It stands for cost-per-gummy and it most likely is a niche metric that relates mainly to his company's brand SmartyPants, which markets vitamins in the form of gummies. Speaking at the Programmatic Insider Summit in Lake Tahoe this morning. Nichols gave a fascinating case study of a successful new brand built primarily on the back of an old school marketing technique: product sampling. "You guys pretty much saw the marketing strategy this week," Nichols told summit attendees, "which is me handing out gummy packets."

Online, SmartyPants Vitamins is absolutely dominating its space's share-of-voice, according to Clay Nichols, the company's VP of branding. But, Nichols doesn't give he or his team much credit for their success. Rather, "We're lucky because the supplement industry is so behind," Nichols just told attendees of MediaPost's Programmatic Insider Summit, on Wednesday. "Walk down a vitamin aisle," Nichols said. "There's not a brand out there that wasn't imagined before 1973." But, that why SmartyPants is investing so heavily in programmatic and social marketing, Nichols added. The point, he said, it to take "a commanding lead."

Yes, Programmatic TV is definitely it its infancy, but it's not going to take long for the model to mature. That seems to be the consensus from experts at MediaPost's Programmatic Insider Summit, on Tuesday. Don't think of it like the gestation period required for humans to grow up, said Rex Briggs, Founder and CEO of Marketing Evolution. Rather, programmatic TV is maturing at a rate closer to that of an animal in the wild -- specifically, in the hills of Tahoe, where the Summit is being held. Regardless, "Things are moving slower than we would like," said Bruce Kiernan, …

"Machines do what they are told," said Chris Schroeder, senior manager, analytics centers of excellence at Nestle Purina North America, "but they don't understand what an objective beat would be, or changes in the marketplace, or news out there that we might want to launch a campaign [around] quickly."

Bigger brands are still unlikely to invest a ton of energy and money into programmatic models, says Chris Schroeder, Senior Manager of Analytics Centers of Excellence at Nestle Purina North America. "They don't see a lot of programmatic," Schroeder just told attendees of MediaPost's Programmatic Insider Summit, on Tuesday. "They have some programmatic," he said. "It's still early in the game." That said, ad spending is "greatly increasing towards programmatic," Schroeder said. In particular, "smaller brands trying to build reach and scale" are big on automated ad technology. More broadly, Schroeder said he and his colleagues at Nestle Purina look …

Use of mobile apps can be fleeting — and a continued problem. But there is help: ad retargeting. “Installs have become the new click,” says Nicholas Galante, programmatic manager of DirectAgents, speaking at MediaPost's Programmatic Insider Summit. Post install metrics show seven out of ten mobile installs drop off, with a low likelihood those who drop will use the app after seven days, says Galante. What the answer? Ad retargeting. “Staying activity in touch with your user base,” says Galante. In working on Sony Entertainment's Crackle, the online digital video network, DirectAgents found results. The objective: …

The technology is coming along, but it remains risky to let a campaign hinge on laser-focused geo-targeting. That's according to Jesse Plate, Marketing Manager at Vail Resorts. "Geo-location really let us down," Plate told attendees of MediaPost's Programmatic Insider Summit, on Monday. Plate was recalling a $50,000 RFP that his boss thought would be a boon for everyone involved. Unfortunately, the team later realized that they could only target consumers within half-a-mile of their actual location -- not nearly close enough for the purposes of the campaign. As a result, the inventory control team informed Plate and his team that …

Don't expect the video/TV marketplace to evolve into the kind of openly biddable marketplace that display has developed with open RTB. That was the consensus of "programmatic video" panel discussion kicking off the Programmatic Insider Summit in Lake Tahoe this morning. Asked by Real-Time Daily Editor and panel moderator why they aren't embracing open exchanges as a means of acquiring video impressions, the largely agency executive panel invoked the "r" word. You know, "risk." They simply see video inventory available via open exchanges as still too risky from a brand safety point-of-view.

Among other viewability challenges, digital marketers are struggling with "unreachable" audiences, and brand "overreach," says Louise Clements, President at MRM//McCann East. Regarding the former issue, it can be especially problematic when you're looking at smaller audience segments, Clements told attendees at MediaPost's Programmatic Insider Summit, on Monday. The solution? A highly programmatic approach that looks at the overall brand, she said. That allows clients to better "supplement" data, and "drive much higher brand awareness," according to Clements.

Steve Minichini kicked off the Programmatic Insider Summit in Lake Tahoe on a surprising note this morning, invoking pop star Taylor Swift. Minichini, the digital ad wunderkind who until he recently became CEO of AboveNation Media, had been the head of digital operations at MDC Partners' Targetcast (now Assembly), looks like a pretty macho street-smart guy. But he confessed that he recently took children to see a Taylor Swift performance at the Meadowlands in New Jersey and found himself so enthralled, he was "boxing out 12- and 13-year-olds" to touch her hand.