For years, CTV has been a side note to many media plans.

But, in this video interview with Beet.TV, Digitas VP Beth Weeks says brands in the current season of upfront ad sales deals should embrace the channel.

Upfront tipping point?

“For many advertisers that are big linear spenders, this year, this upfront year is going to look different and that we really need to embrace different video channels and different means because consumers’ behaviours are changing,” says Weeks.

“We’re really seeing consumers shifting over to streaming … it’s critical to really ensure that our clients are up to speed and aware on this changing and dynamic marketplace.

“It’s also critical for our brands to be changing the way that they’re investing.”

Similarly, GroupM executive director Jen Soch has told Beet.TV that some clients are considering CTV “their main foot forward”, an approach she endorses.

Understanding the market

These agency buyer sentiments are important because they point to addressable and connected TV having solidified in the marketplace.

That tipping point starts with responding to consumer behavior, but it continues in the proliferating number of ad options available in the channel.

“It’s critical to understand the dynamics of the connected TV marketplace, because we know that it is dynamically and rapidly changing,” Weeks says.

“We’re seeing new partners emerge. We’re seeing reach in different places and spaces, and it’s becoming far more competitive. It’s also becoming more competitive for where you can reach your consumers within ad-supported environments.”

Easing complexity

Still, as ad buyers lean into CTV and addressable opportunities, they nevertheless must brace themselves for a world of complexity.

Repeated buyer sentiment surveys tend to show up frustration at what is a fragmented landscape, unlike TV before it.

Digitas’ Weeks is excited by the opportunity to reach individual customers at distinct points in their buying journey and the ability to reduce ad loads.

But she wants to reduce fragmentation in doing so.

Role of SSPs

Technology is the solution, Weeks says, and supply-side platforms (SSPs) have a critical role.

“Some publishers are striking certain supply deals with a certain SSP,” she says.

“So it’s important to be able to kind of follow the inventory.

“As we work with SSPs, I think there is a great opportunity to take advantage of more programmatic guaranteed buying as we look to the upfront and being able to secure inventory in a programmatic fashion.”

You are watching “Convergent TV: Driving Addressability Across Traditional and Connected TV,” a Beet.TV leadership series presented by Beachfront. For more videos, please visit this page.

But where, once, TV was relatively straightforward to buy, how are agencies how approaching the proliferating platforms, opportunities and challenges?

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Beth Weeks, VP and director of media at Digitas North America, explains.

Standardization sought

Weeks says she hopes the industry can begin to standardize some fo the many ways that are emerging through which agencies can buy ads in connected TV platforms.

Where, once, TV was a largely self-contained medium, with few operators and few places from which to buy advertising, now there is a plethora of services.

Weeks wants a solution.

“We know, as we like to continue to innovate and layer on, let’s say first or third party data against guaranteed audiences, there really is a unique opportunity to standardise the supply and the CTV space to make that a more unified approach,” she says.

“So we’re really working closely with our SSP and DSP partners to find opportunities to do that.”

Guarantees encourage buyers

Weeks says programmatic-guaranteed, the process through which ad buyers agree to buy a fixed number of impressions for a guaranteed price, can work well in connected TV.

“Whether that be with guaranteed opportunities or non-guaranteed auction based bidding, both really represent a great opportunity for our advertisers to access this premium, big screen inventory in a more automated way,” she says.

“We’ve seen this big sort of AVOD viewing. Fortunately it’s no longer just the Hulus and YouTubes of the world.

“But accessing that inventory really requires a great partnership with the SSPs as well as the DSPs … to be able to transact from a programmatic guaranteed perspective.”

Header bidding opens new opportunities

Weeks thinks header bidding, a software technique which sees ad auction systems able to entertain bids from multiple demand sources simultaneously, thereby increasing publishers’ yield, can also work for ad buyers.

Header Bidding Can Redefine OTT Ad Sales: PubMatic’s Berlingo

“We’re eager and open from a buying perspective to see how header bidding will enhance CTV,” she says.

“We think it will help with monetizing that ad that full ad pod, which can open up that supply, which is especially beneficial as we look to continue to layer on first or third party and different data sources.

“But one thing to be cautious of is we know that the CTV space certainly has some technological limitations that are different than desktop and display. So it will be really interesting to see how header bidding will be able to navigate some of those challenges of the CTV space.”

Watching fraud concerns

Despite the opportunities, Digitas’ Weeks is keeping a watching brief on the possibility that ad fraud, which has so plagued the display and even digital video advertising environments, could yet manifest on TVs in the living room.

DoubleVerify, an ad fraud detector, recently told Beet.TV it had noted a 161% increase in fraudulent impressions on connected TV from January to April of this year versus last year.

Three Ways Connected TV Ad Fraud Is ‘Swelling’: DoubleVerify’s Ross

That’s after a study for the ANA last year pegged the problem at $5.8 billion globally.

“Where money flows, fraudsters tend to like to try and capture on that inventory,” Weeks warns.

“So I think it’ll be critical for us to work with our brand safety verification partners to really continue to figure out ways to be monitoring and identifying and preventing that fraud from happening.”

This is from a Beet.TV series titled “The Accelerated Evolution of Programmatic OTT” presented by PubMatic.  for more videos please visit this page. 

In 2008, Digitas founded what was then called the the Digital Content NewFronts, and it remains the sole agency to present at the annual event which is now managed by the IAB.   This year is will be “virtual” with presentations from June 22 – 26.  To find find out more and to request an invitation, visit this page.

This video is a preview in a series leading up to the 2020 IAB NewFronts.   Please visit this page for additional segments from the Road to the NewFronts 2020.  This Beet.TV series is presented by the IAB. 

There’s an influx of solutions appearing around this problem, and most of them are supplementing what was already there with the third-party cookie. Nadeau believes that the more effective approach is to consider what got the industry where it is in the first place.

“What we need to do is think about what got us here, which is really deteriorating consumer trust,” Nadeau said. “Letting technology run and really inform how we market to people as opposed to the other way around, and so I think it’s all about taking a step back and think about where we want to go and how we get there.”

The next step is to explore addressability in a smart and responsible way. This will allow companies to build more trust with consumers. Another next move is to think about the rebirth and regrowth of contextual in order to think about moments rather than just people.

“We got so focused on chasing the right cookie, the right person, the right user, that we forgot to care about what moment they’re in.” Nadeau said. “Are they in the right mindset? Are they actually amenable to that type of advertising and that type of conversation and relationship-building with brands at that moment in time?”

Being more aware of this will help to inform creative and will allow companies to craft a more accurate interaction based on the moment itself.

In the early days of first-party strategies, there has been a lot of variation as to how publishers are utilizing this data. Nadeau doesn’t see there being one single standard approach just yet. With clients, on the other hand, there’s a bit of pause as to how to move forward. Much of their approach is dependent on how relient they are on their first-party data, size and scale, and risk tolerance.

“While we all talk about the surface, the cookie going away, that’s the symptom not the illness.” Nadeau said. “The illness is eroding trust. Those brands that are much more focused on maintaining consumer trust, which hopefully they all are to some extent, are the ones who are really digging in deep.”

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of  RampUp, LiveRamp’s summit for marketing technology in San Francisco. This series is co-sponsored by LiveRamp and ZEFR.

On this video interview with Beet.TV, Rahil Berani, Digitas North America VP programmatic, says his agency is having to respond to the changing dynamic by cutting the number of supply-side platforms (SSPs) it works with.

“With the obvious continued growth and evolution happening on the supply side, one of the things that’s become apparent is that multiple partners and players are kind of becoming duplicative in what they’re doing.

“So really now the agency side is starting to figure out, ‘Okay, who are the right partners in working towards getting the right inventory source and solutions for our advertisers?’. And what that comes with is this need to consolidate and make sure you’re not duplicating your efforts, and ultimately betting against yourself out in the marketplace.

“What that leads to is finding the right partners. Really, where are you getting most of that premium inventory source that you’re looking for? So that generally gives us an opportunity to find where to trim the fat.”

The shifting sands been Berani is trying to avoid a an ecosystem where the same kind of players rise to the top because they have a stranglehold on both the supply and demand sides, pricing-out competitors.

This video is from a Beet.TV series titled Consolidation & The Case for Supply Chain Innovation, presented by PubMatic.   For more videos, please visit this page.

The Global Chief Content Officer at Digitas, the agency that co-founded the NewFronts about a decade ago, says it’s more about brands having values that people can relate to.

“Sometimes it just means that they have to speak their own truth, they have to have values, because we think that audiences care about those values now and that those things will come into purchase decisions,” Donaton says in this interview with Beet.TV.

Donaton recalls the walkup to this year’s NewFronts and how many people naturally embraced the Digitas theme of The #Boycott NewFront.

“Every time we got on a prep call with somebody to get ready for the event, we didn’t even have to get out of our mouths what we wanted to talk about before they would basically say things to us that completely confirmed that we were on the right path.”

His takeaway is that “there’s clearly this moment in time right now and our aim was to capture it and it felt like we did.”

Aligning with causes and movement requires a smart, strategic approach because brands can be risk turning people off or, worse, sparking calls for a boycott of their products or services.

“We’ve seen some of this happen in the marketplace with brands that have taken a stand on more hot button issues. I think the point is, don’t court controversy for the sake of it.”

The right strategic approach means that brands must be prepared “and be ready for what might happen. Have the answers, have the strategy in place to stick by what you’re saying.”

It’s the job of agencies to help brands understand “what their why is,” Donaton adds. That “why” encompasses the role they play in peoples’ lives and the stories they can tell in a credible fashion.

“Then it’s really just about being true to yourself and speaking that truth. As long as brands don’t try to jump on something for the sake of jumping on it or doing something that’s not authentic, this is actually a no brainer.”

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.

One of the founders of the Digital Content NewFronts, Digitas titled its own presentation this year The #Boycott NewFront. Afterward, in this interview with Beet.TV, Kahn makes the agency’s case for brand involvement in issues to which consumers can relate.

“Right now, everyone’s taking sides in issues everyone has causes and beliefs and brands need to have them too,” Kahn explains. “So it’s time to make that part of your agenda, part of your strategy and part of your curriculum.”

It’s the agency’s role to set the table by imparting information and knowledge about the conversations that are always happening within a given brand’s consumer set. “Understand the interaction that their audience has out in the marketplace. And then sharing with them all the stories of brands that have taken stands, have a brand view and the positive outcomes.”

Those outcomes aren’t necessarily material in nature, for example sales and market share, according to Kahn.

“I’m talking about brand reputation, brand preference, loyalty, enthusiasm and love. You can tell them those stories and then work with them in an authentic way for them to identify what resonates for them, what they can stand for.”

Asked about measuring performance, Kahn says it’s always been about driving things at the point of conversion “and now it’s about driving things at the point of connection” based on genuine, authentic brand identity.

“So I think it’s changed now that performance can’t be driven by just straight call to action. It’s got to be created by an emotional connection and I think that’s where an agency like Digitas can jump in and help the clients we serve.”

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.

“For most countries, the number one thing that clients are looking for is how do they grow again. So there’s a growth issue,” Tobaccowala says in this interview with Beet.TV during the 2017 Digital Content NewFronts. “The second one in the world of marketing is how do they engage with people in a world where a lot of interruptive ways of engaging are becoming less and less relevant.”

Third: “Do they have the right organizational design?”

Asked for his takeaways from the NewFronts presentations, the Strategy & Growth Officer at Publicis Group opines that “creativity continues to matter,” there’s a “whole bunch of new companies” that attendees need to pay attention to and what is supposed to be “dinosaur companies are not dinosaur companies. They’re coming alive again.”

While speaking of dinosaurs, Tobaccowala offers his take on the video created by NewFronts founder Digitas in which the pairing of a cave man and an astronaut symbolizes the need for both instinct and science in today’s marketing world.

“A lot of people say only the story matters, but so does who sees the story, when they see it and why they see it and that’s where the data comes in,” he says.

It’s all about yin and yang, which makes Tobaccowala “a big believer that it’s actually art plus science plus I think underlying technology that will be necessary to enable both.”

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts 2017. The series is sponsored by the IAB. For more videos from the #NewFronts, please visit this page.

One of the most interesting things that Jill Kelly, CMO at marketing and technology agency Digitas, sees as she surveys this year’s NewFronts is the rise of quality programs with which brands can participate.

“What I do see is a gradual increase in the standards of which program gets created and that’s really refreshing to me,” Kelly says in this interview with Beet.TV. “When we started this NewFront 10 years ago, the notion of premium digital video was almost nonexistent.”

This is one reason why the NewFronts aspire to be a place where storytellers and those in need of stories to attract consumer attention can mingle and let their imaginations loose amid an always expanding universe of data-enabled platforms.

As the founder of the NewFronts, Digitas is the only agency that hosts its own program at the annual confab. “Our event is a moment to exhale and pause and take a bigger picture of the complete ecosystem of premium digital programming,” Kelly says. “It’s not necessarily about us selling anything specifically. It’s what are the trends, what are the obstacles.”

Digitas has distilled this collaborative spirit into a “playful and fun” video depiction of what happens when a cave man reminiscent of GEICO commercials circa 2004 crosses paths with an astronaut in full celestial garb. Their various encounters while living together represent human storytelling melded with technology as it relates to marketers seeking to engage with consumers in new and inventive ways.

“What we loved about it is there is an embedded tension, opposition, but the fact of the matter is it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. What you heard from the speakers today is that they unite. And when they unite beautifully, when they unite without ego you, will have beautiful stories well told that are informed by science and by data,” says Kelly.

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts 2017. The series is sponsored by the IAB. For more videos from the #NewFronts, please visit this page.

These were among a variety of possible scenarios explored at the annual Beet.TV Executive Retreat during a one-on-one keynote session with Adam Shlachter of Publicis and Matt Spiegel of MediaLink. Among the agreed-upon certainties five years from now: 15- and 3-second ads will not be the predominant video ad units and gross rating points will be a currency, not the currency.

When YouTube launched its paid channels about four years ago, Shlachter, who was at Digitas at the time, viewed the company as a modern day MSO. “A vessel for programming, distribution, monetization and ultimately for audience,” is how he recalls it. While many people weren’t surprised that YouTube launched a premium subscription service, “That it exists now built into television sets or any device and any screen and it’s with you everywhere is something that I don’t think people were thinking about initially,” he said.

While both Facebook and YouTube have such massive audiences they cannot be ignored, “We’re also still trying to figure out the right way to engage with them,” particularly since their respective viewing experiences are so different, according to Shlachter.

Asked by Spiegel whether 15- and 30-second ads will dominate five years hence, Shlachter responded, “I hope not.” But he was skeptical about a headlong rush to reduced commercial loads wherein many units are transformed into content that could be more valuable to sellers.

“They have to figure out economically how to make that work,” Shlachter said, referring to companies like Fox. “We have to make the experience a little bit cleaner and we have to make it smarter.”

So why on earth would Netflix get into the advertising game? “Right now if you ask anyone they will tell you absolutely not because there’s no need,” he said. However, if net neutrality laws go in a certain direction and Netflix is taxed for its bandwidth consumption on different operators’ systems “maybe they have to look at alternative ways,” Shlachter added.

As for five minutes of commercials in one hour of content, he agreed it’s possible. In addition to ads taking different shapes in the next several years, cross-channel planning will see great advances along with closed-loop measurement models, according to Shlachter.

This video is part of a series produced at the Beet.TV Executive Retreat in Vieques. The event and series is presented by Videology and 605. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.

We spoke with him about the changes underway in digital media.  This interview is part of our series “The Road to CES.”  Please visit this page to find additional videos.  The series is sponsored by YuMe.

“You have to rethink how you’re telegraphing [your] message and how you’re telling a story in as little as six seconds” or keeping it interesting enough that people watch the whole spot without skipping ahead, says Chia Chen, EVP at DigitasLBi, in an interview with Beet.TV.

Chen observes that marketers are still grappling with how to create mobile video that uses the same visual language, such as verticality, seen in user-generated video and to “be more relevant from a cultural standpoint.”

Autoplay video, which is essentially native to mobile, has its own unique set of challenges, since it’s assumed that users will watch the first few seconds without sound. So the onus is on inventive storytelling.

Chen observes that constraints tend to breed creativity.

“I’m really looking forward to interesting breakthrough work that wouldn’t have occurred to anyone who just had a TV ad brief,” he says.

This interview is part of a series of videos leading up to the DMEXCO conference in Cologne. The series is presented by 4C + Teletrax.

“We’re seeing automation go deeper and deeper in to the operating agency,” he tells Beet.TV in this video interview.”

Case in point is Digitas. “We worked with them to activate their most important trading partnerships in the order automation space,” Sears says. “That’s big milestone for the business.”

According to Sears: “A number of years ago, automation was only considered after a plan was written, at the point you were in to the buying mechanics already. We’re pushing this earlier and earlier in to the process – the approach winds up being much more holistic.”

Sears also talks about how rival publishers in Europe are coming together cooperatively to leverage automated ad selling opportunities at the global level.

“It’s about using data to be strategic about how you reach people in a contextual way,” he says. Next up for branded video will be a more audience-driven approach in tandem with publishers, he says. Key to this strategy is working with publishing partners to better understand what their audiences want.

“We are partnering with publishers to understand throughout the production process how to create and distribute so we know who we are reaching, and producing the creative for the campaign to run natively,” he says. As an example, Digitas has worked closely with the social viral platform Upworthy to dig into the ideal duration, emotion and types of video to best reach consumers.

Book was interviewed earlier this month at the Beet.TV video summit about video advertising outside of the pre-roll.  The event was presented by Teads.

For instance, Yahoo’s acquisition of tumblr  now allows for a more evolved content marketing program that can drive earned output and measure it with better tools, he says. Tumblr’s native ads now appear across Yahoo’s properties, which can deepen engagement. Likewise, Pinterest is working to help brands find content that is engaging and deliver that to users. Facebook is also recommending that brands focus on content.

Please find more Beet coverage of Cannes Lions here.

Asked if advertising measurements like CPMs should be replaced by client-oriented metrics like actual sales, DigitasLBi media activation head Adam Shlachter agreed: “What we should be focusing on is the outcomes we want to achieve.”

But the industry is not there yet, Shlachter says. “If I can plan on that in real-time, that’s great. To date, that takes months, if not years. It’s looking back in the rear-view mirror.

“I can’t always get at sales data … they’re not giving that to me in real-time, today at least … so I need proxies, I need to know that some engagement led to some lift in something else that led to sales.”

We spoke with him at the Beet.TV Video Ad Fraud Leadership Summit where he was panelist, interviewed by Ashley J. Swartz, CEO of Furious Minds. You can find videos from the event here.

They also announced partnerships with content creators Epic Digital and BuzzFeed. With the ‘BuzzFeed in Residence’ program, BuzzFeed staffers will work in the Digitas’ offices, learning analytics tools while they share their rapid creation resources. In their partnership with Epic Digital, Digitas will gain an exclusive first look at Epic Digital’s developing non-fiction content each month.

“We’re really in conversations with our brands to try to inspire them to get over the challenges they might have in making huge investments in digital video and basically committing to content as part their marketing strategies,” McCarus says.

For more information on the content rolled out during this year’s Digital Content NewFronts and on the new partnerships announced by Digitas at their NewFront, check out this New York Times article by Stuart Elliott.

“As technology has democratized the way that we can use it…it’s probably one of the most significant formats and mediums that we have for brands to connect with their consumers, to tell stories, to bring them great content,” he says.

When it comes to brands building community and maintaining relationships with their consumers via digital video across screens, there’s no textbook, he says.

“Brands have to be willing to embrace the unknown and experiment a little bit to figure out what works.”

For more information on the content rolled out during this year’s Digital Content NewFronts and on the new partnerships announced by Digitas at their NewFront, check out this New York Times article by Stuart Elliott.

“People are trying to authentically participate in the audience’s life, and that take fearless courage because this has not been done before, and challenging the status quo is really, really hard.”

The true value of digital video content lies in how marketers can engage with their audience in a different way, not in the 30-second brand spot in front of a video, she says.

Kline says she is most excited about the future transformation of digital marketing and digital content – marketers may be able to integrate into video in new ways or offer value or services that look nothing like what advertising looks like today.

For more information on the content rolled out during this year’s Digital Content NewFronts and on the new partnerships announced by Digitas at their NewFront, check out this article by Stuart Elliott in the New York Times.

“No matter what … it’s got to be clear, consistent,” says Digitas’ north America media activation head Adam Shlachter. “It’s got to have a distinct voice and perspective and be something people not just watch but talk about, keep coming back to – that’s hard to do.”

The difficult truth about branded video is that there are no quick wins and scale is very hard to achieve. “Unfortunately, it’s a bespoke approach you have to take each time, which does limit the scale,” Shlachter adds. “There’s no one way to do it – if there was, it wouldn’t be effective.”

Shlachter was interviewed by TouchCast co-founder Erick Schonfeld at Beet.TV’s annual executive retreat in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

“It’s a huge opportunity for brands, whether to reach people in a more intimate experience, potentially with a different message or whether shot different for a small screen, or to drive people to a different experience, where they are out and about,” he says. Targeting is possible using third-party data, registration information and other services, he says. Ideally, a smart marketer will link mobile to other mediums to build reach and frequency, he says.

For more insight into mobile video ad opportunities, check out this video interview.

“People who engage with video on a brand-owned site are watching, say, a minute of it,” according to Digitas media group director George Hammer. “When you take that content and put it out in to the places where people want to watch, where they already at consuming content, it’s about 40% longer.”

Hammer was speaking at Beet.TV’s Video Ad Effectiveness Summit, where he was also asked whether marketers should simply repurpose their 30-second TV spots for the new platforms.

“When we first started out, we were taking the same TV ads, putting them in as many places as possible,” he responded. “That had an impact on awareness.

“What we’re seeing now with products like Twitter, TV Ad Sync and other products… we have an on-air ad experience and an online that complements it and continues to tell that story and brings people deeper down the rabbit hole. It’s leading to longer attention cycles, more engagement and better purchase intent results.”

Watch the taped interview for more of Hammer’s insights.  This event was sponsored by Nielsen.

“We at Publicis’ looked at about 50 different types of online video formats and 100 different executions,” said the VP and media group director of Publicis’ Digtias agency.

“What we found was, when we give consumers choice of which video they want to see or how they engage with the video, it performs the best – 2x better than preroll in certain stats.

“People want choice on how to choose their own adventure. Midroll has the best completion rates – you’re more likely to keep watching.”

Hammer was speaking to interviewer Ashley J. Swartz of Furious Minds in this taped interview during Beet.TV’s Video Ad Effectiveness Summit. Watch the video for more insights.

“We are all curious how we can shape the market and work together and collaborate with agency partners and clients to create the right platforms whether through real-time marketing or original branded video or co-creations or working with consumers to help create a story,” he says, pointing to work Digitas has done with Taco Bell and American Express in live venues or via participatory events as examples of the range of content creation work. The key to success is finding the right platform for the content to live on, and the best ways to connect with consumers for a brand. However, there isn’t a one-size fits all approach. “It can’t be done in a vacuum and it can’t be done for everyone,” he says.

We spoke to him at Cannes Lions after a session on online video moderated by AOL video chief Ran Harnevo.

To promote Sprint’s E3 VIP, The Huffington Post will push out an event photo on the native ad unit each day of the event.

Beet.TV spoke with Anne-Marie Kline, Senior VP Marketing at Digitas, at the Digitas NewFront 2013 on May 2. We are republishing this video today.