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Maarten Albarda

Member since April 2002Contact Maarten

Global Citizen. Flying Dutchman. Dabbling in Integrated Marketing for clients anywhere they need me. http://about.me/malbarda

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  • Principal Media Is Growing -- Marketers Need To Take Action by Maarten Albarda (Media Insider on 05/24/2024)

    Hey Ed: my experience is that most, especially larger advertisers (who are the most 'vulnerable' to principle media, per the ANA) have typically very smart media teams in house. These media teams are on top of all the agency media strategy, planning and buys, and are the "go-betweens" for the agencies and advertiser brand management teams. While it is true that many companies often still chase "lower cost" or "efficiencies", I think it is unfair to state that (large) advertisers do not pay attention to the quality or direction of their media investments. Low cost or efficiency does not have to mean "crap". I agree with your auditor comment.

  • Principal Media Is Growing -- Marketers Need To Take Action by Maarten Albarda (Media Insider on 05/24/2024)

    Ed: The key phrase in your comment: "So long as the client clearly knows what is going on why is that information any of its business". What the ANA has learned, and what I have seen in my practice, is that clients often do NOT know, or only know AFTER the fact. There was no choice for the client to determine if the proposed media inventory was a good idea, and there was no way to align on a cost that was mutually agreeable. There was no independent verification to establish if the recommendation befitted the client's strategy, or was in the agency's own financial interest. THAT is the issue the ANA is trying to address.

  • Video Audience Measurement Is More Broken Than You Think by Maarten Albarda (Media Insider on 03/29/2024)

    Ed, thank you for adding the helpful historical perspective. We columnists are given a 600 word count for our columns. 600! Obviously that's not nearly enough to be nuanced or detailed. The other part of the "briefing" for columnists is (or at least, 'was' when I started) to deliver food for thought and/or be a little controversial. So I always try to at least stir the pot a little.  Having said all of that: my point is that, beyond how video is measured, or who measures it, or what platform you measure, the viewability definition for digital video ads on any platform outside of TV is laughable. And it won't be long before TV itself will mostly conform to that same low, low threshold as more and more households watch TV via an app, and it conforms to "digital viewing".  Add to this the fact that the best we have come up with as "new ratings" is to use the hollow gross "impressions" metric as non-duplicated currency means that most advertisers that look at their monthly media analysis are looking at predominantly "empty calories". 

  • Alaska Life Is Grim And The Light Is Dim In 'True Detective' by Adam Buckman (TVBlog on 01/12/2024)

    One other Alaska based show, that sadly died after one season, and that did not depict just (albeit a lot) of woebegone, was "Alaska Daily" with the excellent Hillary Swank and a great cast of character actors. Can be binged on Hulu.

  • My Nomination For The ANA's Marketing Word Of The Year: MFAs by Joe Mandese (Planning & Buying Insider on 12/07/2023)

    My nomination is Log Level Data!

  • Dear Elon -- Revisited by Maarten Albarda (Media Insider on 11/24/2023)

    To illustrate this story: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/391319/nearly-300-brands-have-slashed-advertising-on-xtw.html

  • Meta Lawsuit Shines Bright Light On Painful Profits by Steven Rosenbaum (Media Insider on 10/30/2023)

    I think the profits come more from brands we don't know and should not trust... I believe most of the META profits are driven by small/local businesses and all sorts of direct sellers. Recall that many bluechip advertisers banned Facebook? That made absolutely no difference to their bottomline (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/business/media/facebook-boycott.html). It did damage their reputation, but that repuational damage also seems to have little to no effect. In short... even if most blue chip advertisers follow their conscience and stop placing ads like they have (mostly) done on "X", it will have little to no effect.

  • Ad Frequency Overload Becomes Defining Challenge In CTV Ad World by Dave Morgan (Media Insider on 10/19/2023)

    YES! If Hulu shows me one more "For Hims" ad during "Only murders in the building" I will start a petition to have those over-exposers blacklisted. Every. Damn. Break. Ozempic is another serial offender. 

  • It's Not The Time To Give In To Totalitarianism by Dave Morgan (Media Insider on 10/05/2023)

    Dave: I so admire your "put my money (and my efforts) where my mouth is" approach. I have many friends in Ukraine, and have visited many times in a past life. I can only echo your words and hope that sanity and smart thinking will win over uninformed demagogy (that is being disguised as "patriotism"). Travel safe and keep us posted!

  • Is This The Worst Job In America? by Steven Rosenbaum (Media Insider on 09/18/2023)

    I have no doubt that many of these comments are true or partially true. At the same time, we use two different CVS locations, my wife has a chronic neurological disease and we have had none of the issues as described. And that is part of the problem: many of the comments are written in a flare of anger/despair and could even be annecdotaly true. However, people who go to CVS, get their prescription or flu shot as intended and then go home do not take to reddit or Google Reviews; (b) 

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