AUTHOR ARCHIVE FOR:

Tony Rifilato

Tony Rifilato

Associate Editor

Tony Rifilato is an associate editor at AdExchanger.com covering the linear and streaming TV space, ad tech and other topics. Previously, he was the Ops & Tech editor at Fund Intelligence, a leading daily news and data platform for the US mutual fund industry, where he covered D&I initiatives, the impact of Covid-19, the growing use of front-to-back automation, cloud technology, ETFs, large servicing/M&A deals and more. Tony is an award-winning journalist and was a senior editor at the Herald Community Newspapers on Long Island, where he wrote countless stories about politics, crime, local government, public corruption, business, education, the environment – and surfing in Long Beach, N.Y. He holds a B.A. in journalism from Hofstra University.

Articles By Tony

  • Digital TV and Video

    AT&T’s WarnerMedia Sees Strong Gains On HBO Max Ahead Of AVOD Launch

    BY //

    WarnerMedia’s HBO Max and HBO gained nearly 3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2021, and the company is bullish about launching an ad-supported version of the streaming service in June. During its Thursday earnings call, WarnerMedia parent company AT&T said that the total number of domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers combined topped 44 […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    How Rothy’s Takes Advantage Of The Expanded Pinterest-Shopify Commerce Partnership

    BY //

    Pinterest and Shopify have globally expanded a social commerce partnership that launched last year. The partnership began in the United States and Canada with the Pinterest Shopify app, which allows businesses to quickly upload their product catalogs to Pinterest and convert them into shoppable Product Pins. The app is now available in 27 other countries, […]

  • Podcast

    DoubleVerify Is “Building A War Chest” With IPO

    BY //

    Ad verification company DoubleVerify went public on Wednesday, a month after it filed an S-1, and a week after it set the terms for the IPO, which had it valued at $4.2 billion. However, the company’s stock opened at $35 a share ­– nearly 30% above its IPO price – valuing the company at more […]

  • Featured

    Heineken USA Launches First-Party Data Strategy To Prepare For A Cookieless Future

    BY //

    In 2016, Heineken USA embarked on a customer data strategy to understand more about its consumers and to help drive brand awareness. Since that time, privacy regulations in Europe, California, Virginia and elsewhere have rolled out, and Apple will soon make IDFA opt-in, likely limiting its use for advertisers. The world’s second-largest beer maker was […]

  • Platforms

    Amazon DSP, Ad Console Report Strong Growth in Q1

    BY //

    Amazon’s demand-side platform saw tremendous growth in Q1 as ad spend on the platform soared nearly 90% year over year, fueled in large part by its powerful audience targeting capabilities that proved attractive to advertisers during an ecommerce boom.  Ad spend growth was strong across all ad formats, particularly display available through the Amazon DSP, […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Roku Bolsters Measurement Program To Track Cross-Screen Ad Performance

    BY //

    Roku said Tuesday it added six new ad tech companies to its Measurement Partner Program to help retail, CPG, pharma, auto and other advertisers better measure ad campaign performance — such as mobile app downloads — as marketers shift their spending to streaming. Adjust, Affinity Solutions, Branch, IRI, Kochava, and Veeva Crossix have joined Roku’s partner program — […]

  • Agencies

    IPG’s Data Companies Tap DEI Expert To Remove Bias In Data-Driven Marketing

    BY //

    IPG’s marketing intelligence firm Kinesso has hired Dr. Femi Olu-Lafe as the SVP of culture and inclusion. Olu–Lafe was brought on to push the needle on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across Kinesso and its sister IPG companies, Acxiom and Matterkind.  Olu-Lafe – previously a senior leader and DEI consultant at YSC Consulting and […]

  • Creative

    Marpipe Is Working To ‘Demystify’ Creative Ad Testing In Ecommerce

    BY //

    As ecommerce advertising becomes more expensive on Facebook, Jeremy Bloom, co-founder and chief revenue officer of tech startup Marpipe, said that brands need to take a data-driven approach to creative testing instead of relying on antiquated “spray and pray” A/B testing methods. Marpipe was founded by 26-year-old CEO Dan Pantelo and last year launched an […]

  • Platforms

    Twitter Integrates With Nielsen In Bid For TV Dollars

    BY //

    Allison Schiff contributed Twitter is expanding its relationship with Nielsen to boost its ability to plan and execute video strategies. The company will integrate Nielsen Media Impact (NMI) and Nielsen Ad Intel — solutions that help advertisers to measure and plan campaigns across a variety of media platforms — into the Twitter Amplify video ad […]

  • OPINION: On TV & Video

    Shift To Streaming Drove Premium Video CPM Pricing Up

    BY //

    It’s no surprise that premium video — commercially produced, long-form episodic video — commands much higher premiums than standard digital video, but recent research from Standard Media Index (SMI) showed just how much. SMI found that average premium video CPMs were nearly two times higher at 192% of the total digital video market, and accounted […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    Magna Predicts Faster Than Expected Rebound, With 2021 Ad Spend Set To Hit $240B

    BY //

    Magna’s US ad spend forecast released Wednesday paints an optimistic picture for the ad industry, following the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The IPG agency said that a quicker than anticipated economic recovery, supported by a new stimulus package, a decline in COVID rates and return to normal sporting events, will boost ad spending […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Comcast Partners With Innovid To Automate Digital And Linear Campaigns

    BY //

    Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has integrated TV ad server Innovid’s ad tech into its Ad Management Platform as part of an effort to unify linear and digital ad campaign management.  The combination will help automate workflow processes, including creative ad management, performance analytics and optimization across screens and channels for both linear TV and online […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    As Vizio IPOs, It’s Eying The Ad Biz That Powers Roku

    BY //

    Vizio went public Thursday after filing an S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month. The television manufacturing industry is hypercompetitive, with little differentiation between the devices and perpetually low margins. So it’s no surprise that one of the key drivers of Vizio’s growth will be its fledgling advertising business. After all, it’s […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    NBCUniversal Flexes Programmatic Peacock And NBCU Identifier At ONE21 Showcase

    BY //

    NBCUniversal’s new data and technology offerings includes the ability to buy programmatically on Peacock for the first time and an NBCU identifier that brings together first-party data across its entertainment brands — including its parks and resorts businesses.  At its ONE21 event on Monday, NBCU mapped out its plan to bolster One Platform — launched […]

  • OPINION: On TV & Video

    Are Biddable Ad Buys In CTV’s Future? The Experts Weigh In.

    BY //

    “On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. It’s unclear what the future of TV ad buys will look like in connected TV. Since much of TV inventory — including much of CTV — is reserved in the upfronts each year, will programmatic auction-based buying eventually be used in CTV as […]

  • Privacy

    Emerging Identifiers For Digital Advertising: Are Brands Really Prepared?

    BY //

    Advertisers and publishers are bracing for upheaval as two major identifiers commonly used for audience-based targeting are set to go away. But are marketers really prepared for the change? Putting aside the China affair, Apple’s IDFA restrictions could be phased in as soon as this week, while third-party cookies in Chrome will be phased out […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    EDO Teams With Univision To Launch New AVOD Measurement Solution 

    BY //

    EDO expanded its Ad EnGage measurement solution Tuesday so it can cover streaming environments and give brands insight into their competitors’ activity in AVOD platforms, traditionally a blind spot for marketers. The data and analytics company, co-founded by actor Edward Norton in 2015, uses data science and machine learning to measure how TV ads drive […]

  • Featured

    Advertising And Audience Complicate The NFL’s Entry Into Streaming

    BY //

    A week before ViacomCBS rebranded CBS All Access as Paramount Plus on March 4, George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group, noted that NFL football in particular will be fundamental to the platform’s growth.  “It drives more subscriptions than any other program, and significant engagement too,” Cheeks said during the company’s Feb. 24 […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    YouTube Investing Heavily In CTV, Short-Form Video And Ecommerce

    BY //

    YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan recalled how, over a decade ago during an IAB annual leadership meeting, he predicted that video would lead the growth of the advertising industry. Back then, 24-hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. Fast-forward 10 years, and that number has skyrocketed to 500-hours per minute.  “Video has […]

  • Platforms

    Amazon-Selling Platform Jungle Scout Raises $110 Million To Expand Beyond Amazon

    BY //

    Amazon-selling platform Jungle Scout has clinched $110 million to expand. And it’s already applied those funds toward an acquisition: the ad tech startup Downstream Impact, which helps brands and entrepreneurs optimize their ecommerce businesses.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Downstream’s 11 employees joined the Jungle Scout team on Tuesday. The funding will […]

  • Strategy

    Inside Disney’s Plan To Automate Half Its Ad Business Within Five Years

    BY //

    Disney laid out an aggressive plan to unify all of its screens, automate more than half of its business and make the majority of its inventory – both linear and digital – addressable within five years. As part of that plan, it created a programmatic exchange, DRAX, which will allow programmatic buyers to compete for […]

  • Platforms

    Lasso Teams With Xandr To Drive Healthcare and Pharma Digital Campaigns 

    BY //

    WarnerMedia’s advertising and analytics unit Xandr has partnered with healthcare marketing and analytics platform Lasso to deliver programmatic advertising to the pharma and healthcare industries across CTV, social and email.  Mike DiNorscio, Lasso co-founder and chief revenue officer, told AdExchanger that the partnership, formally announced on Monday, had been underway since Lasso launched in December […]

  • OPINION: On TV & Video

    How Aniview Fends Off The Bot Attacks In CTV

    BY //

    “On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. With CTV ad spending in the United States expected to increase from $8.1 billion in 2020 to $11.4 billion this year, scammers are following the money. In the midst of an OTT boom that has created more opportunities for fraudsters, ad fraud detection […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    ViacomCBS Setting Itself Apart With Paramount Plus And Pluto TV

    BY //

    ViacomCBS attempted to set itself apart in the streaming wars during a three-hour virtual investor event on Wednesday ahead of the launch of Paramount Plus next week. The company is making a deep push into an already crowded streaming space with Paramount Plus while also bolstering its AVOD Pluto TV service, as it looks to […]

  • Platforms

    ENGINE Expands Further Into CTV

    BY //

    Global media and marketing services company ENGINE is diving even deeper into technology. The company expanded its cookieless offering on Wednesday with Device Graph+, which adds more CTV solutions to its existing planning and buying capabilities across mobile, display and online video. “We’re trying to solve for where the market is headed,” Michael Zacharski, CEO […]

  • Strategy

    Jellyfish Expands Global Footprint With Five Acquisitions

    BY //

    Digital marketing firm Jellyfish has acquired five companies specializing in ecommerce, creative tech, content creation, gamification and more as part of an aggressive global expansion. The company has scooped up Seelk, a French software and consultancy for Amazon Marketplace; Splash, an England-based creative technology service with global localization; UK-based Quill, which offers performance content for […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Flashtalking Acquires Protected Media To Bolster OTT Fraud Detection Services

    BY //

    Independent global ad server Flashtalking said on Tuesday that it has acquired Israeli-based ad fraud detection specialist Protected Media as it makes a bigger push into the OTT space. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition was made with a mix of cash and stock. The deal allows Flashtalking to offer verification, […]

  • OPINION: On TV & Video

    Roku Caps Record Year, But Surge In Streaming Viewers Still Outpacing Ad Spend

    BY //

    “On TV And Video“ is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Despite video streaming giant Roku’s record year, Scott Rosenberg, Roku’s SVP and GM of its platform business, told reporters ahead of Thursday’s earnings call, “we’re certainly going through a catch-up period” when it comes to ad spending keeping pace with the surge in streaming […]

  • Digital TV and Video

    Roku Has Strongest Quarter Ever As Viewers Flock To Streaming

    BY //

    Video streaming giant Roku experienced its strongest quarter ever as the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed viewing behaviors in 2020 and fueled the shift to streaming. In its Q4 2020 earnings call Thursday, Roku’s YoY revenue soared 58% to $650 million, while its platform segment – which includes advertising and content distribution revenue – grew 81% […]

  • Ad Exchange News

    2021 Will Be A ‘Build Year’ For Addressable TV

    BY //

    Much has been made about the shift to streaming over the past year, particularly with the launch of Disney Plus, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, NBCU’s Peacock and a slew of other services. But while streaming may be getting all the buzz, advertisers and agencies have also been leaning into addressable TV – the ability to deliver […]

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