Premium Advertisers or less unsold inventory?

I'm wondering what is the math behind this formula. A: Premium Advertisers. B: Less Unsold Inventory. A > B, A < B, or A=B? Of course, no one can answer this question with so much confidence. However, this is the type of question most of the publishers might have been thinking about very seriously.

I noticed some CEO(s) are scared of losing premium advertisers for the sake of selling more inventory. The reason is very simple. If unsold inventory is sold with a discount, the premium advertisers will ask for the discount as well. I think this is not about the philosophy but rather a mathematical problem.

One think a company can do in order to find a better solution is to simulate both solutions within a fixed period of time with enough audience. But, before coming to a conclusion or even starting the simulation, we can take a look at the current trend of advertisement.

Until recently, TV was the most visited advertisers' destination. Think about the Super Bowl ads. A couple of million dollars for a 20 second ad? It's insane. The effect or ROI? No one really knows, because it's all dependent on how we measure the success and how long. However, if we calculate the effect of the advertisement in a purely revenue and expense sense, it won't be so difficult to figure out what advertisement is the best solution for a company. Anyways, not like the TV ads, Internet advertisement has become one of the most dominant players in the space these days. A boots shop in a small town in Texas started advertising themselves in the small space on the "paid search" side of Google. A big company, such as Target is putting millions of dollars on Google or Yahoo paid advertisement section.

Considering the growth rate of this Internet based advertisements, we can tell how the advertisement industry may look like in the next 10 to 20 years. Is there any player among them who is making a significant amount of money from display ads, I may ask. The reason being, display ads in a sense represents the premium or fixed amount advertisement on the Internet. Whereas, Google, Yahoo, and MSN are betting hugely on the auction based advertisement. We don't know the result yet. But, we can see who is becoming the winner.

Now, I'm thinking about the hybrid solution. What if we give the upper hand to the premium advertisers and auction off the rest of unsold inventory? Meaning, if you want to pay the premium, you're guaranteed to take the spot. If you're a penny saver, still you can take some space and attract visitors with less expense. Doesn't it sound like a "Win-Win" strategy?

I'm still dreaming.
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