Four years ago, the promise of smart speakers was exciting, but the voice assistant tech that powered them was still nascent and offered a clunky, inconsistent user experience.  As more consumer research has surfaced, the tech is slowly changing and enabling a new wave of design and experimentation from organizations like NPR, which just last month released its latest smart speaker offering, the "Wait Wait Quiz."  Based on NPR's popular podcast, "Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me!," the interactive quiz challenges the audience's knowledge of news and quirky headlines and reflects NPR's commitment to creating content native to voice-activated devices.  It's also a show of National Public Media's (NPM) commitment to supporting NPR sponsors entering the voice ecosystem with innovative sponsorships that capitalize on the devices' interactive capabilities and NPR's growing reach on the platform. 

Let's face it.  Even if you're knee deep in the world of programmatic advertising, the exponential rate of change in ad tech can confuse the lay-marketer, and even the most advanced practitioner.  From the outside, programmatic may seem the definition of an automated process. The truth is there are many parties hungry for insights, best practices, and innovation that go far beyond the nuts and bolts of the technology.

Catherine Herkovic and yours truly share something in common:  We're in our fourth decade of exploring, then explaining, what makes the television universe tick.  In Herkovic's case, Nielsen has been the home base for her exploration, with management roles there involving both national and local television research.  She started this year in a new capacity -- Senior Vice President and leader of the company's Local TV transformation program, helping transform two key elements of TV audience measurement.  First, there are the products designed to collect and crunch viewership information, and second, there's the data-gathering and crunching technology inside those products.  Priority one for Herkovic is to expand the capabilities of both.

As Women’s History Month continues, the media is perpetually calling attention to the accomplishments of women in all areas of life, while women themselves continue conversations about #MeToo, #TimesUp and the gender inequality that remains in place today.  For purposes of this column and those that will follow it throughout the month, I am going to confine my thoughts about the history of women to those who worked in television and advanced their fellow females on-screen, behind the scenes, or both -- at a time when women weren’t exactly welcome to do so.  The women who come immediately to mind are the major female television stars of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s whose work changed the game in one way or another.  I am struck by the fact that they accomplished so much -- often through the careful creation and protection of iconic television characters who motivated and inspired millions of women to reach for more in life -- while never failing to entertain.  I am also struck -- stunned in fact -- that they do not often come up in present-day conversation about limitations placed on women.  How did they accomplish what they did, when they did?  Their stories are legendary.

Despite the headlines screaming about the demise of legacy television and the arrival of cord-cutting, consumer data points to a decidedly mixed picture, where consumers straddle digital and linear, and advertisers and their agencies must learn navigate two models for the foreseeable future.

The 2019 Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors Induction Experience, held on January 9 during CES, was a radical departure from traditional awards ceremonies and the high-tech hustle of the trade show.  The event featured an immersive theatrical experience, Creative Tensions, that explored diversity and inclusion through the theme of “otherness,” hosted by Christopher Hibma, Producing Director of Sundance Institute.