• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, September 3, 2014

Rocket Fuel on Tuesday announced it has opened an office in Australia to expand in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The office is located in Sydney.

JJ Eastwood has been tapped to lead Rocket Fuel's Australian business. Eastwood was formerly GM of eBay advertising in Australia and New Zealand. He has also held positions at Ninemsn, Fairfax Digital and News Corp. While at eBay, Eastwood oversaw programmatic sales operations.

"Coming straight from the world of eBay programmatic selling, JJ's dynamic background, clear understanding of the programmatic advertising landscape, as well as his position as a thought leader within the ANZ market was the perfect match to expand the Rocket Fuel platform," stated George John, chairman and CEO of Rocket Fuel.

Mark Prior, VP of international and mobile, told Real-Time Daily that the “Australian digital display market has traditionally been dominated by several large portals,” but noted that a few U.S.-based ad networks have had “moderate recent success.”

According to a recent report from Winterberry Group, Australia is among the “second tier” of countries in terms of programmatic adoption, with the first tier almost exclusively featuring the U.S. and UK. Australia is among market leaders in terms of programmatic understanding, access to technology and a focus on audience-buying, per the Winterberry report.

Prior added that the “current shift to programmatic selling strategies among the incumbent publishers” has created a “window of opportunity” for companies such as Rocket Fuel to claim a share of the Australian marketplace.