Nearly all (98.3%) online publishers are using a “data-driven, programmatic” approach to audience engagement in the U.S. In other words, nearly all publishers are using data to create audiences, and/or are letting advertisers use programmatic technologies to make audience-based buys on their digital properties. The data comes from a new Winterberry Group report, released in partnership with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). 

The story about how Targeted Victory is using data targeting Wall Street traders solidifies how creative and innovative audience targeters have gotten. And while political media operatives have long left no stone unturned in pursuit of better data science, conventional agencies and brands are moving in that direction, too—especially in their use of first-party data, and in the ways they integrate it with other audience attributes to fine-tune and focus in on the best possible audience mix they can.

Digital marketers better like change, because it’s coming. According to an April 2014 study by Altimeter Group, digital transformation is now a significant movement. The research found that definitions of “digital transformation” varied greatly among industry professionals, and in the end defined it as “the realignment of, or new investment in, technology and business models to more effectively engage digital customers at every touchpoint in the customer experience lifecycle.”

Wise and older software executives, investors and developers have drawn the map for smarter software, data and platforms. It wasn’t too long ago that technology companies were using the initial software-as-a-service (SaaS) programs to (hopefully) provide analysis through computed statistics. It was a long, labor-intensive process. Luckily, programmers have not stopped creating and upgrading their algorithms and are bringing us a bright new era in premium programmatic.

The final panel at the OMMA RTB in Los Angeles focused on the Facebook Exchange (FBX), and a good portion of the conversation revolved around mobile. By now you’ve heard that Facebook’s revenue soared in Q2 because of mobile ads. Netmining President, Chris Hansen, among other panelists, debated whether or not FBX would ever include mobile inventory. 

Think the net neutrality debate is all about streaming videos? Think again. It’s actually much more than that: It’s about streaming your life. Internet connectivity might seem ubiquitous today, between the use of PCs, mobile devices, and smart TVs, but there are major swaths of daily life that aren’t connected yet that soon will become so, such as homes and cars, according to a new eMarketer report, “Key Digital Trends for Midyear 2014: The Internet of Things, Net Neutrality, and Why Marketers Need to Care.” 

Obtaining a single view of the customer has been at the core of marketers’ quests well before the Digital Era. The complete picture of the customer is critical to Marketing’s long-term success, better personalization and segmentation.

In a move that is reminiscent of AOL’s “Project Devil” initiative a couple of years ago, Facebook is embarking on a push to reduce the overall ad clutter and boost the performance -- and price -- of its advertising.