Robert Andrews

LONDON — Making cash registers ring is one ultimate aim of TV advertising. But, in the new era of targeting, it can also be a starting point. Sky, the UK’s leading pay-TV platform, is amongst the broadcaster platforms whose addressable TV systems now afford targeting based on the in-store purchase behavior of identified viewers. Its AdSmart addressable […]

LONDON — It has been a spring and summer in which digital-native platforms have risen up, signing deals to carry live premium sport broadcasts. Twitter: First, there was the deal in which Twitter will share rights to air 10 Thursday-night NFL games, alongside NBC and CBS but on a global basis. YouTube: Then UK pay-TV challenge BT […]

LONDON — Across Europe, many gatekeepers are increasingly concerned that the rise of powerful US, English-language content distributors may pose a long-term threat to the richness and individuality of local-language culture. The risk is not just cultural but economic. But one Belgian operator hopes highly targeted TV ads can help it ward off a new wave […]

LONDON — In the last couple of years, the UK’s leading pay-TV and telco provider, Sky, has become an active investor in ad-tech startups, as it looks to improve its multi-platform offering to advertisers. Investments have included $5m in to native ad tech company Sharethrough in 2014, and, recently, a $10 million round in to DataXu. Now the […]

LONDON — TV ads targeted through addressable linear platforms made up just 0.1% of total us TV ad spend in 2014, according to eMarketer. But the prospect is now at a “tipping point” that will push it faster and higher, with no turning back, says one exec in the space. Invidi EVP Michael Kubin tells Beet.TV, in this […]

LONDON — Irish public broadcaster RTÉ is readying to build the next generation of its multi-platform digital player brand, hoping summer-time tests of dynamic ad insertion can lead it to new riches in ad sales for live digital programming. RTÉ Player, a catch-up VOD service, first launched on desktop in 2010, later coming to mobile systems, cable and games consoles. Now the build of […]

LONDON — The last couple of decades have been marked out by a rapid focus on digital media business models. Now digital is joining up with other media channels. But Mike Baker wants them all to blend together entirely. “The digital migration is not complete until it disappears,” says Baker, chief of DataXu, an ad-tech vendor bringing data science […]

LONDON —  The recent acquisition of   SSP StickyADS.tv marks a global expansion of the company’s programmatic  TV offering, explains Thomas Bremond, managing director FreeWheel in the EU, in this interview with Beet.TV He explains that FreeWheel works with some 90 percent of U.S. broadcasters and operators.  And, the company is well entrenched in the U.K. […]

LONDON — Many marketers have heard the phrase: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” But Vodafone is trying to find the answer and eliminate the waste, using an exploratory attitude and with an ad-tech vendor in-tow. In this video interview, Vodafone head of brand strategy, […]

LONDON — Marketers have always regarded television as the big box that can reach a mass audience, the medium at the top of the funnel that fuels initial consumer awareness. But times are a-changing, and new technology means targeted television can serve advertisers just like laser-guided online ads can. “TV can absolutely be a performance medium,” according to […]

LONDON — The excitement in ad-land is all about the eventual appearance of “programmatic” advertising technology, which has already revolutionized online display and video ad sales, in to the $75 billion traditional television industry. But Caspar Schlickum doesn’t quite see it that way. While many tech vendors get excited about converting TV in to another programmatic video end point, […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]