Marketers need to be wary of ad tech peddlers claiming to buy ads one impression at a time through a real-time auction.    An interesting quote from Bill Lederer, CEO of MediaCrossing, a programmatic trader, highlights the state of programmatic buying.

“Some of this inventory being showcased as programmatic is being bought with a whole lot of phone calls and emails,” he said. “There’s a certain amount of phoniness in the discussion.”

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Both direct and brand marketers will and must move dollars to programmatic ad buys for many reasons within digital media, and in the future as programmatic buying opens up for “traditional media” such as TV, but weigh the pros and cons carefully.  Reality is lagging well behind the hype.