I’m excited to announce our next VideoNuze conference: SHIFT // 2015 Programmatic Video & TV Advertising Summit, which will be on Tuesday, December 1st in NYC at the Time-Life Conference Center.

SHIFT // 2015 is an immersive new one-day conference which will bring together senior industry leaders and influencers who have a stake in the success of programmatic video & TV advertising. SHIFT // 2015 is the first conference laser-focused on programmatic video & TV advertising, which eMarketer forecasts will account for almost $4 billion, or approximately 40%, of online video ad spending in 2016, up from just $190 million in 2013.

As VideoNuze readers know, I’ve written extensively about how video viewers are fragmenting across countless devices, services and platforms, which has in turn created unprecedented challenges for advertisers and content providers. As David Cohen, UniversalMcCann’s Chief Investment Officer said in his keynote interview with me at this past’s June’s Video Ad Summit, re-aggregating target audiences and delivering the right video ads - efficiently and at scale - have become the media industry’s top priority (last week’s market meltdown in media stocks underscored its urgency).

This is why programmatic video & TV advertising has such huge potential - offering the ability to shift (hence the conference name!) to an automated, data-driven and flexible approach. Programmatic enables ad buyers to target and reach their audiences wherever they watch video, and content publishers to recognize the full value of their inventory.  

Despite this potential, it is still early days for programmatic video and even earlier days for programmatic and cross-screen TV. For many industry executives, programmatic’s complex ecosystem and “alphabet soup” of participants is difficult to understand. Questions about viewability, channel conflicts, pricing integrity, measurement, attribution, etc. swirl. As a result, there’s still caution around programmatic video & TV.

By comprehensively addressing these and other key topics, I’m confident SHIFT / 2015 will create new value for market participants. The SHIFT // 2015 program will focus on the most critical aspects of programmatic video & TV advertising, with experienced industry executives delivering actionable insights and data that help attendees to be smarter and more productive back at the office. SHIFT // 2015 will pick up on important themes raised on our programmatic sessions at the Ad Summit, which drew 450+ attendees and featured 55 speakers.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of months talking to industry colleagues about the opportunity for SHIFT // 2015 and have been hugely gratified by the response. I’m very aware of the proliferation of conferences and believe SHIFT // 2015 is differentiated by its deep-dive focus on programmatic video & TV.

I’ve set the bar high for SHIFT // 2015 to be a must-attend day for executives at publishers, distributors, agencies, advertisers, trading desks, networks/exchanges, technology providers/platforms, research and investment firms, journalists and anyone else seeking to learn more about programmatic video & TV and accelerate its success.

SHIFT // 2015 is an important new initiative for VideoNuze which will build off momentum from our many prior Video Ad Summits and VideoSchmoozes. Early bird discounted tickets are now available as are discounted charter sponsorships (contact me to learn more). I’m excited to share a lot more about SHIFT // 2015 in the coming months and I welcome your input. I hope you’ll join us on December 1st!