The exchange revolution continues apace in France. Matiro put on the first exchange-focused event in France last week. Attended by publishers, agencies and marketers the event sought to talk up the strengths of the data-driven display channel. Polls completed prior to the event revealed the opportunity in the market as well some of the existing challenges. Top of the advertiser wish list for display was greater transparency in terms of inventory and pricing. French advertisers also highlighted optimisation, measurement and targeting as areas that need to improve. As you would expect, publishers pointed to data as their key priority. Canvassed publishers said they were keen on developing a new revenue channel for data – but said they were uncertain how to value and monetise users. These clearly are problems that are affecting all European publishers.

The round tables on the day also highlighted the move to audience buying in the French market. Both the buy and sell side panel noted that audience was the key to the growth in the automated space. Surprisingly some of the French publisher panellists were very bullish on audience buying, seeing it as a real opportunity to bring more ad budget into the display channel. Mon dieu! Progressive thinking on the sell-side!

The panels were followed by a Rubicon presentation on the growth of RTB in Europe. Oliver Whitten, Demand Director UK and Europe, and Fabien Magalon, Country Manager France, rattled through the numbers for the assembled French contingent. Rubicon expects RTB-traded inventory to reach £20 million this year – with this figure rising to between £120 million and £200 million in 2011. I have to say these are optimistic numbers, and I have seen similar projections at Ad Tech New York. The problem I have with all this is that Google is not releasing any numbers on the volume of inventory open to RTB. Adx is the biggest RTB enabled platform in Europe. Based on estimates from insiders I would safely say that Google is putting about £1 million pound of UK ad inventory through RTB every month. If you throw in Admeld and other providers, you’re probably looking at a RTB market worth about £14 million for this year. If you do get a lot of demand, publishers could well jump headlong into RTB in 2011 - and we could see an explosion of growth next year. The RTB market could easily jump to £100 million plus, but that’s all dependent on the participation of UK publishers.

All presentations from the Forum Du Trading are now available to download on Matiro’s website. It would seem the exchange space is bubbling nicely in France. I think an ExchangeWire European tour might well be on the cards for next year.