It's time to rethink how we use the word "digital," and how it relates to the ways we plan, buy, and yes, even programmatically trade, media. Let me begin by asking you a simple question: When I say the word "digital," what media come to mind? Most likely, it's online, and associated platforms like social and mobile. Or maybe it's formats like display, video, or apps. But do you also think about other media, including television, magazines, newspapers or even out-of-home? Maybe not, but you definitely should be, because they are increasingly -- or in the case of television, mostly …

I had the chance to speak with PointRoll CEO Mario Diez the other day about a McDonald's case study which involved turning big data into real-time intelligence. PointRoll worked with McDonald's agency H&L Partners to deploy "dynamic" creative messaging in real-time. By using real-time data, creatives have a much better chance of delivering the right message to the right people at the right time. You already knew this, but it was funny hearing Diez explain it. "[Marketers] wake up every morning and they realize, 'Holy #%! my creative might be out of date. I just learned something this morning. I …

Siemer Ventures points to the high number of "point solutions" - ad tech companies that serve a very specific purpose - as the reason for the "unsustainable number of players" not just in digital, but also in mobile, search, video, and social. Looking at the past 10 quarters, the number of venture capital investments in ad tech businesses have declined. The average number of deals between and including Q1 2011 - Q1 2012 was 98 per quarter. The average number of deals between and including Q2 2012 - Q2 2013 was just under 60. However, the number of mergers and …

It appears that some equilibrium is starting to emerge in the online display marketplace, and that relative cost efficiency of exchange-based media buys has eroded dramatically. While it's not exactly clear why this has happened, and what the major drivers are, new data from Aggregate Knowledge shows that relative cost efficiency of exchanges has dropped below its indexed average for all sources of online display inventory for the first time since it's been tracking it.

In Publicis news that doesn't have to do with the Omnicom merger, VivaKi today announced two new hires and one promotion. Shirley Xu-Weldon has been hired as VP of analytics, a new position at the company; Tamara Knight has joined the company as VP of search operations; and Danny Hopwood has been named head of platform, EMEA, a newly created position. Chris Paul, general manager of Audience on Demand (AOD), VivaKi's trading desk, spoke briefly with RTM Daily about the new hires, why the company felt the need to create new positions, and what the roles and responsibilities of each …

By the looks of it, the world of advertising is no longer approaching a new age, it is living in one. While it might be difficult to point to Company X as strictly "old school" and Company Y as "modern," MediaMath has a plan to reach the latter. The company has officially launched a new blog meant to "educate modern marketers." So who are these modern marketers? Well, for starters, anybody that reads something like MediaMath's blog in hopes of learning something about today's marketing techniques. To put that another way, a modern marketer can be anyone who brands themselves …

RTM Daily had the chance to interview Paul Mokbel, CEO of SiteScout, about a host of industry topics. We covered potential flaws in the industry that people brush off, myths, trends, and the balance between human creativity and machine efficiency. Mokbel believes there is no ideal balance between human creativity and machine efficiency, and thinks programmatic buying will eventually comprise the majority of digital media sales. Check out the full interview to see all of his thoughts. RTM Daily: Are people looking at RTB through rose-tinted goggles? Are there any blatant flaws that people generally overlook? Paul Mokbel: RTB is …

I was struck by a paradox while attending OMMA RTB today: That media companies are some of the biggest advertisers using RTB, but they're reluctant to sell their own inventory through it. The insight came from several different discussions and presentations, including YieldMetrics' Gabe Gotlieb. Gotlieb showed data indicating that "media" is the top ad category utilizing RTB, with about 16% of all online impressions coming from the real-time marketplace.

"Turn left and the trail will lead you to one of the most luxurious mountain spas you'll ever visit. Turn right if you want to head down some of the most grueling trails you'll ever climb," Papa Smurf advised me when I asked him which direction to turn at a particularly confusing intersection of trails on the John Muir Trail. Smurf is his trail name. I never learned his real name -- like many other thruhikers I encountered during my trek, he preferred to be known by his trail moniker. Smurf was just completing a 300-mile second of the Pacific …

Are Christmas-themed tweets on December 25 real-time marketing? No. So why should royal baby-related tweets be considered real-time marketing? These companies had months and months and months to prep for the moment. That's a traditional marketing method executed on a platform, Twitter, that carries the "real-time marketing" phrase with it regardless of circumstances, all thanks to the Oreo Super Bowl tweet (which in my opinion was real-time marketing because they reacted in a timely manner to an unanticipated national event).