» Improve Digital and AOP are building up to their joint event next week. Improve Digital gives a full list of attendees and the agenda for the half-day conference. ExchangeWire will be on “the changing dynamics of buying and selling media” panel and looks forward to some lively debate on the subject. (IT Director)

» There does seem to be a lot of coverage on industry blogs and websites about DSPs. A lot of vendors are jockeying for a lead in the nascent DSP market. Today it’s the turn of LucidMedia to spell out why its DSP is better than the rest – and it’s a growing list. The article lists five key criteria for a successful DSP, all of which I might add LucidMedia’s platform fulfils: integrated RTB, intelligent bidding, retargeting, managed services, optimisation and inventory sources. (LucidMedia)

» A new report from Addvantage Media suggests that UK internet users experience a particularly acute form of banner blindness when exposed to advertising on large portals. The annual findings also highlights that only one in ten users actually pays attention to advertising when visiting large portals, like MSN and Yahoo, a fall of 40% from the previous year. The majority of 25 to 34 year olds surveyed by YouGov expressed a stronger affinity with niche content sites, and indicated that they were more likely to click display ads on these web properties. It must be pointed out that less than 2300 people took part in the poll, and often these results fail to give an accurate picture. Plus you can’t forget the fact the report was commissioned on behalf of an ad network. But still it must be a little alarming for large portals to see such a key demographic so disconnected from its brand of content and its advertising. (NetImperative)