laura desmond

The business of corporate investment isn’t quite like gambling, despite what can frequently be uncertain outcomes. But, for one former media agency boss who now is now part of a private equity company, the next gamble make in marketing is clear. “If I were a betting person, I would go long on identity,” says Laura […]

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 […]

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 […]

Former Starcom CEO Laura Desmond perceives a “full-scale crisis of confidence in marketing” not due to a lack of advertising accountability but to the complicated nature of brand building. “We see it play out with the holding companies and how they’re doing and how they’re under pressure, and that impacts every other part of the […]

SAN FRANCISCO – It can be pretty scary when a Chief Growth Officer forecasts a big decline in advertising spending in the next five years, as Publicis Groupe’s Rishad Tobaccowala did recently. To his former comrade Laura Desmond, it’s a call to action that agencies are in a unique position to fulfill. That’s because agencies […]

Riding the crest of a wave is a pretty good feeling. But the bigger lessons can come from falling off and hitting the bottom. Many a business guru is fond of the ironic value of failure. That’s a notion that the boss of one of the biggest ad groups subscribes to, too. “I’ve always learned more from […]

CHICAGO — What are the biggest and most exciting trends affecting advertising and communication today? Mobile, quicker time to sale, and the fusion of creative advertising by customer data, according to the boss of one of the world’s biggest ad agencies. Speaking with Beet.TV in this interview ahead of her visit to the upcoming Cannes Lions […]