As a staff reporter at AdExchanger, Alison covers advertising agencies and the digital audio landscape. Previously a copywriter at MarketSmiths, she has written digital marketing copy and produced campaigns across multiple verticals. Prior to that Alison worked in editorial at award-winning travel journalism site Fathom. She has a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Michigan.
GroupM has a new global boss. Christian Juhl, the former global CEO of Essence, was named global CEO of media buying giant GroupM on Tuesday. Juhl takes over for Kelly Clark, who joined as global CEO in 2016 with a three-year commitment to the role. Essence has not yet named a successor for Juhl, but […]
Publicis Groupe grew 0.1% to $2.5 billion in Q2, returning to positive growth after a rocky first quarter. Organic growth was down 0.7% for the first half of the year. Despite the positive quarter, investors were skeptical of Publicis’ $4.4 billion acquisition of Epsilon, which closed in July. Many wondered why the company has such […]
Omnicom does not intend to buy a data company, even after Publicis Groupe bought Epsilon ($4.4 billion), IPG bought Acxiom ($3.2 billion) and Dentsu Aegis bought Merkle ($1.5 billion). Omnicom steadfastly believes that owning a data company would compromise its neutrality when serving advertisers. “Our systems have always been open and unbiased,” CEO John Wren […]
Pity the OTT ad buyer, who must manage reach and frequency goals while finding inventory across a fragmented TV landscape. Often, the same inventory is available from multiple sellers – from networks like NBC, Fox and ABC to the actual OTT platforms, like Roku, Samsung or Amazon. And networks and platforms offer different strengths and […]
WarnerMedia’s announcement Wednesday that three of its top sales executives would leave as part of a reorg reflects changing times in the business of network TV. Donna Speciale, president of ad sales, Dan Riess, EVP of Turner Ignite, and Frank Sgrizzi, EVP of portfolio sales and client partnerships, are leaving WarnerMedia one year after its […]
WPP said Friday it has sold a 60% majority stake in Kantar to Bain Capital in a deal that values the company at around $4 billion. Read the release. The news marks the end of a months-long bidding process that involved Apollo Global Management and Vista Partners. Bloomberg reported earlier in July that Bain had […]
Podcast production networks Stitcher and Wondery are taking their ad offerings across the pond with the launch of a joint venture called Podfront UK. The company, launched Thursday with equal ownership, will represent inventory from both networks to advertisers seeking to reach listeners in the UK market. Former audioBoom exec Ruth Fitzsimons will lead Podfront […]
Updated 8:00 PM EST to reflect a statement from WarnerMedia CRO Gerhard Zeiler WarnerMedia’s president of ad sales, Donna Speciale, is leaving the company as part of a broader ad sales reorg. The Information first reported the development. Speciale, who has been president of Turner’s ad sales business for seven years, took on the role […]
While big brands are slowly shifting their budgets toward digital media, small businesses are fueling the growth of internet ad spend. Digital will make up more than half of total global ad spend for the first time in 2021 at $350 billion, according to Zenith’s global ad spend forecast, released Monday. Total global ad spend […]
Consumer food preferences are changing almost as quickly as their media habits. For 130-year-old packaged foods brand Del Monte, keeping up with both required a major revamp. Del Monte used branding marketing campaigns to increase awareness of its canned fruits and vegetables and shopper marketing tactics to drive purchases. But with consumers gravitating toward fresh, […]
Roku’s go-to-market strategy is simple: Get as many streaming devices into as many homes as cheaply as possible, and monetize them through advertising. That makes the growth of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) viewing a “huge” bet for Roku, said director of international ad sales and strategy Tariq Mahmoud. Roku, which has 29.1 million active accounts, has […]
With 21% of US adults owning a smart speaker, according to Edison Research and NPR, publishers have rushed to develop a presence on voice platforms. “We’re committed to bringing our readers the most compelling journalism on all of the platforms on which they expect us to be,” said Idalmy Carrera-Colucci, senior director of editorial operations […]
Havas isn’t facing the same pressure to grow as other holding companies are. The privately-held agency network, owned by French media mogul Vincent Bolloré’s family empire, The Bolloré Group, isn’t subject to pressures of the stock market. “When you’re privately owned, you can focus on the long term,” said the elder Bolloré’s son, Havas CEO […]
At the Cannes Lions festival, media agencies made it clear that they’re embracing Ads Data Hub (ADH) – Google’s answer to privacy-safe attribution – despite the implications for independent measurement. ADH supplies a clean room environment in which agencies can continue to use their own modeling capabilities and data science within Google’s walled garden. Because […]
CPG giant Unilever has 400 brands in its portfolio. Multiply that by a fragmented media landscape, an international consumer base and a crowded vendor ecosystem and it’s fair to say that Unilever’s global media manager, Luis Di Como, has a complex job. Unilever, in Di Como’s view, has four main challenges when it comes to […]
The Cannes Lions, the annual advertiser confab celebrating creativity on the French Riviera, is all about the glitz and glamour. But this year, beyond the branded yachts and magnum-sized bottles of rose, proving that creativity drove business performance will be a key ingredient in winning awards as marketers struggle for growth. Creatively, the focus will […]
Facebook, Amazon and Google might be the biggest ad platforms in the world, but as advertisers, they’ve become the heaviest spenders, according to a global ad forecast from GroupM released Wednesday. As an advertiser category, digital natives are fueling the fire on global ad spend growth. Granted, GroupM doesn’t expect the 2019 growth rate to […]
Local TV buying is still a manual process. Ad tech company Hudson MX wants to change that with a platform launched Tuesday called BuyerAssist, which automates the local TV buying workflow. The company also launched a suite of APIs called AgencyCloud, which hooks into local broadcasters’ sales systems like WideOrbit to streamline transactions. BuyerAssist has […]
Qualcomm CMO Penny Baldwin has the unique challenge of marketing a behind-the-scenes brand. While Qualcomm technology powers smart phones with wireless cellular technology, video streaming and mobile GPS, most people outside of the technology world may not even realize it exists. “Qualcomm has been somewhat of a silent, invisible brand in the background,” Baldwin said. […]
Xandr is making AT&T data available to buyers across all media types through AppNexus’s demand-side platform (DSP), which it has rebranded as Xandr Invest. Xandr Invest launched Monday and allows advertisers to layer AT&T’s first-party data when buying inventory available through the AppNexus exchange as well as inventory from Xandr’s premium video network, Community. Advertisers […]
Jamie Power has been in addressable TV since the early days. After working her way up through the agency world as a media planner and a brief stint in sales, Power joined Modi Media, GroupM’s advanced TV division, in 2013. She’s now chief operating officer at Cadent Addressable, an advanced TV platform head up by […]
As more people increasingly listen to podcasts, the advertiser dollars are following. As a result, podcasting is poised to become a billion-dollar advertising business in the United States within the next three years. Advertising revenue earned by podcast creators grew an estimated 53% in 2018 to $479 million, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and […]
When nutritional supplement company Transparent Labs ran a video on social media as its first-ever marketing campaign, it didn’t expect to go viral. But the five-minute video raked in 21 million views and 18,000 shares across social media, translating to a 4:1 return on ad spend. Through the campaign, Transparent Labs was able to grow […]
Amazon’s acquisition of Sizmek’s ad server and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) platform Friday puts it in a better position to compete with Google for advertiser budgets. Amazon will likely gain new clients from Sizmek who don’t want to deal with switching ad servers, as well as some advertisers who don’t like the idea of working […]
The French automaker Renault goes big for its marketing push around the Formula 1 motor speed races. But Formula 1 fans and Renault customers live all over the world, so the brand needed to reach audiences with different languages and cultures in a way that resonated. The challenge wasn’t just a global one, but a […]
Roku has spent the past few years showing advertisers the incremental reach they can gain by buying over-the-top TV (OTT). On Wednesday, the smart TV operating system launched Activation Insights, an OTT planning tool that helps buyers plan OTT buys by understanding how much budget to shift from linear TV to maximize returns. Brands know […]
Brands must be ubiquitous across platforms to remain relevant to their consumers. That requires producing content consistently and quickly – a trick publishers know well. Gallery Media Group, the media umbrella within Gary Vaynerchuck’s holding company, VaynerX, aims to help brands solve their content needs by applying its distributed media playbook across Fortune 1000 clients. […]
Consulting firms like Deloitte and Accenture are forming mutually beneficial business partnerships with Google around selling the Google Cloud platform to enterprise customers. Deloitte and Google expanded their relationship at Google’s Next conference in April. The companies have a goal of driving billions of dollars of business to each other per year, said Tom Galizia, […]
Dotdash, a top destination for millennial women, lacked bridal content. So the digital publisher, which rebranded from About.com in 2017, purchased Brides magazine from Condé Nast Wednesday for an undisclosed sum. The 85-year-old magazine will fit well into Dotdash’s verticalized online portfolio, said CEO Neil Vogel. Dotdash’s properties are each devoted to specific categories like […]
Hulu now lives in the mouse house. The Walt Disney Company said Tuesday it will gain full operational control of Hulu as part of a “put/call” agreement with Comcast, under which Comcast can require Disney to buy NBCU’s 33% Hulu stake at its fair market value as early as January 2024. The future value of […]
