Socialtech.com interviewed Michael Lum, a founder of Gradient X, to talk about the company's beginnings and programmatic advertising in mobile. The company was founded by Lum (formerly of OpenX), Brian Baumgart (formerly of Adconion), and Julie Mattern (formerly of Rubicon Project), and Socialtech.com called them the closest thing there is to a "Dream Team" in mobile advertising. One question Socialtech.com asked Lum was why Gradient X focuses on mobile. Lum answered, "If you look at the key trends, last year, there were more phones sold than PCs. This year, there were more tablets sold than PCs. In general, advertising dollars …

ClickZ wrote about six things that are new in programmatic marketing, including the fact that agencies are starting to change their models. Also included is the trend of consumers going "omni-channel," and how programmatic marketing is keeping up.

According to Marketing Week, Premier League soccer club games had an attendance of 95 percent for the first time in 2012-2013, but their match-day revenue remained around its 2006-2007 level. Marketing Week wrote, "To soften the blow, clubs are set to offer Wi-Fi access to all their fans in an effort to identify new ecommerce opportunities and accrue more data." Sponsors will be able to target fans with real-time promotions during games.

Colton Dirksen, co-head of revenue at Adacado, recently wrote that as the capabilities of real-time creative platforms improve, "the pendulum is swinging back to a healthy equilibrium of creative and media strategy."

CMSWire released a timeline detailing "how marketing got personal," along with an infographic. "The infographic...notes that real-time marketing is slowly becoming a more useful tool as customers want to, more than before, communicate with businesses immediately and be updated on new releases as soon as they happen," CMSWire wrote.

In a recent article, Fourth Source commented on how real-time bidding (RTB) is a hot talking point, sometimes sounding like the holy grail of digital marketing. While it's fair for everyone to be iterated in what RTB can offer them, Fourth Source cautions marketers, writing that they shouldn't jump into RTB too quickly. "There is no doubt that transitioning to a RTB environment can help marketers looking to improve efficiencies and yield better return on investment. However, it is also very clear that to be successful, it must be done properly with the right resources and people in place," Fourth …

Beet.TV interviewed Brett Wilson, CEO of TubeMogul, about the growth of the company (it now employs 200), "its recent financing, the competitive landscape and trends in the video ad marketplace." View the short video interview embedded below, and head over to Beet.TV to see more interviews with players in the programmatic online video ad space.

Real-time bidding company Matiro has been acquired by data marketing agency 1000mercis Group, The Drum has reported. A 1000mercis Group spokesperson told The Drum, "All Matiro employees, about 12 people, will be joining 1000mercis's team in their offices at the end of July. Matiro's CEO, Yann Le Roux and the entire structure will remain as before and they will also keep their brand."

A Marketing Land column yesterday detailed how real-time bidding (RTB) is "fundamentally different from traditional display buying and why search marketers are well positioned to capitalize from the shift to RTB." Marketing Land wrote, "The move to impression-based buying dramatically shifts the relationship between cost and value for display media. In an RTB environment, cost per action (CPA) becomes a far more actionable metric by which to evaluate and optimize media investments. When display buyers approach real-time advertising with the same mind-set as for a traditional CPM buy, they miss the true benefits that RTB-powered advertising can deliver."

When AOL hosted Live Auditions, a nationwide competition of aspiring anchors auditioning live, it ended up turning into a real-time ad for Secret deodorant, The Drum wrote. One of the auditionees was questioned live about sweating and was "then asked for her unscripted thoughts on Secret's new deodorant," The Drum wrote. Without knowing she was getting into it, the would-be anchor was asked to pitch the product. Check the video out at The Drum to see how it turned out.