Paul Rostkowski, president of Varick Media Management, posted an article on Advertising Age urging marketers to use their first-party data.

Advertising Age has posted an article titled, "Stop the Family Feud: How Agencies, Ad-Tech Vendors and Brands Can Be Friends." In it, the author - Kence Anderson, CEO and founder of Apptimyze - says everyone needs to "use technology to create greater data transparency."

VentureVillage on Friday posted a Q&A with with two of Sociomantic's founders -- Thomas Nicolai and Thomas Brandhoff. The ad retargeting firm is based in Berlin, and VentureVillage calls it "Berlin's hidden champion."

A Bangalore-based ad retargeting startup, Vizury, is in the process of raising $20 million in funding, TechCrunch has reported. The round could be completed by March 2014. It is being led by Inventus, an existing backer of Vizury, per a TechCrunch source.

TechCrunch has reported that Integral Ad Science has raised $30 million in Series D funding. The round was led by August Capital, with existing investors Atlas Venture and Pelion Venture Partners also participating

iMedia Connection has posted the second part of its series: "How to plan for real-time marketing execution." The post reinforces what many already know but often overlook -- that real-time marketing usually comes with a lot of planning.

Starting 2014 on the wrong foot, several of Skype’s consumer-facing properties appear to have been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army. The breach is “most likely linked to the U.S. National Security Agency’s surveillance programs,” The Next Web suggests. “Many tech companies, including Skype’s parent company, Microsoft, have taken steps to refute claims that they have been cooperating with the government.” 

"The ready availability of data that consumers volunteer about themselves underpins many of next year's marketing plans," Advertising Age wrote. It went on to warn, "We should be prepared that it will not remain so readily available in 2014. The post urges marketers to be "upfront with consumers about data."

"Up to now brands have faced great difficulty in reaching customers across devices and mediums -- but with the new range of data available, real-time bidding and a programmatic approach, 2014 might be advertising's 'big bang' year," New Statesman wrote today, welcoming readers to "the programmatic revolution."

TechRepublic posted a roundup of the "top tech predictions for 2014," and one of the predictions touched on real-time bidding (RTB) and programmatic trading in the scope of social media.