• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, June 27, 2014

Marketers have tried to take advantage of World Cup fever, with some striking gold and others hitting rock bottom. When it comes to exchange-based trading, which is much more behind the scenes than public tweets, the World Cup's impact is also felt.

According to Smaato, a mobile real-time bidding (RTB) exchange, ad volume on social channels and mobile games decreases when a World Cup game is being played. While there are some talented multitasking consumers out there, the majority spend more time focused on the game and less on their phone and apps, Smaato theorizes.

The other reason that volume of traffic in RTB is down, per Smaato, is that more direct campaigns are running during the World Cup because publishers were able to score higher-priced premium campaigns direct with advertisers, leaving fewer impressions for the open exchanges.

However, both the social and gaming categories have driven more RTB revenue for mobile publishers during the World Cup, with social up between 15% and 18%.

The company attributes this growth to an increase in eCPM, fill and bid depth, noting that “low supply and high demand drives the price.”

"Soccer tablet" image from Shutterstock.