Andreas Lenz (@AndyLenz) is CEO of yeebase Media GmbH and co-founder of t3n, the network and magazine for the digital future. A printed magazine about digitalization – and a very successful one at that: Rising levels of sales, subscriptions and advertising revenues show that Lenz and his colleagues are right. We speak with him about programmatic advertising from a publisher’s point of view; to him, one benefit of programmatic also lies in the possible direct relationship between publisher and advertisers. The benefits for enterprises are addressed in the DMEXCO story How companies benefit from Programmatic. Other topics in the discussion with Alex Wunschel include the significance of audio and podcasts and Lenz’s view of the political conditions for diversity in digital marketing. Lenz also offers tips for marketing decision-makers as to which conferences and congresses he recommends, and the best way to prepare for a trade fair such as DMEXCO.
“The trend is towards podcasts. Some of our t3n podcasts have already had more than 50,000 listeners – giving them a broader reach than our magazine.”
According to Andreas Lenz, podcasts and audio formats are currently very trendy, but to date more on the listener side. According to Lenz, those in charge of budgets still have some catching up to do. But podcast providers also have to be clear about what successful advertising in the podcast can look like, not just technically but in the implementation as well. In Lenz’s view, advertisers and publishers also need to do more to integrate smart speakers the right way. Also listen to our DMEXCO podcast on Digital audio trends in the online media business with Kristian Meinken and Matthias Schenk.
“Google pays more in penalties in Europe than it pays in taxes in America”
Andreas Lenz cites privacy and the handling of data as a major topic for the future. This is an area in which the world is looking to Europe, and Lenz sees Europeans as obliged to act and set standards accordingly. Currently, in his view, there is too much power concentrated in too few hands. Lenz calls on the digital experts to become active themselves: “Politicians need to learn what ‘digital’ means. We need to learn to communicate our technical intelligence to politicians. How else are they supposed to know?”
Read Lenz’s column, We need more optimism about the future!, at t3n.de.
