• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, October 1, 2014

Real-time, or right time? The ideal answer may be “both,” but Mike Margolin, SVP and director of audience strategy at RPA, believes right time trumps real-time.

“The need to understand consumers has [always] been around,” said Margolin. He was speaking on the “What is an audience?” panel at OMMA Audience Targeting during Advertising Week New York on Wednesday.

He pointed out that “back then” -- radio over 100 years ago -- it was simple. “You had appointment-based everything,” he quipped. You knew where the audience would be, when they would be there and what media they would be consuming.

“Fast forward to the massive fragmentation and dynamic nature in our business [today] -- no longer is that a viable asset. You have small pockets of audiences,” Margolin said.

He added that the “perfect storm” is when the consumer, the platform they are on, and the mindset they are in all converge with the ad -- i.e. “right time.”