• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 7, 2011

That’s how the RTB (or real-time bidding) panel at OMMA Display sized things up.

“It’s just plumbing,” said David Simon, director of business development at Turn. But plumbing, he means it is the piping that enables the flow of inventory from one source (a publisher, network or exchange) to another (agency or buying platform).

But the real difference he said, is that unlike any other medium, which essentially sells a “proxy” of the audience an advertiser and agencies are seeking to buy, RTB is making a market around actual users.

“In RTB if you see a user that is valuable to you, you can buy that user,” he said, adding, “That’s different than ever other media, where you buy a proxy.”