Month: July 2023

Warner Bros. Discovery is restructuring its ad
sales organization to create teams dedicated to specific media buying agencies.

Other entertainment companies with broad media portfolios, including Paramount Global, have implemented similar
structures in recent times.

Under the new structure, advertising agency partners will work with dedicated WBD sales leaders and teams to have direct, one-stop access to WBD’s entire
portfolio of brands, including lifestyle, entertainment, sports, news and streaming.

The new strategy, based on input from clients and partners over the past year, also brings WBD’s full
suite of advanced advertising sales solutions across the company’s linear and digital platforms together in a “more impactful way,” according to the company.  

“This new structure will allow us to deliver what matters most for all – creating a single and seamless interface into the full world of WBD,” said Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S.
advertising sales officer, in announcing the changes.

Steinlauf expects the newly formed team to be in place/in the market by Labor Day. 

The new agency-focused teams will be led
by Marybeth Strobel and Greg Regis.

Among the top six agency holding companies, Publicis, GroupM and Horizon Media accounts will sit with Regis, and Omnicom, Magna and Dentsu will be led by
Strobel.  

Separately, Jon Diament will oversee advertising and partner strategy for a dedicated team for the WBD Sports portfolio. He will also manage relationships and
development for more than 100 WBD clients who are official partners of the NBA, NCAA, MLB and NHL, and serve as the primary ad sales contact for internal stakeholders, including WBD Sports leadership
the general manager of Bleacher Report, and others.

Ryan Gould will lead the digital team in a newly created role, and set the strategic direction of the company’s suite of digital
offerings, including Max, Discovery+, WBD Stream and CNN digital. That team will also oversee the company’s advanced advertising, programmatic sales and data strategy. Gould will also be the
primary ad sales contact for WBD’s internal streaming and direct-to-consumer leadership stakeholders.

Sheereen Russellwill oversee a new client partnerships team focused on client
development and partnership strategy with key advertisers across the WBD linear and digital portfolio. This team will work closely with other WBD divisions such as  theatrical, distribution,
gaming and licensing for topline revenue optimization. Russell will also continue to lead the inclusive ad sales solutions team, supporting brands seeking diverse audiences in front of and behind the
camera.

Laura Galiettawill continue to lead integrated advertising sales marketing across all WBD digital and linear platforms and genres, develop strategic alliances with clients across the
WBD portfolio and oversee the execution activation of customized, multi-platform solutions.

Robert Voltaggiowill continue to lead advertising sales revenue, planning and operations for all
U.S. networks and digital platforms, portfolio management, sales support, commercial operations and direct response across the company’s portfolio.

Andrea Zapatawill continue to lead ad
sales research, measurement, data and insights across all linear and digital brands and oversee marketplace intelligence, category and client insights and outcome-focused research for advertisers. In
addition, she will be responsible for ad sales data strategy for the company’s data-driven linear, addressable and convergence solutions.

Stuck with a revenue guarantee not supported by Netflix’s slow ad sales growth, Microsoft is reportedly open to letting Netflix add new ad-tech/sales partners.

In its 16-year history, New York agency Johannes Leonardo never had a chief marketing officer. The creative shop let its work speak for itself while founders Leo Premutico and Jan Jacobs served as its faces and promoters. The agency has gone through a few changes in the past couple of years, including losing chief creative…

As white-collar workers surf the web in air-conditioned comfort, delivery drivers are moving ecommerce packages through record temperatures.

Diners at the Jos? Andr?s hotspot called China Chilcano–a funky, neon-lit Peruvian restaurant in Washington D.C.–will be among the first in the U.S. to try cultivated meat beginning today. On the menu for foodies who were quick enough to snag the limited reservations, which sold out in four minutes: “Anticuchos de Pollo,” grilled cell-cultivated chicken…

Music and culture publisher Complex Media, a part of BuzzFeed Inc., debuted a marketing activation Monday that uses generative artificial intelligence to power an interactive chatbot that produces bespoke album covers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop. The landing page, produced in partnership with Sprite, reflects advertisers’ growing interest in being associated with…

Programmatic can be a mixed bag for Black-owned media companies. Some are compromising with programmatic guaranteed, which is like a digitized version of an insertion order.

The post Why Black-Owned Publishers Like Programmatic Guaranteed appeared first on AdExchanger.

Something ostensibly “good” (consumer privacy protection) could also be an antitrust violation. Weird world. Which is why data protection authorities and their antitrust counterparts must collaborate and compare notes.

The post The Dotted – And Blurry – Line Between Data Privacy And Antitrust appeared first on AdExchanger.

Publishers aren’t just off-setting losses with direct-sold programmatic; they’re unlocking the 70% of consumers brands can’t reach in the open marketplace.  

The post As The Open Marketplace Collapses, Direct Sales Offer Publishers A Lifeline appeared first on AdExchanger.