Less than a third of marketers (32%) understand the acronym RTB (real-time bidding), according to a survey conducted by display marketing firm Adform at ad:tech London last month.

This is despite the buying mechanism growing 513% in the UK over the past year (nma.co.uk 9 July 2012) and brands like Ebay pledging to put 40% of display budget through RTB by the end of 2012 and Sky’s RTB spend doubling in a year.

Gustav Mellentin, CEO at Adform, said: “While online display advertising has recently been the subject of great growth, these figures show that the industry is at risk of isolating itself from the rest of the digital marketing industry.”

The poll revealed that acronyms for other display marketing terms such as demand side platform (DSP) and supply side platform (SSP) were also unfamiliar among marketers. Only 26% recognised the term DSP, while just 18% understood SSP.

Mellentin added, “Display specialists need to ensure that acronyms don’t get in the way of accessible solutions that help achieve marketing goals and enable advertisers to run better campaigns.”

Meanwhile, 76% of marketers said they would expect to invest more in rich media creatives than more traditional display campaigns over the next year.

The poll was conducted among 120 delegates at ad:tech London which took place on 19 & 20 September 2012.