Volker Ballueder is VP International Sales, mexad Ltd. Here he gives some some insight on where he thinks RTB is pushing the industry.

Without wanting to get sentimental, we are nearly at the end of the year. Q4 is upon us and we continue to see a lot of change in the data-driven display space. Networks are morphing into SSPs, the big G is ramping up its YouTube video inventory for impression-level buying, and more technology seems to come to market every other day in Europe.

Underpinning all this change is RTB (or real-time bidding). Delivering the right impression/ad to the right user at the right time. Decisions are made in milliseconds. And all those decisions are made to get the highest CTR, the lowest CPA and the best performance.

Now, having a background in search marketing and social media, I am quite familiar with real time. Being able to deliver the right product to someone, bidding on the right keyword, or just being the first to respond to a moaning customer on twitter, is key to good client relationships. RTB in display is really driving this industry forward.

Why am I saying that? I joined the world of RTB two years ago, just before AppNexus and Google AdX came to Europe. It was a time when “DSP” was just another acronym and was seen as the “golden child” of the industry - with a “do-it-yourself” approach. And, for some that still is the case. I joined when RTB gained momentum across Europe. That makes me somewhat a veteran of RTB.

Now, let’s move away from display a bit, and look at RTB in the wider industry context. Admeld is offering RTB inventory on mobile. The likes of adap.tv and Spotxchange offer RTB for video. Still mainly cross border traffic, with a race to sign up European publishers, but RTB is moving from display to mobile to video. What is next?

My personal take is that in 12-18 months we will start adding IPTV to the plan. IPTV, real time TV or Google TV - with its recent acquisition of the Motorola set top box. Wow. You might be sitting on the couch with your iPad looking at furniture when a similar ad appears in the break of your Sky movie. When you then go to bed and check your eBay stats, you notice the same brand offering you a 10% discount on the app’s ad space.

Now as futuristic as it sounds, you might soon see this being a reality. Depending on cookie laws of course, privacy concerns, cross platform tracking etc. However, the ad industry will certainly try to make that happen. I know that a few people don’t want that to happen, I personally think it would be awesome (and this is the only word that describes it). The sky is the limit really.

Of course there are obstacles to overcome, predominantly cross platform tracking and data protection. And is it really in the best interest of the advertiser to find the buyer on all platforms? All the time? Will advertising get too annoying and intrusive? How much will a consumer be in charge of “opting out”. Will the brand responsible enough to have a sensible frequency capping? Personalisation will be key here. But how will agencies and brands cope with all that?

Let’s have a brief look at the platforms available. There are probably about 10 DSPs out there at the moment. All with different capabilities: RTB engines, decision engines and so on. Some give you better performance than others and the combination of them all allows for best performance.

You find that some companies offer video only DSPs, others mobile DSPs. Soon most DSPs will follow the example of the few industry leading DSPs offering a “one-size-fits-all DSP” - to bid across mobile, search, social, video, IPTV and display of course. It will only be a matter of time before we see consolidation in the DSP market. Some of the bigger DSPs will buy out some smaller specialist platforms to offer a one-stop-shop. We might even finally get to grips with a cross-platform attribution model. But you’re still likely to have those specialised “one channel only” DSPs.

This is when agencies will look at their brand and DR budget and channel it all through the technologies. They will realise that they need big in house teams, aka trading desks, working with more than one technology to offer the right performance to their clients. It soon will be part of every agency pitch (and believe me I spent hours putting those together when I was agency side), as to which technology they use, what buying power they have, the type of inventory they access and what performance they deliver. You can already see a number of clients moving from agencies with a single technology trading desk to an agency with a multiple DSP trading desk, and to specialists with specific domain knowledge and customised technology.

There is a shift coming to online marketing. We are now permanently connected - via several different interfaces/screens. Media will soon be RTB-enabled across all channels. And you want to be in a position to rely on the best technology out there, and maybe even use some niche specialist DSPs for video or mobile for DR campaigns whilst relying on the one stop shop for branding campaign.

You will be amazed on what you can deliver and what will be possible. Let’s see where RTB will lead the industry, and what will happen in the European ad space over the coming twelve months.