I sat down with Netmining chief Chris Hansen the other day, and I began our conversation by asking him a few questions I seem to be asking most people these days: What are you, what do you do, and what differentiates you from others like you? His answers surprised me. Not because they were complex, cryptic and full of gobbledegook. Just the opposite. He was crystal clear and incredibly simple in his description. "We're an ad network," he said candidly. That impressed me, because it's one of those things most ad tech players avoid comparing themselves to. I'm not sure …

This report isn't exactly coming in real-time, but Casale Media today released their Index Quarterly Report from Q3-Q4, 2012. Casale offered RTM Daily an exclusive look at section two of the report: Market CPMs. The report takes a look at average winning bid price (WBP), number of bids per impressions (BPI), and clear price (CP). The data comes from programmatic transactions made in the U.S. via Casale's Index platform. In Q4 2012, the WBP was only 4% higher compared to Q3. Auto and Media remained the leading sectors in terms of average WBP. Retail moved from number six to number …

Last week, a Forrester Consulting report about Rocket Fuel touted the benefits of going all-in with automation. The report stated that programmatic platforms entirely powered by artificial intelligence deliver "substantial increase[s] in average campaign ROI" when compared to campaigns that use a mix of automation and manual optimization. That statement raised an increasingly important issue within the industry. How much automation should there be? Rocket Fuel likes the idea of total automation, but others think that humans have certain intuitive qualities that will always be neccesary when trading media. RTM Daily spoke with Richard Frankel, Rocket Fuel's president and co-founder, …

The main problem concerning the role of programmatic-buying in the video marketplace isn't technology or business models. It's the way people think about the supply of video. The people who have been most vocal in the debate tend to be people and organizations who have a vested interest in making that supply look constrained. They say there simply is not enough video advertising inventory to justify programmatic trading. They also provoke fear among video publishers that if they put their inventory into exchange-based markets, their inventory will become commoditized due to the dynamics of real-time bidding. Let's put aside the …

Wait, what? "Premium remnant" doesn't make any sense...does it? As oxymoronic as it is, new research from TubeMogul suggests that premium remnant just might be a thing. During big events, even remnant inventory sees a boost in price. The research shows that sports video publishers saw a huge jump in prices for in-stream video ads sold programmatically during March Madness. During the tournament as a whole, prices were 36.1% higher ($10.19 CPM) than normal. During the Sweet 16, prices jumped up 53.9% ($11.52 CPM) above average. The data was collected on exchanges such as LiveRail, Google AdX, and spotXchange. The …

Just because I cover this stuff, people often think I'm an expert on digital media, especially programmatic trading and real-time media. The truth is, the more I cover it, the dumber I feel, because it's a subject that changes so fast. The main problems I have are keeping track of the players, how they're positioned and what they actually do. Part of that is because new players are coming on stream all the time, and established players are constantly repositioning themselves, as they pivot business models, products and services. Don't get me wrong, I think this is all very healthy …

We talk about Generation X, Millennials, and Baby Boomers, but I'm going to invent a new generation: the Spoiled. The Spoiled generation knows no age boundaries; it does not care when you were born. Whether or not you are part of the Spoiled all depends on your answer to a single yes or no question: has real-time media made you feel entitled to having all of your media needs instantly available? This morning, I realized that I am part of the Spoiled. It all started when I attempted to Rick Roll my brother at 8:30 in the morning.

AdTheorent last week released a white paper about their new real-time learning machine (RTLM), a machine that generates data-driven predictive models in real-time. AdTheorent and Dr. Saed Sayad, the company's chief data scientist and author of the white paper, believe that real-time predictive models are now a necessity. The RTLM is a patent pending platform, and AdTheorent claims it is the first "real-time learning and predictive modeling platform developed specifically for mobile advertising." RTM Daily spoke with Sayad about the process behind creating RTLM, what role the human plays, and what the year 2023 might look like. Sayad tells RTM …