WPP

With its recent investment and technology exchange with AppNexus, WPP will  have the technology platform to compete against companies like Google’s DoubleClick and Facebook’s Atlas, says Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP chief executive, in this interview with Beet.TV  He says that Google and Facebook are “media owners” much as Disney or Viacom, and as such should […]

COLOGNE, Germany — Xaxis, the programmatic advertising unit of WPP, is the world’s largest programmatic platform, and it will transition to become a “media company,” says David Moore, who is both Chairman of Xaxis and President of WPP Digital, in this interview with Beet.TV We interviewed him at DMEXCO earlier this week about the success […]

Branded content is not an “if” for marketers; it’s a must-have, says Eric Weisberg, Executive Creative Director at JWT, in an interview with Beet.TV. To be effective, branded programming needs to deliver on the right combination of entertainment and utility. As an example, he points to work that JWT did with Johnson and Johnson for […]

Mindshare, the media agency within WPP, has created some 250 branded campaigns for video and television over the past 9 years, says David Lang, Chief Content Officer and President of the agency’s entertainment division,  in this interview with Beet.TV  On the subject of viral video hits and paid vs. earned, Lang stresses the importance of […]

LONDON — In advertising, video may have grown up as a display medium for brand advertisers – but it could be a direct response mechanism, says the EMEA CEO for digital agency POSSIBLE, a WPP unit. “Some of the great stuff being done today either talks about the human condition … and the other thing […]

Marking the  international the expansion of advertising for its slate of original video shows, GroupM, the media agency umbrella for WPP, has bought the entire slate of shows plus the Makers series about women. Last night at the AOL NewFront event, we spoke with Jack Bamberger, Head of Agency and Industry Relations at AOL, about […]

SAN FRANCISCO — These are heady days when an advertiser starts making TV shows to sell ads – but they are headier still when they plan to sell those ads programmatically. In February, Group M announced it will co-produce a sport documentary series, My Side Of The Sky, with Hulu. “There’s not enough good content […]

VIEQUES, PR — The massive reach of YouTube has drawn in a new range of advertisers to sight, sound and motion for the first time due in part to the site’s audience composition, says Rob Norman, Chief Global Digital Officer, GroupM Worldwide, during a deep-dive interview about online video at the Beet.TV Executive Retreat. The YouTube […]

LAS VEGAS — As part of its focus on “adaptive marketing,” Mindshare has been on the hunt for technology firms to pair up with that can help it deliver content in real time for brands, says Colin Kinsella, CEO of Mindshare North America, in an interview with Beet.TV at CES. “We are investing in technology to […]

LAS VEGAS – In a world where mobile phones are replaced every two years or so, it’s frustrating that vehicles’ longer ownership terms make in-car entertainment systems dead-end and dead old. That’s why many auto makers, often accused of loading their dashes with old technology, are now turning their systems in to future-proof mobile mini-computers, […]

Today, super-automated and -targeted ad buying dubbed “programmatic” is mostly  brought to bear on straightforward display ads in standard formats. So, with engaging new devices demanding new-wave interactive ad formats, will programmatic reach this new area? “Technology will catch up to the creative,” Real Media Group president Nicolle Pangis tells Beet.TV. “We’ve seen it in display, […]

Automated advertising is about to be executed at some serious scale, after WPP this month announced it would merge its 24/7 Media unit’s collection of publisher-side technologies in to data stablemate Xaxis. “It puts us in some rare air – we are the largest programmatic and media platform,” Xaxis north America MD Brian Gleason tells Beet.TV. WPP merged […]

LONDON — The rise of super-targeted “programmatic” online ad buying may be cast as the rise of “Maths Men” over “Mad Men” – but one ad exec says marketers should refocus on using the new wealth of numbers to tell traditional creative stories. “The language we’ve created for our industry is very difficult for most […]

COLOGNE — It may be a global industry, but advertisers in the US and Europe exhibit different approaches to the programmatic, automated ad targeting prospect that is now revolutionizing video ad buying, says one company in the know. “In the US, it’s all about performance,” Mark Grether, COO of Group M’s in-house data targeting agency […]

Over the last few years, we have observed as the big ad agencies have found a growing percentage of their revenue made up by two growth factors – digital and emerging global markets. Now WPP’s CEO Sir Martin Sorrell, becoming the latest LinkedIn influencers writer, is setting his target higher still: “Now we will accelerate […]

CANNES — WPP’s data-centric Xaxis division has tripled in size from around 100 staff to more than 300 in its first two years, and CEO Brian Lesser says that growth suggests the future scale of highly targeted online ad buying tactics many label “programmatic”. “Over the next three to five years, you will see that […]

Programmatic buying of media including display, video, radio and soon digital out-of-home, comprises the “biggest push” around media buying at WPP’s giant media agency GroupM, says Christina Beaumier, VP at GroupM’s Xaxis unit, in this interview with Beet.TV Beaumier explains how data around consumer behavior is driving effective media buying in real-time – and how […]

LONDON – We delighted to be in town to cover the FT Digital Media Conference this week. Media luminaries to speak include Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner; WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell; Thomas Rabe, CEO of Bertelsmann and several top media industry innovators. For an overview on the conference, we spoke with FT’s Media Editor […]