Emily Steel and Sydney Ember, THE NEW YORK TIMES
(The New York Times) — A new generation of Math Men is taking over the Mad Men of Madison Avenue.
Armed with data and technology created by actual rocket scientists, this new breed of advertising executives is introducing automated systems for the buying and selling of ads in real time. Fading away are the industry’s old-school wining and dining sales tactics as a new model emerges where algorithms rule.
Verizon Communications made a bold bet on that future this week with its $4.4 billion all-cash deal for the Internet company AOL. Over the last several years, AOL has invested heavily in technologies to create a one-stop shop for marketers seeking to buy digitals ads across television, the web and mobile.
Verizon could add more firepower to those efforts by ramping up investments in technology, introducing even more data on consumers to the mix and creating new mobile and video outlets where those ads can appear.
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