I wrote about the ad tech industry's push toward "omni" just one week ago, and new research from Forrester highlights why the trend is so prevalent. The research firm says 71% of consumers react negatively to inconsistencies in brand experiences across devices, with 10% saying they stop interacting with the brand altogether because of these inconsistencies. It seems to be cross-screen, cross-device, multiplatform -- whatever you want to call it -- or bust.

Simpli.fi, a demand-side platform (DSP), on Tuesday announced integrations with three new ad exchanges: Twitter's MoPub, Millennial Media and LiveRail. The partnerships round out Simpli.fi's platform, giving the company the ability to tout itself as "cross-platform" capable. It now supports display, mobile and video ad buying.

Is the banner dead? Maybe not -- but some say it's on its way. Matt Cooper, founder of Addroid, an ad platform for video-based banner ads, believes the banner will die unless it is reinvented. He sees a convergence of multiple trends that will force advertisers to do just that: mobile, video and programmatic.

Marketing is embracing its data-driven future, says Forrester, and its people are learning that new skills and partners are "essential to success." That's how Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester, framed a report commissioned by DataXu. Forrester interviewed 13 marketers and agencies in North America and EMEA from February 18 - April 4, 2014. Each interview was one hour long, and the topics included the changing role of marketing and consumer data, programmatic and the evolution of data.

I love word balloons. You know, those graphics that display words in various sizes based on how much people think about them. So when the team at Perceptions Group passed along some fresh data from their Programmatic Advertising Report, my eye was immediately drawn to the biggest word on the graphic: "Display." That's the No. 1 open-ended response people use to describe the programmatic marketplace, and it makes sense, because the thing that it has mainly been organizing -- or reorganizing, as the case may be -- is the online display advertising marketplace. The second biggest word, is the thing …

Vserv.mobi, a mobile ad network that has recently repositioned itself as a mobile ad exchange, on Wednesday released some data on the "state of [its] exchange." Keep in mind this is just one exchange -- and one that has only supported real-time bidding for about a month -- but the mini report gives us a good look into the type of growth mobile is seeing. Vserv says that in the past year, its amount of inventory has increased by 82%. The company says 14% of the ads on its exchange are now available for RTB. We can surmise that figure …

With the ad tech industry going through a phase of IPOs and M&As, it can be easy to overlook how companies are repositioning themselves by mixing up the cards already in their hands. Most companies looking to better their position in the market are doing so by offering multiple services. That's a natural progression for a business in any market -- find a niche, excel in it, then branch out from there. But it feels as though everyone in ad tech is branching toward the same thing: omni-offerings.

Included in the real-time-ification of media trading is a hunger for faster analytics. Smaato, a mobile ad exchange, sees additional, improved automation as a major benefit of real-time analytics. To foster that additional automation, the company last week announced an upgrade to its offering to provide "business intelligence data on all auctions" to demand-side platforms (DSPs) in real-time.

Public Service Advertising firm PlowShare on Thursday announced the launch of a programmatic trading desk, dubbed Harvest RTG, for non-profits. Some PlowShare clients include Girl Scouts, American Red Cross, World Wildlife Fund and Wounded Warrior Project. PlowShare has partnered with Run, a mobile-focused demand-side platform (DSP), to launch the trading desk. Run also houses a data management platform (DMP), which PlowShare will use to create audiences. PlowShare clients will have access to Run's inventory sources.

If you are running a campaign with click-through rate as your No. 1 KPI, you may want to focus your efforts on advertising over the weekend. If you want to sell something, try Monday through Friday instead. New data from RTB House, an ad agency with its own real-time bidding (RTB) technology, says click-through rates are highest on Saturday and Sunday while conversion rates are lowest.