• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 14, 2013

Real and time. Two concepts that define much of how we think, but ones that are also defined, in part, by media. I’ve been writing about the way media influences people for most of my life, although most of it has been spent covering the part where money is made. As it turns out, that also happens to be the part that is having a big influence on the way people really think and for how long they think about it. That is the reason we are launching a RTM Daily, a new publication covering the shift from asynchronous models to real-time media, advertising and marketing. It’s being fueled by technology, data and computer science, but it is changing the way people do things. People in our business. And the people they are trying to reach and influence -- all in real-time.

What does the M in RTM stand for? Well, media for sure, but also marketing, and all the other Ms that go along with it: measurement, metrics, mobility, momentum -- and for those who get it right, money.

While much of the focus will be on data and technology and how it’s changing the way media is planned, bought and sold -- including the shift toward programmatic audience-buying, ad serving and real-time storytelling -- a lot of it will be about the people. When I look back at some of the most inspiring stories I’ve covered over the past couple of years, they are about how people have been using real-time media technologies to influence other people. I can count the best ones on my digits. One is Digitaria. Another is Digitas.

When Digitaria wanted to change the way some bad people -- Warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army -- operate, they developed some real-time media technology that enabled good people to track their movements and share them for all the world to see. (Link). When Digitas wanted to help its brands not just remain a part of the conversation, but to help direct it, they created a real-time storytelling laboratory that operates much like a big newspaper newsroom.

One of the goals of RTM is to uncover more of those digits, so if you know of any other people or organizations that are using real-time media technology in innovative ways, please share them with me so I can share them with the rest of you.

As for this blog, well, it’s not an RTB log, per se, although we will likely cover real-time bidding, as well as other wonky aspects of the business side of RTM, because as I pointed out earlier, it is where the money is made. And based on today’s coverage, it’s beginning to make a lot more of it.