While pundits weigh in on last night's prime-time politicking, there is no debating which candidates have been winning the Presidential Web engagement race. Utilizing an empirical measure of attention -- what people actually look at -- Bernie Sanders' official campaign site appears to be the big winner in the Web publishing race. While Hillary Clinton's site indexes highest among Democrats, and Ted Cruz's dominates among Republicans, Sanders' has been best at engaging the attention of Independent voters. At least that's how a sample of voters ranked those candidates' sites after having their eyes tracked by advertising and content effectiveness research …

Madison Avenue "televisionary" Mitch Oscar has quietly begun organizing a cross-section of industry players around another area that's vital to the future of television: programmatic. The initiative, which until this blog post has been operating in stealth, is focused on two disparate approaches to improving TV targeting and efficiency: programmatic and so-called "addressable" TV advertising. While the lines of distinction may seem semantic to some, one of the key objectives of the group being organized by Oscar is to help define the parameters, distinctions and perhaps most importantly, the practical application of the two approaches to improving TV's audience targeting …

This interview begins with me spreading a pile of slick brochures of Xaxis products and services on a table and asking global CEO Brian Lesser, "How real and differentiated are they?" His answer explains why he's "WPP's $4 billion man."

It's a programmatic world, after all. And proving it (or re-confirming that) is eMarketer's 2015 Programmatic Advertising report. According to its data, programmatic video will account for nearly $3 billion, or 39%, of the total spend on video advertising this year. Altogether programmatic ad buying of display ads will surpass traditional direct sales this year, accounting for about 3 out of every 5 digital dollars spent.

If you're an old-timer like me, or a new-timer who knows something about digital media's past, then you've probably noticed an old timey phrase making comeback: "walled gardens." It's not as if the term ever really went away, but walled gardens took a back seat during the "open Internet's expansionary period, and even the more recent mobile and app economies that have gotten us into the hyper-fragmented -- make that atomized -- media mess we currently are in. Which is most likely the reason why walled gardens are back again. Because in a sea of endless open marketplace possibilities, walled …

Normally, I don't like to tease important news stories in blogs, but there's a significant finding in a new study of advertiser and agency perceptions of "native" advertising that is making me think about the "programmatic" marketplace in a new way. The study, part of Advertiser Perceptions Inc.'s ongoing tracking of ad executives self-reported perceptions of media, finds that a significant part of their native activity is now being managed programmatically. And it's about to take off. More than a quarter (26%) of native advertising is currently bought programmatically, and that is expected to jump to more than a third …

Some years ago, one of the smartest guys I know in the media industry used a surprising analogy to describe the business to me. He said media was really part of the transportation business. The guy was David Verklin, and at the time, he was running Aegis Media's Carat unit. It was before his crackle of change period, and at the time, it seemed to me that he was forcing the metaphor, but the more I've thought about it, the more I've come to think that Verklin was right about the role of media -- and everyone who uses it …

Publishers are worried by the rise of brand content and ad blocking, but surely the former is the answer to the latter?

Enough independents have raised the issue, so it's worth wondering aloud whether costs slashed in one area are replaced by fees or rebates via programmatic display.

Research shows that B2B marketers in the U.S. hold content, SEO and automation in the highest regard. Put them together and what do you have -- programmatic native?