We were not there this year to cover, but heard great things.  There was a smaller crowd on hand than normal, but many more folks participated virtually.   It was probably the biggest and most successful hybrid marketing industry event so far.  Congrats to Bob Liodice and to his team at the ANA for pulling this off.

One of the conference keynote speakers was Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Mastercard.

For this #BeetCast podcast, I spoke with Raja earlier last week for a preview of his speech and about “purposeful marketing,” the big changes underway for CMO’s, as well the emergence of new media platforms and a chat about the future of identity.

Raja is always enlightening and provocative.  And he is making a big global impact with his book Quantum Marketing which is on several business book best sellers lists, being sold in over a dozen countries and just translated into Korean, he tells me.

Congrats Raja on the success of the book.  And thanks for taking the time to speak with me for this podcast.

And big thanks to the BeetCast sponsor TransUnion.

And thank you for listening, I hope you enjoy the episode.

John joined OMD in 2017 from the global creative agency BBDO where he was CEO.

In this conversation, he speaks about managing brand’s media investments during the time of COVID.

He talks of the high wire act that marketers face with the ebb and flow of the pandemic, where hope turns to despair as the virus reemerges and hope inches back.

He addresses the “new normal” of the workplace, and the challenges of keeping the agency focused, trained and inspired in the home/office hybrid.

And he speaks about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and explains the recently launched training program for people of various backgrounds.

A longtime volunteer in the not-for-profit sector,John says that commitment to community action and philanthropy is essential for both brands and for each of us in our lives.  John lives this credo as the Chairman of the Red Cross of Greater New York.

Great, inspiring conversation.   Thank you, John.

Thank you to our series sponsor TransUnion.

And thank you for listening.   I hope you enjoy the episode.

Many are finding the legacy  model of age and demo are not adequate.  Seizing the opportunity are several new entrants in the measurement sector.

Adding to the acceleration and uncertainty is the changing role of Nielsen which has lost its MRC industry accreditation but promises a cross platform solution in two years time.

How measurement is changing and what lies ahead is basis of two conversations with industry leaders, hosted by industry consultant Jon Watts w. He speaks with Jo Kinsella president of TV Squared and Jonathan Steuer of EVP of VideoAmp.

The #BeetCast podcast is presented by TransUnion.

I hope you’ve had good,  relaxing summer.

Here in the Beet patch  we are ramping up with a number of projects including our weekly podcast.  We are very pleased to be back for a new season – and a huge thanks to Transunion for sponsoring.

We are kicking off the the new season with my chat with Wenda Harris Millard, one of the most innovative, inspiring leaders we know.

Wenda has a stellar record of achievements from her work  at  DoubleClick, Ziff Davis, Yahoo and Martha Stewart Omnimedia where was co-CEO.  She joined  Michael Kassan twelve years ago as Vice Chairman and COO to build the powerhouse consultancy MediaLink.

Not slowing down, she is hard at work at at MediaLink at a number of other projects.  I am happy we could catch up.

In our chat, she covers the accelerated transformation of digital media, the emergence of identity-based solutions  and their impact on outcomes.

She shares her thoughts and experiences as woman mentor, advising many women on how to navigate the extraordinary pressures of family and career during Covid.

A great conversation.

Thank you Wenda for all you do and for you support of my work.  You mean a lot to many people

Thanks again to our season sponsor Transuion.

And thank you for listening.  I hope you enjoy the episode.

The BeetCast is a weekly podcast produced by Beet.TV.  The Fall 2021 series is presented by Transunion.   Please find your favorite podcast platform right here.

We are taking a break from the BeetCast. We are finishing up the season with this episode and will be back on September 13.

And what a way to end this series with our season finale with Lou Paskalis.

Lou, as many of you know, is a visionary marketer.  A longtime executive in financial services with senior media investment posts at American Express and at Bank of America, he has not only led his companies in innovation but has been a guide to the entire industry though its participation in industry groups including MMA,  speaking at industry conferences and via his popular, must-follow Twitter feed @LouPas.

Lou left Bank of America recently. He’s taking a much need break, and I am sure he will be doing something major soon. Can’t wait to hear.

I am grateful that Lou took the time to speak with me for this no holds barred conversation on the state of digital media, the future of the media agency, what he sees as  the lack of responsibility at Facebook around disinformation – and the imperative for brands to support journalism.

A great conversation, surely a high point in the BeetCast and a great way to end the season.  Thanks Lou for this and for all you do to lead our industry. And thanks for being a supporter of my work for so many years. It means a lot.

A huge thanks to our series sponsor Mediaocean. Really appreciate your partnership.

And thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Hope you are well and enjoying the summer.

We are finishing up this season in fine form with two leading figures in our industry:

This week’s guest is Laura Desmond and on August 9 we  publish our season finale my chat with Lou Paskalis.

Great to catch up with Laura, to unpack her incredibly successful career in private equity and in advisory roles post agency life.

Laura was one of the youngest CEOs when appointed to lead SMG globally in 2008, but that was only the first of many marks she has made on the agency and communications business since. She is regarded throughout the industry as a game-changer and a true innovator

She is an operating partner at Providence Equity Capital, a prominent private equity firm.  She is also the founder and CEO of Eagle Vista Partners, a strategic advisory and venture investing firm serving the marketing, technology and digital industries

She serves on the board of DoubleVerify, where she was the interim CEO.   Laura  played a central role in guiding the company’s public offering.  In our chat, she talks about the process of going public and what she learned and why it was the right move DoubleVerify.

In this expansive interview, she speaks about the prospects for an open web, the rising value of identity, the promise of CTV, the importance of dynamic creative optimization and how she would guide the  media agency model.

Great conversation.  Thank you Laura.

And thank you Mediaocean for sponsoring this season of the the BeetCast.

I hope you enjoy the episode.

Editors Note:  After the August 9 convo with Lou, our next episode will drop on September 13.

Hope you are well and enjoying the summer.

For this week’s episode, I am happy to chat with Matt Seiler. Many of you know Matt as the longtime CEO of IPG Mediabrands and later at Dentsu where he was President of Brand Solutions.

An innovator who saw the transformation of the media business to programmatic, Matt has taught and inspired many of us in the industry.

Now Matt is guiding individual careers as a headhunter with the global executive recruiting firm Raines International.

In our chat, he talks about the value of human capital in the advertising industry and the challenges that remain in hiring and recruiting talent.

He also addresses the challenges of a post-Covid workplace and his suggestions on what companies need to do to retain and nurture staff.

Great conversation, as always with Matt. Thank you, Matt.

Thanks to our podcast sponsor Mediaocean, and thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy the episode.

It is a handy device and system for consumers to find what they want, a programming platform with original content, and a powerhouse advertising platform.

Roku has just wrapped up its Upfront negotiations. The company tells Adweek that first-time advertisers make up some 42 percent of the new commitments. Meanwhile some 95 percent of current advertisers are re-upping.

This week’s guest is Roku’s Andrew Conroy, who heads agency partnerships.  A five-year veteran, Andrew speaks to his early days at a very scrappy advertising operation to what has become a global giant.

In this wide-ranging conversation, he speaks to advertiser needs around more real-time analytics and cross-platform measurement. Many of these tools are in place at Roku but more are needed, he says.

Great conversation.

Thank you, Andrew.

And thank you to our #BeetCast sponsor Mediaocean.

In this episode, I am very happy to welcome our good friend and industry leader Sean Cunnigham, CEO of the VAB, previously known as the Video Advertising Bureau. The VAB is the essential advertising industry organization for the television programmers, networks and the entire TV industry.

An ad man in previous life, Sean has been at the helm of the organization for 18 years and has seen a lot of changes.

Probably none as dramatic as what is happening now with the big switch to audience-based buying versus age and demo.  Sean and his team have been guiding the industry through this transition.  In this interview,  speaks  to the big changes in TV ad investment and what it all means from recent market research.

Sean also addresses the value and shortcomings of panels and the problems with accuracy of the Nielsen ratings during the pandemic.  He says the industry expects transparency and hopes the Nielsen will fix the problems which largely remain.

A great conversation.  Thank you Sean for this insightful interview.  And thanks for your friendship and support for Beet.TV

And thanks to our podcast sponsor Mediaocean

And thank you for listening.  I hope you enjoy the episode.

That is according to a veteran media agency executive who has been observing the long arc of supply and demand toward a profound shift.

In my podcast interview with  former GroupM global chairman Irwin Gotlieb talks about how connected TV is re-shaping the TV upfront ad sales season.

We start our conversation with his personal take on the responsibility of the media industry on the impact of the media on society.

Media’s pincer move

Gotlieb sees two big dynamics.

1. Shift from linear to non-linear content

“In a linear world, you can use programming strategies – things like lead-ins, lead outs, hammocks, tent poles, that kind of stuff. You can use the built-in promotion schedules… In a nonlinear world, it’s much more challenging to create awareness. If you can’t create awareness, your audiences are going to, by default, be smaller.”

2. Growth of subscription content

“In a world where subscriber support is growing (relative to) advertiser support, what you have is a situation where you have supply diminution and that is inflationary on CPMs. There’s almost no way to offset that, and that’s a huge challenge.”

The future of the future

Irwin’s tenure at GroupM parent WPP began in September 1999 when he joined the company as Chairman and CEO of Mindshare Worldwide. He launched Mindshare North America by consolidating the media resources of JWT and Ogilvy,

His ad industry career, however dates back to 1970. In 2007, he was named one of the media industry’s top 25 most influential leaders by TV Week and inducted into Broadcasting & Cable Magazine’s Hall of Fame.

Now Gotlieb says the big media shifts are creating a big moment in the evolution of TV advertising.

He says the upfronts are a “futures market” and, with TV ad supply decreasing but demand continuing to be high, “there is in fact a tipping point”.

“I’m not suggesting in any way that upfronts are going to go away,” Gotlieb points out. “I don’t think they ever will. Futures markets will always exist in some form in the media world. Will they exist in their present form? I’m not certain.”

Dollars to dimes?

Of course, all TV and video companies are heavily invested in transitioning to the digital, non-linear world of which Gotlieb is talking.

But he thinks a clean conversion that protects all revenue won’t be possible – because it won’t be possible to protect all ad inventory and all views.

“The commercial loads that are going to be acceptable in AVOD in the nonlinear world are going to be one third of what they had been in the linear world,” he says.

“There is only one potential solution to that – refined targeting and addressability … something to be blunt that hasn’t developed at the pace that it should have.

“Today, I think the media sell side has to deal with the reality that they have lower commercial loads and audiences are drifting inexorably in that direction.

“The buy-side is either going to be faced with skyrocketing cost per thousands or improved targeting and addressability solves the problem for both (sides).”

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service.

The BeetCast is sponsored by Mediaocean.

While he made early progress with product development and industry partnerships, funded from a few early stage angel investors, access to venture capital was nearly impossible.  While he says the adtech industry was open to him, he was shut out by VC’s — unable to even to get preliminary pitch meetings.  He blames racial bias.

With VC’s investing less than 1 % in Black-founded start-ups, Andre is committed to changing the equation both by his example, advocacy and now personal investing in promising companies.

This is one of the topics covered in a wide ranging podcast session moderated by guest host Ashley Swartz, CEO of Furious Corp.  They cover a number topics including the transformation of TV, the background and promise of the acquisition by Transunion.

Editor’s Note: This episode was published in January of the year.   It is as compelling and important as ever, so we are republishing it this week.

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service.

The BeetCast is sponsored by Mediaocean.

In this week’s episode of the #BeetCast we explore the topic through the initiatives of the Publicis Groupe and the Spark Foundry agency. Our guest is Jason Smith, President, Diversified Investments at Spark Foundry, a unit of Publicis Media.

Jason is twenty-year veteran of the agency world with time as Horizon and Mindshare.  He joined Spark Foundry earlier this year in a newly created role

In our chat, he speaks to the imperative of media investment around the increasingly diverse U.S. consumer population.  He says one of the barriers to investment is the under representation of diverse groups in panels and other audience planning measurement methodologies.

This is a very open and direct on the need and outlook of real change in the advertising business.

Great conversation.   Thank you Jason.

And thanks to our sponsor Mediaocean  for supporting this podcast.

And thank you for listening!

Doug articulates the vision of his company  as becoming more meaningful to the consumer and to brands.  He speaks about marrying sophisticated targeting and AI with personally optimized creative.  Meaningful Media is the new mantra at Dentsu, he explains.

Thanks Doug for a fascinating conversation.

Big thanks to Mediaocean, the sponsor of the #BeetCast

And thank you for listening.  I hope you enjoy the episode.

She is a pioneer in the programmatic space, starting her career on the sell side with stints at AOL, CNET and at Sky where she headed the satellite company’s trading desk.

She joined the buy side in the early days of Dentsu’s Amnet and remained with the company at its Amplifi and Carat units. The British born executive moved from London  to New York five years ago.

Last just July, she was tapped to head the Americas region for GroupM’s Wavemaker.

In our conversation, she speaks about her career and her perspective racial bias  in the United States as a British Asian. Speaks of her hopes that her work will lead society to a better place.

And she speaks about the evolving role of the media agency and the direction of Wavemaker with a range of brands including several, new disrupter companies.

Great conversation.  Thanks Louisa.

Thanks to the BeetCast sponsor Mediaocean.

And thank you for listening.  I hope you enjoy the episode.

She speaks about the 4A’s four pillars of media responsibility. And reflects on how the pandemic and the racial justice movement of the past year have accelerated change.

Please Join Marla, Kirk McDonal and others on June 23

Please join me and Marla, GroupM NA CEO Kirk McDonald,  and other industry leaders, on June 23 at 1 p.m. on   for our #ResponsibleMedia Global Forum, live on LinkedIn Live, Twitter and YouTube.   The project is being co-produced by Beet.TV, GroupM and the 4A’s.  For more information, please visit this page.

Listen up to the #BeetCast! 

Many thanks to the BeetCast sponsor Mediaocean.  Make sure to sign up for the BeetCast on your favorite podcast platform or listen right here.

Thank you for listening.  I hope you enjoy the episode.

But the conversation around the pace of creativity and innovation and change remains constant, if not accelerated.

Marking the two years since Cannes, we are doing a very exciting program with GroupM and the 4A’s.  We are convening a global forum on Responsible Media on June 23.

The virtual event will explore the future of media as being responsible and sustainable with some 30 speakers from the WPP/GroupM agencies, media, brands and technology companies.

The program takes its lead from the Responsible Media investment initiative from GroupM.   The initiative was announced last month by Kirk McDonald, CEO of GroupM NA.

Kirk is today’s guest on the BeetCast.  He explains the imperative for the responsible media program and other projects aimed to boost under represented voices.

We also go deep on WPP’s new agency called Choreograph and plans to drive unified user identity across its global network.

In our chat, he shares his hopes for the conversations during  the June 23 Responsible Media Forum.

The Global Forum is sponsored by IBM Watson Advertising, MediaMath, Nielsen, PubMatic,

The event will be streamed live on LinkedIn Live, Twitter and YouTube.  It will be free and will not require a registration.   You can find more details in the days ahead on Beet.TV and via the hash tag #ResponsibleMedia or sign up for event updates here.

Thanks Kirk for joining us today and for all your years of  leadership and for your support and friendship.  Very much appreciated.

Thanks to the podcast sponsor, Mediaocean.

And thank you for joining us.  I hope you enjoy this episode.

Pooja is a veteran of senior advanced TV roles at Viacom, Disney and as CEO of trueX until earlier this year.

For all of us, it’s been a challenging time during the pandemic: For Pooja it has been an especially  tumultuous year that included the sale of TrueX, a pregnancy, the birth of a second child, and joining Comcast in a senior role.

In this session, she speaks about her experiences as a woman of color. She shares her hopes for a more inclusive, bias-free workplace. She reflects on her own journey and tells what she is doing to help others.

Commenting on the current state of advanced TV, she talks about the importance of interoperability of viewer identity and the work that’s being done by Blockgraph and others.

And she shares her vision for FreeWheel and Effectv, both units of Comcast Advertising.

Thanks Pooja for a great conversation.  And congratulations on the new job!

Thanks to the BeetCast sponsor Mediaocean.

And thank you for listening.

Hope you enjoy the episode.

Lance has a fascinating background as a veteran media agency executive at Omnicom and in recent years, as a pioneering entrepreneur.

He is the co-founder of 4C Insights.  Last year,  the company was sold to Mediaocean where he now serves as president.

Why the name 4C?  Lance explains it was the luck of airline upgrade to business class which put him in seat 4C, next to Alok Choudhary, the renowned computer scientist from Northwestern.  They hit it off and the rest is history.

Great conversation with Lance about leadership, innovation, omni-channel marketing, and his personal commitment to music education for all kids.

Special thanks to Lance and the Mediaocean crew for being the sponsor of this new season of the BeetCast.   I am super grateful to your longstanding support.

And thanks for listening.  Hope you enjoy the episode.

Today we kick off our second season  with our new sponsor in Mediaocean. A huge thanks for the continuing partnership.

Our guest today is Nicolle Pangis, CEO of Ampersand, the cable TV sales and data company owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox.  More on Ampersand and its expanding business in my chat with Nicolle.

Nicolle is one of the most accomplished media innovators we know. She started her career at 24/7 RealMedia, moved on to and Xaxis and then to  GroupM in senior positions.  In 2018 she joined NCC Media as CEO. The company was later rebranded a Ampersand.

Fascinating to chat with Nicolle.  We spoke about her personal ambitions, her advice for women aspiring to leadership positions and a deep dive around  the transformation of Ampersand from a cable “sales house” to powerhouse in audience buying, in data & analytics and in addressable TV.

Great session.

Thanks again to Mediaocean for sponsoring.

And thank you for listening.  I hope you enjoy the episode.

Scott is a media pioneer, leader and  teacher. Many of you know him from his role at NBC Universal as Executive VP of Advertising. He is a former chairman of the IAB.

Presently,  Scott serves as Global Chief Commercial Officer of the ENGINE Group, a global advertising and marketing services firm.

In addition to his “day job,” For the past four years, Scott taught media studies to undergrads at New York University.

In our chat he explains  how much  he enjoys teaching and speaks to  the value of being connected to his students to better understand attitudes and trends.

Scott talks about the big transformation in television, the changing  make-up of the  UpFronts, the growth of programmatic  in TV and the role of private marketplaces.

Finally,  he calls on his colleagues in the media industry to embrace change.  Great conversation.

About the BeetCast and Our Next Season! 

This episode marks the end of our first season of the BeetCast sponsored by Tru Optik.   I wanted to thank Andre Swanston, Matt Spiegel and the great crew at Tru Optik and its parent company Transunion for sponsoring the launch and first season of the BeetCast.

It has really grown in influence and popularity and  I really enjoyed doing it.    It was Andre’s idea for a podcast and I am forever grateful to him!

A special thanks to our podcast producer E. James Ford.

Happy to say our next season begins in May  with our new sponsor Mediaocean.

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service. The BeetCast is sponsored by Tru Optik, a TransUnion company.

I call her the “mother of addressable TV”. Well, she didn’t exactly invent addressable TV but she was by all accounts the first buyer of the medium.

She was deeply involved with pilot projects in Colorado and Alabama in some twenty years ago.   In our chat, she recalls those early days and her move to Starcom in 2005 to head the agency’s advance TV practice.

In 2016, she left Starcom to start her own company which is a boutique addressable TV buying agency and an industry consultancy.   It is called Matter More Media.

In our conversation, Tracey talks about the evolution of addressable TV over the past 20 years. She speaks of her disappointment that its scope has been limited, increasingly  by new “walled gardens of data” now in control of TV manufacturers.  She shares her mantra: DATA MUST BE FREE.

We also talks about measurement and the importance of understanding the impact of creative.

A Personal Fight Against Cancer 

As many of you know, Tracey has been a brave advocate in the fight against pediatric cancer.  Her older son Ryan went  through several years of treatment from leukemia.  Now sixteen, he is five years out from his treatment and living life as healthy 16-year old. So happy to hear!

Tracy galvanized the media industry around non-profit she founded called TeamBrightSide.  Mostly funded by charity triathlon in Chicago, the organization has raised $1.5 million in research money.   A substantial amount has gone to the University of Chicago to research and track pediatric cancer.

Please join Tracey and TeamBrightSide team by joining the triathlon or by making a donation to:  teambrightside.com

Thanks Tracey for your leadership and inspiring bravery.

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service. The BeetCast is sponsored by Tru Optik, a TransUnion company.

We’ve covered Kevin’s over the past 10 years in his leadership roles at Bloomberg and CNBC.We’ve spoken many times about the changes in TV news from linear to IP delivered.   It’s been a fascinating sector to cover, and Kevin has always been way in front of it.  He shares his views  on the sector on this episode of the #BeetCast, among a number of topics.

Since 2105, he has headed EDO, a TV data firm that provides programmers and advertisers the tools to determine the outcome of TV ads by understanding Web search.  The company works with many leading programmers.  Recently, it  announced its newest partnership with Univision.

Choose Creativity 

Separately, Kevin and his wife Marina founded  a non-profit organization called Choose Creativity.  It is an educational initiative that empowers children and adults to build resilience, creative confidence, and social-emotional skills through engagement.  It is being widely adopted.  And is particularly valued during the pandemic.

As Kevin explains in this interview, the organization was founded in the wake of the terrible loss of his two children.  It’s an amazing, inspiring story.   I hope you will visit ChooseCreativity.org  to learn more, and will join me in making a contribution.

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service. The BeetCast is sponsored by Tru Optik, a TransUnion company.

She was appointed to the head the agency one year ago, coming from GroupM’s Essence where she was Head of Media Activation for North America.

In 2013, Gila  joined the growing Google account at Essence and built a team to run Google’s SEM and biddable media efforts.  Gila also helped Google codify its global Adwords and DoubleClick best practices.

She grew Essence’s social practice by 50x between 2013 and 2016.

In this interview, she talks about her path to leadership and the efforts to bring diversity, equality and inclusion to Xaxis.  She speaks about the focus of outcomes at Xaxis as a core value of the programmatic unit of GroupM.  She covers AI and the future of of a more efficient programmatic ecosystem.

This year marks the agency’s 10th  year anniversary.

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service. The BeetCast is sponsored by Tru Optik, a TransUnion company.

To put this in perspective is one of our industry’s leading voices, Yin Woon Rani who is our guest in this episode of the BeetCast.

Yin was born in Malaysia, raised in Singapore. She emigrated  to the United States where she attended Yale. She went on to senior positions at IPG, the Campbell Soup Company and, most recently, took over as CEO of the nation’s milk industry marketing group, known to many by its iconic slogan “Got Milk”.

Yin explains that for most Asians, assimilation has been the top priority. Asians want to be “invisible,” she says. But racism has been part of the Asian American story, and it’s become impossible to ignore.

She is involved with industry advocacy groups including Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate, known by the hashtag #StopAAPIHate and #StopAsianHate.

Yin addresses the needs for DEI in the marketing industry for all marginalized groups and suggests real change will come as companies become truly inclusive and as those changes bring better business outcomes.

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service. The BeetCast is sponsored by Tru Optik, a TransUnion company.

She explains the rising value of contextual marketing, the need for unified identity solutions, and “clean rooms.” Addressing the upside of the pandemic for Meredith, she says the publishers’ editorial focus on home and family has become more relevant during these times.

Please subscribe to the #BeetCast on your favorite podcast service. The BeetCast is sponsored by Tru Optik, a TransUnion company.