Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of MDC Partners

For a publication with “news” in its title US News doesn’t focus much on what’s happening in the papers these days. Formerly known as US News and World Report, the publisher is perhaps best known to the average reader for its annual college rankings. But it is actually something of a digital pioneer. The media brand ditched its print magazine in 2010 to go all digital and shifted its focus to pure service. While its core business is still advertising-based it does a monster business in lead generation, or, as CEO Bill Holiber calls it, performance marketing. Something seems to be working: The brand sees roughly 40 million monthly visitors, about 10 million going to each of its four core subject areas: education, health, government and money.

18 Heinä 201832min

The Fox Business anchor joined the "Ad Lib" podcast before her news-making interview with President Trump last week. Here, Bartiromo discusses her evolution from a CNBC pioneer—where she was the first reporter to broadcast from the stock exchange floor—to a somewhat more ideological Fox Business headliner. We discuss her "Money Honey" nickname and industry sexism, the future of cable news and the demographics of her audience.

10 Heinä 201846min

With 22 years heading up an independent agency under his belt, DiMassimo Goldstein’s Mark DiMassimo believes traditional advertising’s days are numbered. Of course, he would say that. A long-ago JWT creative who logged years at holding companies, DiMassimo says he saw the light when he realized agencies fundamentally failed to meet clients needs. Proud to never have been to Cannes over the span of his entire career, DiMassimo discusses using advertising to fight the opioid epidemic and why, for the first time in his life, he finds himself agreeing with Martin Sorrell.

5 Heinä 201833min

At a time when ad tech is besieged by brand safety concerns, transparency issues and industry-wide consolidation, the Trade Desk has been having a solid run. The demand side programmatic ad buying platform — have we lost you yet? — generated $85.7 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2018, a 61 percent jump from the same period last year. Today we are joined by Brian Stempeck, chief client officer for the Trade Desk and rhythm guitarist for the company band, whose job is, in part, to translate the bewildering jargon of the industry and parse the challenges and opportunities around things like cross-device targeting and leveraging data, specifically as it pertains to addressable TV.  We get into all that, plus what it’s like going toe-to-toe with Google, what GDPR means for the future of ad tech consolidation, and what this week’s AT&T acquisition of AppNexus means for the industry.

28 Kesä 201832min

Michael Wolff has some thoughts about conflict. A consummate media insider for decades, the journalist-provocateur-entrepreneur shot into the public consciousness in January with the publication of his sensational peek inside the Donald Trump White House, “Fire and Fury.” He, along with the rest of the advertising and media ecosystem, is in Cannes for the International Festival of Creativity. In a panel with adman Jeff Goodby, Wolff riffed on Trump’s psyche. On this episode of Ad Lib, recorded earlier this week on the Croisette, Wolff opened up about the success of the book, the nature of fame – and our collective fascination with conflict, understanding Trump, the role of the journalist and more.

20 Kesä 201823min

You may not have heard of David Shing, but you probably know about Shingy. The self-styled “digital prophet” at Oath – the Verizon-owned juggernaut that comprises AOL, Yahoo, the Huffington Post and some 50 media and b-to-b brands – is in Cannes on a mission that seems counterintuitive to what a digital prophet ought to be all about. He wants people to dial down their anxiety-inducing reliance on their phones. On this pop-up Cannes-themed edition of the Ad Lib podcast, we caught up with Shingy, who was en route to his keynote address. Here, we discuss tech dependence, Oath, 5G, living a bit more mindfully – and what exactly it is that he does.

18 Kesä 201825min

In a challenging time with so much gloom and doom out there, Paul Marobella remains a consummate optimist. The North American Chairman and CEO of Havas creative says the current climate reminds him of the mid-1990s, “when digital was going to change everything.” Marobella joins the Ad Lib podcast today to discuss the advantages of being owned by Vivendi as opposed to a traditional advertising holding company, creating a culture of creativity and what he’s looking forward to in Cannes.

14 Kesä 201834min

An expansive marketer in an era of the incredible shrinking CMO, Rajamannar joins the Ad Lib podcast to discuss what he calls the CMO existential crisis. We talk about marketing at scale in a time when people hate ads and have the power to block them, the surprising durability of the 20-year-old “Priceless” campaign and increasing gender diversity at his company’s ranks. We also talk about a recent Mastercard campaign that received a bit of social media backlash for promising to donate meals to starving children every time footballers Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr score a goal during the World Cup – an ad that the company ended up pulling.

7 Kesä 201848min