Corp.’s new president, Neil Schaffer, has helped execute business process reengineering to industries as varied as paper and optical products. When he views the television industry, he sees more “reacting more than pro-acting” in the face of platform proliferation. With more than a decade in the media industry, […]

After years of talk and wishful thinking about data-driven audience targeting, “I think we’re getting down to the nuts and bolts,” says Anupam Gupta, Chief Product Officer at 4C Insights, the data science and marketing technology company. “A lot of the conversations now are not such much about the promise of all the stuff we […]

Even as digital and traditional media compete for advertising dollars, some traditions remain resilient. A good example is the ongoing Upfront negotiating season, which began in the last quarter of 2017, during which media buyers make long-term spending commitments. “Time has proven that making the long-term bet is a good idea for both sides in […]

One of the more compelling presentations at last week’s Beet Retreat in the City was given by Nancy Reyes of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York. To show how data can not only inform creative but also actually constitute it, Reyes walked the audience through two campaigns from the Netherlands that sought to comfort lonely people and reduce […]

Video engagement advertising pioneer true[X] is looking to leverage the utility of voice-activated assistants and the power of live programming as it rolls out the next generation of attention-based video capabilities. “Engagement advertising is just the beginning,” says Pooja Midha, who recently joined true[X] as President. At last week’s Beet Retreat in the City, Midha—whose […]

When TiVo and Rovi merged in the fall of 2016, one priority was to pool all of the set-top box viewing data from TiVo’s own hardware and combine it with data from cable and satellite operators. But the combined data were useful only to the extent that software could extract insights. “So when we first […]

In the quest for addressable television with greater scale, brand uptake is accelerating concurrent with the efforts of companies like LiveRamp to educate the marketplace. Automation through software is lagging this uptake, according to Allison Metcalfe, GM of LiveRamp TV. “People are still pretty confused about what’s possible and how it works,” Metcalfe explains in […]

Armed with more precise viewer insights, cable television providers are well positioned to help not only their advertisers but their network affiliates as well by raising the value of their inventory. “So the days of us confronting each other I think from an advertising standpoint are over and I think we really are going to […]

A Puerto Rico devastated by last year’s Hurricane Maria is on the verge of its next hurricane season. “And there are still problems,” says GroupM’s Phil Cowdell. There will be more storms and “people are still living under roofs with plastic tarpaulins…there are still people who don’t have power. So what we have to do […]

The TV industry is looking at outcomes and attributions “in a unique way right now” to fend off digital and social competitors that have claimed advertising results for which they’re not always responsible, says NBCUniversal’s Mike Rosen. “There’s that old movie expression don’t bring a knife to a gunfight,” Rosen adds. Yet so far, that’s […]

Giving people choices when it comes to television advertising sounds pretty straightforward, but it’s complicated by the fact that many viewers want an effortless experience. “This is why voice activation is working so well, because it’s actually the only thing easier than picking up a remote and pressing the buttons,” says Ben Winkler, Chief Investment […]

Like many people attending Cannes this year, Doug Ray is looking for a return to the “core” of what the International Festival of Creativity was meant to celebrate: creativity. “Cannes has changed so much since the first year I went, which was 2006. It has become the new CES in some respects. It’s become an […]

As more Dentsu Aegis Network clients dedicate budgets to addressable or audience-targeted television, Doug Ray envisions a future in which only advertising avails on live TV will be negotiated the old fashioned way. “All other TV, particularly all the long tail of cable, will be bought through programmatic or audience targeted terms,” says Dentsu’s President […]

SAN JUAN, PR – Last September, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. As cleanup and reconstruction continue, members of The Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico are still actively helping their communities, but they face challenges when it comes to resources. “They have the power to change our society. We only have to fight for […]