• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 16, 2012

That’s what Jay Seideman, U.S. director of targeting & exchange team at Microsoft Advertising, quipped during the opening of the “premium” publishers panel at OMMA RTB.

After listening to the opening “agency trading desk,” which was a buyers-side perspective of the RTB marketplace, Seideman said, “It sounded like RTB should stand for race to the bottom.”

“We don’t necessarily think that RTB is going to represent the lowest common denominator,” Seideman added, noting that RTB – or programmatic trading – could also represent some upside, or higher CPMs, for publishers who command high value inventory.

“We want to offer that choice, but we want to maximize yield at the same time,” Seideman said.