Carat

Carat is using “people-powered” AI to build agents that understand how to best reach specific audience personas.

While agencies push for more programmatic buying options, publishers want to maintain control in TV ad buying negotiations – and particularly over their “premium” content.

To help bridge the disconnect between SMBs and media platforms, Media Disco recently launched its self-serve ad-buying platform.

As clients look for alternatives to third-party cookies, ad agency Dentsu can steer them to its in-house Contextual Intelligence tool, which launched today. Although contextual targeting is often considered inferior to demographic or behavioral targeting, it can drive performance. Jewelry retailer Pandora piloted the tool during the 2022 Valentine’s Day season. Ads placed using the solution represented 2% of campaign spend, but drove 36% of revenue, a 24x return on investment.

Forrester’s Media Agency Wave, released Tuesday, gave the highest ratings to the agencies that used data platforms to improve both media execution and ad creatives and created a more centralized, integrated experience for their clients. IPG media agency UM led the 10 media agencies evaluated for the report. To qualify, each agency needed $10 billion […]

Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. There is a mix shift underway caused by COVID-19 that will affect channels differently, according to Angela Steele, CEO of Carat USA. The best positioned media sellers can provide a clear line of sight into TV and video […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Simone Chaffiotte, vice president and director, audience strategy at Carat USA. When companies arrange their marketing organizations by separating brand building and performance into distinct departments, teams often define their […]

Dentsu Aegis Network’s media billings grew 28% in 2018, according to benchmarking firm RECMA, making it the fastest-growing media group among the holding companies. The company now has $13 billion under management across Carat, dentsu X, iProspect and other agencies. This week on AdExchanger Talks, Dentsu Aegis’ media chairman, Doug Ray, describes the agency’s growth […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Sarah Stringer, senior vice president and head of innovation at Carat “Friends” may have launched in 1994, but thanks to streaming platforms, the show is as popular as ever. When it appeared on Netflix […]

Media agencies, especially those owned by big holding companies, have always relied on economies of scale to get the best pricing for clients. While scale is still important in a digital world, agencies are finding strategy is a better value proposition for brands trying to make sense of data and technology and apply it to […]

Agencies are adding new wrinkles to their media-planning processes to make sure campaigns are relevant and informed by expertise across many marketing disciplines. “More timely, adaptive media plans for clients make it easier to respond to things that drive business results,” said Joe Maceda, head of Mindshare’s Invention Studio in North America. And as holding […]

Dentsu Aegis Network said Thursday that its media agency brands in the US will use Merkle’s PII-based M1 platform for centralized data planning and activation. Dentsu’s media agencies have been piloting M1 for a few months, and it’s now officially being deployed as a self-service tool at Carat, iProspect and 360i, as well as at […]

This is the latest installment in “PII,” a series featuring the talent that makes the wheels turn in our data-driven advertising world. Read previous interviews with talent from Mindshare, Mediavest | Spark, Razorfish, Essence, INNOCEAN, Clear Channel Outdoor and Placed. Patricio Jaramillo is in a serious relationship with data. “My relationship with my wife is first, and then with data,” the […]

Print is dying. TV is changing. But in the face of digital competition, advertising spend on good old AM/FM radio remains strong. As the no. 1 reach medium in the US, radio reaches 93% of the population, according to Nielsen. When looking at the division of daily time spent with audio for the composite listener, […]

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, […]

Carat has a leg up on holding companies scrambling to integrate siloed teams. As part of Dentsu Aegis Network, the media agency operates on a shared profit-and-loss (P&L) statement by country across the network. That allows it to pull in specialist media capabilities to better serve its clients, without those teams competing financially. “This idea […]

The digital takeover of global ad spend ain’t here yet, according to Carat’s global ad forecast. “Not to discount digital by any stretch of the imagination, but we’ve seen somewhat of a resurgence of what’s going on with linear TV,” said Andy Donchin, chief investment officer at Dentsu Aegis Network, which owns Carat. Some advertisers […]

When Dentsu Aegis Network bought programmatic shop Accordant Media on Thursday, it was the Japanese holding company’s second major tech acquisition in less than a month, following the majority stake Dentsu took in CRM agency Merkle. “Programmatic is the way of working in the future and we’ll continue to invest in people who have the […]

While MAGNA Global and ZenithOptimedia projected in their most recent forecasts that digital ad spend will exceed TV by 2017, Dentsu Aegis Network’s Carat begs to differ. The agency’s global ad spend report released Thursday found that while digital media will account for 29.3% of global advertising spend by 2017 ($161 billion), TV will still […]

With the exception of back-to-school needs, office supply retailer Staples focuses on small-business owners. Like most brick-and-mortar retailers, Staples knew mobile played a vital role in its customers’ daily lives, but it was less clear from a media standpoint how mobile impacted the ultimate sales conversion. Staples wanted to use mobile to drive upper-funnel awareness […]

Global media powerhouse Carat has lowered its 2015 global ad spending forecast from 4.6% to 4.0%, reaching $529 billion, in the wake of a similar ad sector demotion from rival agency group Zenith Optimedia. “That’s the new normal [for growth],” said Jonathan Barnard, Zenith’s UK-based head of forecasting. Barnard cited volatility in the eurozone, slowdowns […]