• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, November 13, 2013

In light of the dominant performance by programmatic companies on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 list, RTM Daily speaks with Keith Eadie, TubeMogul's vice president of marketing. TubeMogul checked in at number 35 overall on the list.

Eadie explains why the Deloitte list is different than other lists, why sell-side-focused companies are easier to spot on the list than buy-side companies, what the chain of programmatic adoption has been like on the buy-side, and more.

RTM Daily: What makes this list special, compared to something like the Inc. 5000?

Keith Eadie: They take similar approaches in terms of looking at a multi-year growth rate; the methodology for ranking the companies is the same for both lists.

But this list just looked at technology, the other one is multi-industry. So you get a lot deeper into the tech vertical on the Deloitte list.

There was no specific ad tech category -- but for the leaders in the software space, you can see many of them are advertising-related. The traditional way of buying media is declining rapidly, and the programmatic adoption is accelerating and becoming a very meaningful trend.

RTMD: Some of the growth percentage figures are ridiculous. How long can we realistically expect to see four-, five-, six-plus-digit growth rates for these companies?

Eadie: I think we're going to continue to see in the thousands of growth percent for our space for a couple more years. Many of the companies in our space are going to continue to grow double digits, so on the four-year basis it's thousands of percent.

RTMD: You noted that TubeMogul is the highest-ranked ad software company focused on the buy-side. Can you speak to that feat?

Eadie: We've exclusively been on the buy-side. We don't think it's possible to work with publishers to maximize their revenue and work with buyers and tell them they will get the lowest price. We think that approach is resonating with the brands.

The majority of our revenue is generated by people who are using our software and executing campaigns on their own.

RTMD: Why are so many sell-side companies high up on the list? What is it about the sell-side that helps?

Eadie: If you look at PubMatic and Rubicon Project -- they are primarily display. In the case of display, the supply/demand equation [helps publishers]. A lot of publishers want to take a portion of their display inventory and monetize it programmatically.

On the video side, the demand does outstretch the supply, but I think we're seeing an inflection point. Publishers are seeing more and more dollars flowing through programmatic, and if they want to monetize their money that way they are going to have to work with a sell-side-focused programmatic company.

RTMD: Does a list like this, and programmatic's performance on the list, help with the mindset of adopting the technology, or have we already reached that point?

Eadie: We've had an evolution of understanding of what programmatic can bring.

On the buy-side, there are three layers:

The agency trading desk was really set up to handle programmatic for their agencies. Then the agencies themselves -- that are not working directly with their own trading desk -- were interested in a programmatic solution.

And of course behind them, brands are increasingly getting involved in the selection of tech vendors. The CMOs and heads of digital understand there is a major transition underway in terms of how media is traded. So they are making sure their team is up to speed, and in many ways it means working directly with their agency.

All of that is happening -- and we will continue to see a rate of adoption that's pretty rapid.

It kind of follows what you'd expect just from a dissemination of information: the more they know, the more impact word of mouth has. We are seeing the understanding/comfort level with programmatic accelerate through all those layers.

RTMD: Are you speaking from experience? Has TubeMogul seen more brands getting directly involved in the process?

Eadie: Yes. There are a number of brands that, as I said, are deep into the process of influencing the selection of an ad tech provider.

RTMD: Have you seen any correlation between the size of the brand and whether or not that brand wants to be hands-on with the tech?

Eadie: No.

RTMD: Thanks for your time.