Programmatic media-buying and native advertising have been flirting with one another for months now, but is it time they made it official?

The one-year anniversary of RTM Daily and RTBlog passed on Tuesday, and Joe Mandese and I thought it would be a good idea to look back at the coverage. Tens of thousands of words have been written in this space over the past 12 months, most of which revolved around real-time bidding (RTB) and programmatic media-buying in general. The topics moved from display to mobile and video, with a bit of radio news scattered in throughout the year. Bigger news -- like IPOs and M&A activity -- was also explored. And of course, Big Data played a major role.

Marketers have tamed Big Data -- or at least they are trying to -- with automation. But not everything has been automated yet, which is why humans are looking to real-time analytics to help them do, and maybe keep, their jobs. As a result, real-time analytics are currently winning the race for the "it" thing of 2014.

Viewability is important, but it's on the brink of going mainstream. Why it matters and how to track it used can now be explained. There are plenty of vendors -- many have been accredited or are in the process of being accredited -- to choose from. Wiewability is coming, regardless of how prepared the industry is.

For the second year in a row, the NFL Playoffs have provided a hotbed of real-time marketing opportunities. The first win of the day came form the unlikeliest of places, which is to say it was actually a place -- Omaha, Nebraska. The purported "official tourism tweets" for Omaha, @VisitOmaha, took advantage of the fact that NFL quarterbacks -- and in this case, Peyton Manning -- frequently yell "Omaha!" before snapping the ball.

Here in RTBlog, Joe Mandese and I often write about programmatic media-buying and real-time bidding (RTB), but there's much more to real-time media and marketing than those two topics. Data management and analytics, for example, are equally as significant.

It's always fascinating just how much unavoidable things like location and the weather impact consumer behavior. "Unavoidable" might not be the prettiest word choice, but it gets the point across. Devices such as smartphones, tablets, TVs and computers -- and even channels like social, video and apps -- are all avoidable; the consumer can choose when to turn them off. But you are always somewhere. The weather is always something. While we're at it, let's throw time and gender in the mix of unavoidables as well; it is always some time and you are always someone.

Viamedia is expected to today announce the appointment of Mark Lieberman as president and CEO. Lieberman was co-founder and CEO of TRA, a television and Big Data analytics, software and research technology firm which was recently acquired by TiVo. Given his background, the appointment of Lieberman as CEO is indicative Viamedia's focus on data-driven advertising, which is also in line with what others in the space are doing.

It's not a love story between people -- mostly because Meredith is a business, not a person -- but Meredith Corporation's new appointment of Chip Schenck as vice president of programmatic sales highlights the data love story marketers are collectively living. Like a Hollywood love story, things have been moving fast in the programmatic space, and this appointment is the perfect example of how.

We're almost a week into 2014, and people are probably tired of reading about predictions for the year ahead (they were some of the only things you could read about as the industry plodded its way through the holidays), but there are some topics that are fun to envisage regardless of what month it is. The role of advertising technology in video is one of them.