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Brian Lesser

  • For SSPs, What’s In A Name?; A Pillar Of The Community

    SSPs aren’t thrilled by TTD characterizing them as “resellers”; Amazon DSP just announced a new partnership to sell Netflix inventory; and pharma brands will be subject to stricter regulations, per the FDA.

  • Michael Komasinski, CEO, Criteo

    Sponsorships Still Win In Niche Sports; For AI Ads, Perplexity’s No Google

    Sports sponsorships can play well for small brands; Perplexity was first to AI search ads, but advertisers waited for Google; and GroupM officially rebrands to WPP Media.

  • "I think we need another reorg!"

    WPP Acquires Data Clean Room Startup InfoSum

    WPP has bought InfoSum, a data clean room and collaboration startup. Terms of the deal, announced on Thursday, were not disclosed.

  • GroupM Is Up, But WPP Is Down; Why Brands Love A Breakup

    WPP shares dipped to a four-year low on after posting its 2024 earnings results. Plus: How brands are courting virality.

  • Terence Kawaja, Founder & CEO of LUMA Partners

    Why Publicis Is Winning

    Publicis outperforms its agency holding company rivals because of three primary factors: technology strategy, leadership and deal-making.

  • Brian Lesser Is The New Global CEO Of GroupM

    If you were wondering whether Brian Lesser was planning to take some time off after handing the CEO reins of InfoSum to Lauren Wetzel last week – here’s your answer.

  • Generative AI’s Debacle Of The Day; TV’s Awkward Resellers?

    Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cannot Fulfill This Request Generative AI products continue to fail in obviously foreseeable ways.  The latest: Amazon listings that appear to have used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate product names and descriptions feature an identical error message, The Verge reports. Who doesn’t want to […]

  • Live Shopping Is Huge, But Nobody’s Buying; Will Clean Rooms Play Dirty?

    Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Drop Til You Shop Livestream shopping is a big sales channel in China, but the trend hasn’t been successful in the US (not yet, at least). American retailers and major store brands aren’t waiting, though. On Tuesday, Walmart introduced Walmart Creator, a program […]

  • Can AVOD Netflix Beat Ad-Free Out The Gate?; The End Of Instant Articles

    Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. ARPU Kidding Me? Netflix released details about its ad-supported tier last week. One interesting tidbit dropped by Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters is that Netflix expects the $6.99-per-month, ad-supported plan to be “neutral to positive” in terms of average revenue per user, compared to […]

  • Comic: Please opt-in to our pseudonymous identifier. Excellent value exchange!

    Will Ad Tech Ever Persuade People The ‘Value Exchange’ Is Worth It?

    Even the experts at companies whose future depends on explaining the value exchange of personalized advertising to consumers struggle to make a convincing argument. Part of the problem is that the ad industry’s MO has been to “overcomplicate” matters, said Lauren Wetzel, chief operating officer at InfoSum, speaking at LUMA’s Digital Media Summit earlier this week.

  • InfoSum Clinches $65M In Funding; Outbrain Holds First Earnings Since IPO

    Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The InfoSum Of Its Parts The data onboarding startup InfoSum raised $65 million at a valuation of $300 million, up from a $100 million tag a year ago when the company landed a $15 million investment. Ad tech companies have been capitalizing in investor […]

  • The Big Story Podcast

    The Big Story: Rolling With The Punches

    It feels a tad early to be buying pumpkin spice lattes (even though you apparently can). But one thing it’s definitely not too early to do? Get ready for Apple’s IDFA changes in iOS 14. And even the biggies need to prepare. Last week, Facebook got very vocal about its plans, which involve not collecting […]

  • xandr

    Fall From Grace: AT&T Explores Sale Of Ad Tech Unit Xandr

    AT&T is reportedly exploring a sale of Xandr, the ad tech unit it launched in 2018 with lofty ambitions to transform the TV advertising industry with data and automation. The talks are still preliminary and a deal may not go through, per The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news. Xandr made a big splash […]

  • InfoSum Raises $15 Million And Adds Brian Lesser As Executive Chairman

    InfoSum, a UK-based data platform that allows companies to match data in a privacy compliant-way, has raised $15 million and appointed Brian Lesser as executive chairman, the company said Tuesday. The funding round was led by Upfront Ventures and IA Ventures and supported by strategics including Ascential, Akamai, Experian, ITV and AT&T’s Xandr, where Lesser […]

  • Failure To Launch: Why Xandr’s ‘Community Garden’ Was Always A Long Shot

    When Xandr launched in 2018, it had a grand vision to be the data-driven platform and ad marketplace for the TV industry. But from the start, industry insiders were skeptical that plan would ever come to fruition, and few were surprised when Xandr announced last week it would fold into WarnerMedia. “We kind of thought […]

  • xandr warnermedia

    AT&T Folds Xandr Into WarnerMedia

    AT&T said Thursday it will combine TV ad tech division Xandr with WarnerMedia. Xandr Chief Business Officer Kirk McDonald will continue to lead the group and report into WarnerMedia Chief Revenue Officer Gerhard Zeiler. Zeiler reports to John Stankey, AT&T’s new CEO. “Xandr and WarnerMedia have always worked hand-in-hand to benefit our incredible advertising partners,” McDonald said in a statement. […]

  • Content Consumption During COVID-19; More On Brian Lesser’s Exit From AT&T

    Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Mobile Response People forced into quarantine, isolation or however you want to put it are boosting overall content consumption in the United States. Live television is still down year over year, from three hours and 44 minutes per day to three hours and 27 […]

  • Xandr CEO Brian Lesser Reportedly Resigns

    Xandr CEO Brian Lesser has resigned, Reuters reported. Xandr did not respond to AdExchanger’s request for comment. There’d been rumblings within the advertising community about Xandr not living up to expectations. AT&T’s ad unit missed internal revenue projections and was off-pace to meet goals it set for later this year, multiple sources told AdExchanger. The […]

  • Who Sells What? NCC Media And Xandr Aim To Consolidate The Confusing Addressable TV Market

    The two minutes of television inventory sold by multichannel video players (MVPDs) – which can be made addressable by targeting through the set-top box – has historically been fragmented across providers, making it complex for a national advertiser to run addressable campaigns at scale. Today, MVPDs are jockeying to sell each other’s addressable TV supply, […]

  • Xandr CEO Brian Lesser: AT&T’s Strategy Is 'Fundamentally Different' Than Verizon’s

    When AT&T bought Time Warner in June to create a programmatic exchange for the TV industry, many looked to Verizon’s purchases of AOL and Yahoo as a comparison. But the two telco’s strategies “could not be any more different,” said Xandr CEO Brian Lesser on stage at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview last Thursday. “Oath, I think, […]

  • AT&T’s Xandr Officially Combines Its TV Ad Biz With The AppNexus Digital Ad Platform

    AT&T’s ad tech unit Xandr has big hopes for TV advertising, but the company said Thursday during an analyst call that it’s also going to be heavily involved in powering online ads. “You will continue to see Xandr media business outpace the television market in 2019,” Xandr CEO Brian Lesser told investors. “And now what […]

  • AT&T Unveils Xandr, Its Answer To The Future Of Advertising

    Two multibillion-dollar acquisitions and one Justice Department lawsuit later, AT&T’s advertising and analytics unit finally has a name: Xandr. AT&T revealed the brand at its Relevance Conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., Tuesday, a debutante ball for the new unit that gathered 300 top advertising and media executives at the lavish Ritz-Carlton Bacara. The name pays […]

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    A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

  • Brian Lesser's Challenge At AT&T; Jun Group Acquired

    Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Time Will Telco There’s plenty of pressure on Brian Lesser to build advertising into a pillar of AT&T’s business and marry the wireless company’s customer data to the new WarnerMedia content assets. “But probably more than anything, I feel this sense of responsibility to […]

  • AT&T’s Ad Business Grew To $1.8 Billion In Q2

    AT&T reported Q2 earnings Tuesday for the first time since its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, which it has renamed WarnerMedia, closed in June. Revenue for AT&T’s Advertising and Analytics unit, which includes the AdWorks addressable TV group, grew 16% sequentially to $1.8 billion, CFO John Stephens said during Tuesday’s earnings call. Advertising and […]

  • Comic: Wonder Twin Ad Powers Activate

    A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

  • AT&T Ads CEO Brian Lesser Explains How AppNexus Will Plug Into AT&T

    AT&T acquired AppNexus. So what’s it going to do with it? Both the buy side and the supply side will remain intact. AT&T will build out each part of AppNexus’ business, Brian Lesser, CEO of AT&T advertising and analytics, told AdExchanger. AT&T data will become a “very meaningful” carrot for buyers using AppNexus’ DSP, he […]

  • CEO Stephenson: AT&T Will Acquire More Companies 'In The Coming Weeks' To Support Ad Unit

    AT&T, which closed its acquisition of Time Warner on Thursday, will acquire more companies to support its Advertising and Analytics unit, CEO Randall Stephenson said Friday during a CNBC interview. Watch it here. Stephenson spoke of an upcoming ad-supported skinny bundle called AT&T Watch TV, featuring Turner content, that will be formally announced next week. […]

  • AT&T Advertising’s Talent Bench Takes Shape

    Ever since AT&T hired GroupM honcho Brian Lesser last August to lead its new advertising and analytics business, he’s been on a hiring spree. And many of the recruits share one thing in common: They’ve earned their programmatic stripes in some capacity. Time will tell how the AT&T Advertising & Analytics division will develop should […]

  • Industry Preview: As AT&T Fights For Time Warner, Its Ad Platform Is Full Steam Ahead

    With Time Warner on board or not, AT&T is pushing forward with its vision for the next potential addressable ad platform giant. CMOs or holding company agencies might pour money into Google and Facebook, but “they’re nervous about the content they’ve produced living in environments they can’t control,” said Brian Lesser, AT&T’s CEO of advertising […]

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