CTV

In the 16 years since it launched in 2001, Propel, Gatorade’s fitness-focused water brand, has slipped from top-of-mind presence for its audience to out of mind. “Consumers would say, ‘I love Propel. I kind of forgot about it,’” said Gina Hardy, senior marketing director of Gatorade at PepsiCo. To get its brand back in action […]

After Tegna spun off its broadcast and digital media business from Gannett in 2015, it built a managed services unit called Premion, focused on over-the-top advertising in regional and local markets. Premion initially used Tegna’s 700-person sales force but is now bulking up with dedicated sales staff. “We just brought on a regional sales director […]

IPG Mediabrands’ investment arm, Magna, revealed on Wednesday it is doubling its investment in over-the-top (OTT) TV provider Roku. It declined to name specifics but noted the deal has multiple implications for inventory rates and pricing, third-party research and data. Magna is forming a private deal with Roku to allow more precise targeting between the agency’s […]

Tubi TV knows that not everyone wants to pay for premium content. “We see a strong desire among viewers who want free content, whether they’re viewers in search of value or subscription viewers who can’t find the content they want on their SVOD [subscription video on demand] service,” said Thomas Ahn Hicks, co-founder and head […]

  TV buying is becoming more data-driven, even on the linear side. But buyers and sellers are questioning whether audience targeting works on the medium. “’Should TV be bought on an audience basis?’ is still an outstanding question,” Donna Speciale, president of ad sales at Turner, said Wednesday at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference in New […]

Intuit’s TurboTax is one of the rare companies that blends its more traditional brand marketing investments in TV with digital and performance. This strategy, which happens at both the organizational and budget level, is intentional. “You’re consuming brand messages on television while surfing the internet on your phone or scrolling through Facebook,” said Cathleen Ryan, […]

What are broadcast advertising leaders thinking about now, with addressable TV on the horizon but squalls demanding attention? Linda Yaccarino, NBCU chairman of ad sales and client partnerships, addressed her pressing concerns and goals with Jennifer Breithaupt, Citi’s managing director of media, advertising and global entertainment, at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview on Wednesday. Below are Yaccarino’s […]

Despite the perception that over-the-top TV (OTT) supports digital ad-buying tactics – like dynamic insertion and targeting at scale – buying connected TV is still a largely manual process. “Everything we do right now is I/O-direct with publishers,” said Seth Walters, senior partner for interactive and connected TV (CTV) for WPP’s advanced TV agency, Modi […]

Like its competitors, IBM is acquiring and building a video stack. Instead of focusing on media execution, however, IBM is using Watson and data analytics to improve the relevancy of video content, ads and delivery models. “In ad-supported video, how do you make ultra-targeted ads tailored down to the individual for customer acquisition?” said David Mowrey, […]

CES has always been about TV, and 2017 was no exception. Displays got a whole lot sharper and devices got a whole lot thinner. But the TV advancements most relevant to marketers and advertisers revolve not around the hardware but the software, which enables addressable ads and better measurement. To be fair, CES isn’t exactly […]

TV buyers are used to transacting on GRPs and Nielsen ratings, while digital buyers purchase targeted impressions. That has complicated the way advertisers plan, buy and measure their emerging cross-screen campaigns. Several companies have built tools to address the problem, but many have sold brand-direct or by way of the trading desk. RTL Group–backed VideoAmp […]

Addressable TV significantly expanded in 2016, both in terms of ad spend and the total size of the addressable market. In 2015, addressable TV ad spend reached $400 million in the US and grew to $890 million in 2016, according to eMarketer. That’s quadruple the spend flowing into the marketplace in 2014. Last year, more […]

Maureen Bosetti, the chief investment officer for IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative, will discuss dynamics for this year’s upfronts alongside other TV power players at Industry Preview on Jan. 18 in New York City. The 2016 TV upfronts ended with networks posting double-digit CPM increases, but will that momentum carry into 2017? Two key factors could help buyers wield […]

Over-the-top (OTT) television is at an inflection point. While it’s a promising way for media owners to capitalize on changing consumer consumption habits – the number of connected TV users totaled 181.8 million viewers in 2016, a 20% year-over-year increase, according to eMarketer – with reward comes risk. OTT’s lucrative CPMs could also attract bad […]

Agencies are developing skills and business models around advanced TV buying, just as they once did for programmatic buying. GroupM has a dedicated department in Modi Media. IPG Mediabrands’ Cadreon, Dentsu Aegis’ Amplifi, Omnicom and Publicis Groupe also have added expertise. Even independent agencies like Horizon Media are building out advanced TV centers. “Advanced TV” […]

Programmatic TV doesn’t exist? Don’t tell that to Dentsu’s media agency, Carat, which just reserved inventory programmatically across five local broadcasters. The upfront commitment, finalized this week, was executed with Videa, a private exchange/supply-side platform owned by Cox Media Group. The commercials will appear on Cox local affiliate stations, including CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC, […]

Twenty-First Century Fox revealed on Friday a preliminary bid to buy out the rest of British pay TV provider and telco Sky for $13.51 per share for a total of about $14.1 billion. Fox already owns a 39.1% stake in the company. In 2010, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. attempted to take over Sky (called British […]

Pandora will launch in-stream programmatic audio ads later next year, although no timeline has been specified. “We’re really excited about where programmatic goes in 2017,” Pandora Chief Revenue Officer John Trimble told AdExchanger on Tuesday at a company-hosted event in New York City.  “We’ve built a really strong business on the mobile side. We’re looking […]

After a brief hiatus from television, Birchbox is reinvesting in the medium for a multiplatform holiday campaign. Birchbox, which sends beauty products to its subscribers every month, is using a 30-second TV spot and digital assets to message not just beauty-obsessed women, but also more casual makeup users or men who want gift ideas. Amanda […]

Data management platform (DMP) Lotame has developed a campaign planning and measurement tool designed for linear TV broadcasters. Local broadcast consortium Pearl TV, which represents more than 200 local broadcast TV stations and network groups including Hearst, Cox Media and E.W. Scripps, is the first to test-drive it. While many advertisers want to buy across […]

Two former Cablevision execs – former COO Kristin Dolan and former media sales President Ben Tatta – are bringing their experience in local TV advertising to the national level. The two formed an audience measurement and analytics firm called 605 earlier this month through an acquisition of Analytics Media Group (AMG), the data and analytics […]

AT&T now has controlling interest in addressable TV platform Invidi, following an investment the telco giant revealed Monday. The exact amount was undisclosed. Prior investor WPP and Dish Network also participated. Although Invidi will remain independent, AT&T, Dish and WPP have collective ownership. An AT&T spokesperson said the telco sees “opportunity for continued expansion in […]

Omnicom Media Group (OMG) appointed Jonathan Steuer as its chief research officer in May because the worlds of data-driven advertising and traditional TV buying were quickly coming together. Steuer, who spent five years previously at TiVo, clearly understands both worlds. As such, OMG’s syndicated and investment research teams both report to him. “Historically, there’s research […]

The programmatic salesperson only came into existence about five years ago. What started out as an outsider position in the sales organization has become more mainstream as programmatic adoption increases. But the very people holding programmatic sales roles are already predicting its extinction, as the role gets absorbed into the entire sales process. “In three […]

WideOrbit considers itself the DoubleClick of local broadcast TV. “It’s the closest description to what we do,” said Eric Mathewson, WideOrbit’s CEO. “We’re the publisher ad server for TV stations.” WideOrbit supplies tools to local TV stations and broadcasters like Telemundo, Scripps, Sinclair, Meredith and Cox Media Group to help monetize and manage their yield. […]

As it turns out, a smaller screen size may be more effective at driving purchase intent than larger devices in the living room. Hulu and Magna have released new data assessing the impact of video ad exposures in different channels on overall effectiveness. They found ads on over-the-top (OTT) devices aided the most in brand […]

Roku has added comScore’s validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) to its list of video measurement partners. Although Roku had embedded Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings directly into its operating system in 2015, its customers wanted to use the vCE currency for measuring OTT, said Scott Rosenberg, VP of advertising and audience development for Roku. “We’re not trying […]

In lieu of a quarterly earnings call, Pandora invited investors to Terra Gallery in San Francisco on Tuesday for an in-depth discussion of its new product suite, developed to breathe life back into its struggling platform. Pandora, which has long monetized on in-stream audio and display ads, now faces a multiplying set of competitors that has […]

Walmart’s streaming movie and TV-on-demand service Vudu is rolling out free, ad-supported video. Vudu, which has been priced on a per-transaction, subscription-free basis (like iTunes), has debuted a video-on-demand service called Vudu Movies On Us. Vudu is using Telstra’s video platform subsidiary, Ooyala, to manage video ad delivery and monetization for the service, which has […]

Turner will speak at AdExchanger’s PROGRAMMATIC I/O Conference in New York on Oct. 27. Turner took a bold position when it promised that by 2020 more than 50% of its inventory would be transacted against audience guarantees. Since then, CNN, TNT and TruTV’s parent broadcaster has grown its data management and marketing services business, to […]