Starcom MediaVest Group

SAN FRANCISCO – New technology solutions are going to help replace household-level addressable television advertising with more granular targeting. But will agency holding company siloes stand in the way of creating, executing and optimizing the best advanced-TV campaigns? Former Starcom MediaVest Group advanced television specialist Tracey Scheppach has a foot in both of those spheres […]

CANNES — These days in ad land, it seems like the only topic in town is data. The transformative potential of data-driven tools has spawned a plethora of advertising technology platforms, allowing buyers to sellers to better mediate the trading and targeting of messages. For an industry that has always prided itself on creative messaging, […]

CHICAGO — Digital ads can begin to reach individual consumers with specific messages based on unique characteristics – but only if computers know enough to target them, says one ad agency exec. “When I think about the future of video, I think about more personalized experiences,” SMG publishing platform and partnerships VP Lindsay Lichtenberg tells […]

CHICAGO — Programmatic digital ad trading techniques have their place in the TV world – but no-one should expect adoption like that which has been seen in online display so far, says one video ad exec. “Digital thinking is, for sure, going to come over to TV,” says Starcom MediaVest Group’s precision video EVP Tracey Scheppach […]

CHICAGO — In 2014, TV began learning the targeting tricks that digital media have deployed for years. In 2015, those techniques will kick in to high gear, says one ad agency exec. “(In) 2014, I see a marketplace that has essentially gone from zero to $300 million of spend,” according to Starcom MediaVest Group’s precision video […]

LONDON — Digital platforms no longer sit at the sad and sorry end of a video spectrum that has always placed traditional television on a pedestal, says an ad-buying exec – now, consumers are happy for their second screen to become their primary screen. “This screen hierarchy, where the television is a sacred screen preferred by […]

LONDON –Interactive video formats and programmatic buying can be layered together to help brands better reach consumers across screens, says Tom Fryett, Video Associate Director, at Starcom MediaVest Group, in an interview with Beet.TV. Interactive formats can drive engagement, while data can help to optimize the use of those formats. Starcom MediaVest has worked with tech providers like […]

LONDON — In January, Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) announced it would re-use some US publishers’ “evergreen” articles to tell marketers’ stories. Now it is about to ope the program, Content@Scale, elsewhere in the world. “We’ve rolled it out in the US and will roll it out in 2014 in many other markets around the world,” […]

LONDON — Marketing agencies, like other industries, are getting excited about “Big Data” – but what does that really mean for their clients, who can often be confused about what the jargon boils down to? “‘Big data’ sounds scary … things are very complex at the moment,” says Starcom MediaVest Group London’s co-CEO Steve Parker. […]

LONDON — UK consumers are spending insane amounts of time on their phones. So why aren’t advertisers putting proportionate amounts of money in to the devices? “Because the mobile marketplace has been relatively fragmented, it has made it feel a little bit difficult and risky for people to get executing on phones in the way […]

The quality of content during the NewFronts is improving dramatically year over year, says Ritu Trivedi, Managing Director/Digital Marketplace at MediaVest, in an interview with Beet.TV at the NewFronts. “This is not just a ‘new kid in town,’ where we go see some shiny new bauble. This is serious. We have seen some amazing content […]

In a digital media world that is 25 years old, it’s no wonder the relatively recent upstart of mobile is still considered a single new channel for planning against. But now ad group Starcom Worldwide‘s mobile SVP has an unusual goal – to kill her job. “If my job exists in six months in its […]

Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) recently struck an exclusive partnership with Twitter, creating a “social TV lab” to explore the impact TV and social, in tandem, have on advertising. Now the pair are about to unveil first findings. SMG’s global video lead Lisa Giacosa tells Beet.TV metrics “look favorable” and are due to be published in February […]

LAS VEGAS — Branded content is hot in marketing land. Now Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG’s) is saving brands the trouble of creating their own content – by obtaining publishers’ permission to re-publish theirs. SMG’s new Content@Scale CMS, launched this week, ingests text articles and images from Ahalogy, Demand Media, Glam Media, Forbes, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Parade, […]

LAS VEGAS – Content@Scale, the new content marketing platform launched by Starcom Mediavest Group, will soon add video capability to its text article re-distribution offering. The service lets marketers licence “evergreen” articles from 15 US publishers to re-use as content in display ad units. Flite CEO Will Price, whose technology powers the service, says he […]

LONDON — Tailor video to the brand, the medium and the consumer. That’s the advice of Kristen Kelly, VP and International Business Director at Starcom MediaVest Group in an interview with Beet.TV. “Understand the consumer and where they’re at in the decision journey. You can do awareness marketing and direct response. Understand how people are using […]

As part of its evolution to become a cross-screen media agency, Starcom MediaVest Group launched a new unit this week called Zero Dot, devoted to consult and create brand experiences and content across platforms, says Amanda Richman, President, Investment and Activation, Starcom USA, in this interview with Ashley J. Swartz for Beet.TV. “Starcom has been […]

Publicis Groupe’s giant media agency MediaVest is “a comScore company” that uses the VCE platform to track the impact of digital video, says Christine Merrifield, President of Investment and Activation at MediaVest USA in this wide ranging interview about the value of digital video to brands In addressing relative value of Nielsen versus comScore, she […]

CANNES – In the rush to distribute content widely, brands shouldn’t lose sight of quality because that matters a whole lot more than quantity, says Wendy Clark, SVP at Coca-Cola in a video interview with Beet.TV at Cannes.”Pursue good and good scales. Go hard after the storytelling and that will have a natural life of its […]

Many television networks’ approach to VOD is missing the point, says Jonathan Bokor, SVP, director of advanced media for Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), one of the world’s largest brand communications and consumer contact organizations. Boker says networks are looking at VOD like a full-episode player. “That’s really ignoring one of the principal advantages that VOD brings to […]