Sean Cunningham

We turned to Stephanie Dorman, Chief Customer Officer at Mediaocean.  Stephanie is  a veteran of the ad-tech industry and has been watching the changes for women in the industry. Formerly as Chief People Officer at Mediaocean, she has lead many innovative programs to make the company's workforce more diverse. There has been improvement for women, with  more gender balance, she says, yet many challenges remain for women i the workplace including their primary role of care giver.  She speaks to how that role has been amplified during the pandemic. One thing that is not talked about is the impact of menopause.  It's a key  factor  Stephanie says, and  is important to be addressed in finding a productive, nurturing workplace.

We talk to three industry thought-leaders who will be speaking at the Beet Retreat in San Juan.

Advertising on ecommerce sites is a high-growth segment of digital media as marketers seek to reach digital shoppers closer to the point of sale. Amazon, Walmart, Target, Albertsons, Kroger, Best Buy and Macy's are among the retailers that sell online ad space on their websites. Instead of being categorized as a type of "performance media" that includes in-store promotions, retail media networks have emerged as their own category. In this episode of the Beetcast, two experts discuss the promise of retail media networks: Jess Huang, partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Co., says retailers soon will sell $100 billion a year of ads on their websites – a "win-win-win" situation for retailers, brands and consumers.  Brian Gleason, the global chief commercial officer of WPP's GroupM who is joining software firm Criteo as chief revenue officer, says retail media is a growth engine in digital advertising.

Roku this month began offering marketers a new kind of guarantee that they're reaching target audiences through its streaming network, which has 50 million active accounts in the United States. Its OneView programmatic ad-buying platform now has Nielsen's Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) audience guarantees – the first for TV streaming. "It allows them [media buyers] to see audience overlaps across every major device, channel and publisher – and effectively maximizes their return on investment," Louqman Parampath, vice president of advertising product management at Roku, said in this #BeetCast discussion with consultant Jon Watts. Parampath also discusses Roku's plans for continuing to build out its advertising platform through partnerships with other measurement companies and technology providers.

Retailers have made a bigger push into the digital advertising market as brands seek to reach consumers when they're most ready to shop, or to engage target audiences based on other data signals. Amazon has led this growth, becoming the third-biggest digital ad platform after Google and Facebook, while retail chains as varied as Walmart, Target, CVS, Macy's, Albertsons, Kroger and Walgreens also have entered the market. "Because a retailer owns the point of sale and has a broad physical footprint, in theory they have superior data assets," Andrew Ruegger, global president of commerce at WPP's GroupM, said in this #BeetCast interview. "They have loyalty programs, but they have a high volume of transactions – so, it's refreshed and accurate." Ruegger discusses the advantages and disadvantages of retail media channels, and how marketers can potentially participate in data-driven strategies to reach online consumers at all parts of the purchase funnel. The lower-funnel activities include shoppable video and interacting with customers on  social media apps such as Snapchat. To find where you can subscribe to the BeetCast, visit this page.  The BeetCast is sponsored by Mediaocean. 

Andy Plesser speaks to Sean Cunningham, President and CEO of VAB

Livestreamed shopping videos that let viewers buy products in real time are becoming more popular as the ecommerce marketplace continues to evolve. Social media companies including Twitter are developing more tools to help merchants create a shopping livestream to convert viewers into paying customers. "Looking at the market overall, commerce on mobile is actually expected to double by the year 2025," Sarah Personette, chief customer officer of Twitter, said in this Beet.TV discussion with Doug Rozen, chief executive of Dentsu Media – Americas. "The way that we think about it is that our shopping experience essentially allows you to watch and experience video live while also buying and browsing those products." Twitter recently partnered with discount chain Walmart on a live shopping pilot. It included a half-hour variety show hosted by singer Jason Derulo, and featured products that viewers could buy directly within Twitter's app. The company will continue to push into social commerce as its development teams gather data signals from consumers, Personette said. "Live shopping or social shopping is so new in terms of a consumer behavior today," she said. "At the start of covid, there were so many different shopping experiences that were immediately launched and I think we have taken a more patient approach….We're really trying to think holistically about it." Personette also discusses social audio, the growth in video consumption on Twitter, and how its programming strategy differs from those of media companies and other content providers. To see a video version of this conversation and other episodes of "Advertising Transformation: What's Next for Converged TV and Video," a Beet.TV Virtual Leadership Summit presented by Mediaocean. please visit this page.  

In this week's BeetCast podcast, we are publishing the sound tracks some of the most compelling conversations in recent days.  During CES week, we spoke with many leaders in our industry.  Here are three which we find particularly compelling. *Catherine Sullivan is CEO of PHd, a unit of Omnicom Media Group. She speaks to the imperative for marketers to weave their message into the story, into the fan's experience. *Eric Austin,Senior Director, Global Brand Building & Media Innovation at Procter & Gamble speaks the proper value exchange between publisher, brand and the consumer.  In this segment, he chats with guest moderator Zach Rodgers. *Jason Dailey, Director, Head of Agency at Meta speaks with me about the Metaverse and the opportunities that it presents to marketers and media companies. It is a really great explanation the Metaverse and why it matters.

Andy Plesser of Beet.TV talks to Brian Weiser, Global President, Business Intelligence at GroupM about shifting attitudes towards tech, his view on web 3.0, the big value of premium content in the streaming wars, and the emergence of super apps in asia as the "next big thing".

Andy talks to Nathan Brown, Global Chief Strategy Officer at UM.