IAB Successfully Completes First Level of PlayFronts
The inaugural IAB PlayFronts went off with nary a "Tilt" yesterday as a crowd of nearly 700 attendees, split nearly equally in person and virtual, from agencies, marketers in addition to gaming media sellers, gathered for a full agenda of insights, case studies, product announcements and even some wicked Beat Saber battles on the Meta Quest 2.
Omnicom Media Group's Keiko Osada Finds Shopping Insights and Innovation in Vegas
Keiko Osada, Global Commerce Director at Omnicom Media Group, is energized -- even after three days walking through a casino and the really long halls from the Mandalay Bay hotel to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for Shoptalk 2022.
Despite Some Headwinds, MAGNA is Still Predicting Strong 2022 Ad Revenue Growth
IPG Mediabrands' intelligence arm, MAGNA, is predicting an impressive 11.5% growth in ad spend versus 2021 with revenues surpassing the $300 billion milestone to an estimated $320 billion. With hyper-inflation, supply chain challenges and the Russian/Ukraine conflict weighing heavily on consumers' minds, the headwinds, however, are getting stronger.
IAB Gets Their Game On with Inaugural PlayFronts
There's a new "front" to add to your media marketplace lexicon. On April 5, in New York City, the IAB will be launching the IAB PlayFronts, a day dedicated to companies in the gaming space to show off their advertising opportunities to buyers and familiarize the marketplace with a medium that has been often overlooked and yet drives incredible engagement and passion with increasing frequency.
Inside Fox Entertainment's Blockchain Creative Labs: An Interview with Scott Greenberg (Podcast)
This weekend thousands will gather together in Austin, Texas to attend the first South by Southwest (SXSW) music and tech festival since the beginning of the pandemic. This year's SXSW will have a large focus on blockchain, NFTs and the metaverse, with Fox Entertainment's Blockchain Creative Labs (BCL) as the inaugural blockchain sponsor. BCL's sponsorship is intended to highlight the impact that the blockchain and NFTs are bringing to the distribution and production segments of the entertainment industry.
Disney Expands Tech Stack and Rolls Out Key New Ad Types and Audience Targeting Features
On Thursday March 3rd, The Walt Disney Company sent a clear message to the advertising community by kicking off their Upfront/NewFront season with a major presentation entirely dedicated to data, ad-tech and new advertising units. What just five years ago would likely have been a quick mention to ad buyers during their big Lincoln Center presentation is now core to their adverting efforts as the company was one of the first to fully recognize the foundational shift that that the media buying business has made to data-driven and programmatic investment.
Activision-Blizzard’s Fernando Machado on Why Gaming Is (Candy) Crushing It as an Advertising Channel
Despite years of data showing the global, scalable reach of gaming as an advertising medium, it remains a tertiary option in the marketing and advertising world that is often overlooked by media strategists. That is a huge miss, especially as the media industry begins to turn its eyes away from pure eyeballs to scalable attention. Gaming has both. Fortunately, the recent 4A's Decision Conference included a session to help better educate the industry on the opportunities in gaming, and the keynote speaker was literally as excited as kid in a candy (crush) store.
4As Decisions 2022: Dispelling Myths and Revealing Truths About Gaming for Brands
At the recent 4As Decisions 2022 conference a panel of senior marketing executives set out to "myth bust" the stereotypes and false impressions that many marketers have around advertising within videogames. The topics ranged from the under-appreciation of gaming as an ad vehicle, how to kickstart brands new to the space and how to engage gaming communities to brand safety and overall metrics.
Web3 Is Real, But Learn from the Mistakes of Web 1.0 -- Media Metaverse with Minsky
It was the early '90s, and the average consumer knew nothing of the Internet. Going "online" usually referred to camping out overnight to purchase tickets to see the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Eagles or the Grateful Dead. For the OG digital nerds in the crowd, there was Prodigy, which was a joint venture between CBS, IBM and Sears Roebuck (talk about a retailer missing the boat on first-mover advantage) and CompuServe, run by tax preparer H&R Block. Then, a small upstart digital service that was branded America Online (tell me those of you of a certain age aren't hearing the static of dial-up connections followed by the ubiquitous, "You've Got Mail!" right now) joined the crowd and kickstarted the mass consumer digital era. Even if it was at 1800 bps connectivity.
How to Activate an Always-Advancing Video Ecosystem: OMG's Kelly Metz (Video)
Advanced TV keeps on, well, advancing. But how much progress is being made, given challenges like data matching in clean rooms and the impact of privacy legislation? This week's guest, Kelly Metz, gave me some insights into that. As Managing Director of Advanced TV Activation at Omnicom Media Group (OMG), Metz has an extensive background in the field. Prior to OMG, she had stints at VideoAmp, StudioNow and Adobe.
Publicis Media's Spark Foundry Rocks the Retail Self-Checkout with Programmatic Offering
The growth of retail media is one sure trend in 2022. The marriage of first-party data, contextual relevance and signals that provide a strong picture of how and when consumers purchase their everyday needs epitomizes all of the benefits of the digital era, while minimizing many of the concerns and risks. Last year, Publicis Media's Spark Foundry agency became one of the first to test a new programmatic offering from Kroger's Precision Marketing group. Kroger, the second largest grocer in the U.S. with revenue of over $121 billion and over 2,750 stores, is an innovator and one of the fastest to embrace and operationalize their media solutions services.
Think IOT is Cool? Audacy Thinks You'll Love AoT (Audio of Things)!
At the recent Digital Hollywood@CES 2022, omnichannel music and podcast distribution company Audacy provided data and information around all the ways that it has transformed from the once mostly linear focused Entercom into a burgeoning leader across all audio apertures. The company participated in two sessions, both of which tackled various elements of digital transformation and disruption.
Samsung Opens CES Keynote with Strong Sustainability Message
Each year, CES opens with a pre-show keynote that are reflective of the times. The honor of this spotlight, which is truly the most prestigious of all the keynotes, is determined by which technology and which companies are leaders of the moment. For many years it was Bill Gates and Microsoft that would open CES. There have been years when Intel, Verizon or General Motors would step up to the stage. In the past decade, Samsung has been chosen to set the tone on multiple occasions.
Minsky Media Tech Innovation Awards: Runner-Up is Pixel 6. Guess the Surprise Winner
I am nothing if not a creature of habit. I have an innate drive within me to continue traditions. Traditions bind us together. They give us a sense of stability, predictability and G-d knows these days we need more of that. There's a silly little tradition that I have with my childhood friends that has been going on around 40 years which, ironically, falls out on the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. On a day where you aren't supposed to officially greet anyone, one year we started using a local radio show program's promo tag, "K104 Wins Big Bucks", in place of "hello". Every year since, we either call each other up with that line or post it on social media. As I said, silly, but…it's a tradition.
Media Metaverse with Minsky: Vevo Resets Its Strategy After Huge Increase in Connected TV Results (Video)
The music video network Vevo is finding tremendous success back on the medium where music videos first began, the television set. Of course, today's sets are nothing like the TVs that were around 40 years ago when, Prince, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks and many others kicked off the MTV generation. (Yes children, MTV played music videos.)
How Ampersand Is Rising to the Media Metaverse Challenge: Jeff Minsky with Kalyan Lanka (VIDEO)
One of the drivers of media and advertising transformation is Kalyan Lanka, Vice President of Product Management at Ampersand. He recently joined me for my podcast interview series and we invite you to listen to our conversation as we explore the role that Ampersand plays in the Media Metaverse.
Media Metaverse with Minsky: A Conversation with Rishad Tobaccowala (PODCAST)
So, let’s clear one thing up … I had decided on Media Metaverse as the title of my new podcast on MediaVillage long before a certain social media CEO decided to co-opt the word and rebrand his entire company. I’m sticking with it because I truly am a believer that the next phase of business and enterprise transformation will be about the further embracing, immersive visualization, and maturation of how we use digital; with hopefully a dash more respect to the consumers whose minds and wallets we are trying to tap.
Omnicom's Resolution Agency Explains the Ways Machine Learning Has Vastly Strengthened Search's Power
As one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, you'd be forgiven for thinking that paid search has already reached its peak innovation period. After all, it's been nearly 25 years since marketers discovered that search, the nexus of relevancy and recency, could be one of the most efficient tools to drive awareness, leads and sales of products and services. Yet search continues to evolve far beyond the relative simplicity of the past, driven by technological innovation, extraordinary advancements in machine leaning and artificial intelligence. There are new ways and apertures through which consumers search, such as voice, AR, QR codes and more.
Dentsu's 2022 N.A. Ad Spend Forecast: +8.1% with Upside Potential
Issuing a forecast on ad spend in volatile times certainly has its challenges. Consider that since dentsu released its ad spend report in June 2021, the Delta Variant caused a surge in COVID cases, the supply chain crunch has deepened, and everyday Americans have been impacted by a rise in the cost of vital items like gasoline and food.
Q3 Earnings Report: Snap, Facebook, Alphabet, Twitter, Spotify, Comcast, AT&T, Nielsen
It's earnings call season, and there is quite a bit of news to digest. Unlike the same time last year, we've hit a lull of new streaming service introductions. So now it's an all-out war for eyeballs, attention, engagement and, of course, subscription revenue. For the social media world, the reality of tech's embrace of consumer privacy is here and, for now, it is starting to hit the bottom line of some of the biggest players. Most have issued lowered guidance moving ahead.
