POV

Mindshare’s Grace Smith, Director, Digital Media Investment, shares her insights from Vudu’s Upfront. 1) The talent onstage: Stefanie Jay, General Manager, WMG Jeremy Verba, VP & General Manager, Vudu Scott Blanksteen, COO, Vudu Ben Simon, Head of Video Ad Sales,…

Background: Facebook is working on a new voice assistant to rival Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. Details and Implications: The story, broken by CNBC and later confirmed by a Facebook spokesperson in an email to Reuters, revealed Facebook is working on its…

Background: Facebook has introduced a new brand safety update and a new set of ‘inventory filter’ controls for advertising that appears within placements outside the social newsfeed across Instant Articles, Audience Network and Facebook in-stream video. Details and Implications: Following the increased…

‘Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while.’ Not only is this my favorite quote of all time, but this is a big theme at SXSW. Change is constant. It’s seemingly the…

“Privacy is dead.” – One of the first things I heard walking into day two of the SXSW Interactive sessions. There are various programming trends at this year’s convention – automation is a big one. Everything from transportation and…

As first-timer at SXSW, I had some expectations about the speaker line-up and vibe of the entire conference. As soon as I landed in Austin, I was blown away by how large the event was. The festival is expected…

Don Draper, the famed anti-hero of AMC’s Mad Men, once opined that advertising was based on happiness—specifically, a kind of happiness that was "a billboard on the side of the road that screamed with reassurance that whatever you’re doing,…

Background: Brands played it relatively safe at Super Bowl LIII and many were less than impressed with the lack of creativity and edginess they’ve come to expect from this stage. Recently, politics has been a major storyline for the NFL…

Background: Facebook has announced plans to integrate the messaging infrastructure of its hugely popular services WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger into a singular product intended to deliver “the best messaging experiences.” Details and Implications The Facebook-owned apps (used by 2bn + people…

Excerpt: Imagine this. Sex, violence, disease, corruption, and offensive language is rampant across American screens and viewers love it. A relatively unknown company is responsible, and advertisers aren’t welcome. This company grows from 365 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1972…

We’ve wrapped up the key takeaways from this year’s CES, taking a look at the main themes and the top areas of focus. Three key themes of this year’s show: Infrastructure On display were tech elements that will support and enable the…

Excerpt: "With products and pipedreams being showcased to over 180,000 attendees here are some major themes from the floor that stood out to me. Talk to Me. Voice based assistants exploded onto the market last year. This year and for…