Admeld hosted its first Partner Forum event in New York this week. The event had some great panellists and provided the industry with an excellent overview of how the display market is likely to develop in the coming months. Emily Riley, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, presented a headline-grabbing report on the evolving area of automated ad trading. The research estimates that almost 30% - over two billion dollars - of US display advertising budget would be traded through DBO (Dynamic Buying Media Optimisation) and Demand-Side Platforms by year end.

The report has some sober advice for publishers. It highlights the need for publishers to ready themselves for this fundamental shift towards audience-buying. Knowing your audience and using your data to segment this audience will attract more advertisers. By not putting inventory on bid-based platform publishers will lose revenue.

The research also predicts mass consolidation within the ad network market. The money presently flowing through ad networks will switch to DBO and DSPs – and they will be forced to act as publisher reps or evolve their model completely. The chart I produced on the European non-premium display market is likely to shift into these automated trading platforms as agencies and advertisers move towards audience-buying. That’s almost one billion euro. The report can be downloaded in full here.