Media planning is actually going a rough route, but some clients seems to be stalled in muddied country-side tracks back in 1999, with designers in the back seat singing «there a long long way to Cincinnati». Creepy future.

No doubt the number of players looking for a quick buck will overwhelm those looking for a clear way. Great article and comments.

What is interesting here is that, as Dan mentioned, this already exists in legitimate form. Audience Science and others do it for audience extension, while a new generation of data companies do it for user’s history. All of it is done without the user’s consent, the same as what I have described above. If legitimacy is only based on whether everyone is getting paid, it’s not enough to make it right for the end consumer.

And it is also true that this can be done with traditional ad networks. The point is that it’s much easier to do with ad exchanges because of the scale of inventory available through them. Even the smallest audience intersections become available on tap.

I would say that increasingly we’ll be seeing companies trying to showcase that they “out-data” others, after years of trying to “out-optimize” in vain. Some even change their names to reflect that.

@john nardone - Not sure what warrants an attack like this from you. I am in no way implying that we are doing this, since we’re serving for some of the biggest, most respected brands in the world. I am raising the point that data ownership, both from the user and media perspective, is an issue that has to be seriously addressed by the industry. Industry players saying that they don’t do it just doesn’t cut it — I don’t believe in self-policing in this one.

I’m hoping that the venerable “grown-ups” at xplusone would agree with this.

Let’s try and be more conscious of bad-mouthing new opportunities before folks down in the trenches have had a chance to evaluate themselves.