Quasi-brokers?

Marketing capital firm Catalyst:SF launched the Xchange Media Service, which lets advertisers create and launch campaigns on multiple ad exchanges, including AdBrite, the ADSDAQ and Right Media.

President Cory Treffiletti says the Xchange factors "brand strategy and campaign goals, brand standards and content appropriateness, methodologies for both direct response and brand initiatives and insights from past and current online efforts" into cross-platform ad placement.

The seemingly overwhelming series of data points will expedite media buys, says Catalyst:SF, because its team can manage campaigns for clients with no practical experience on the ad platforms.

"[Exchanges] are capable of everything that can be run through an ad network, but in an automated fashion," explained media representative George Simpson. "[Ad networks] manually implement targeting technologies and content evaluation tools; ad exchanges can be set to prioritize these tools on an automated basis."

Marketers are encouraged to approach the Xchange Media Service as a "virtual trading desk."