• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, September 30, 2013

Programmatic direct platform Shiny Ads on Monday announced a partnership with The Media Trust to further automate the direct ad buying process on their platform. The partnership brings "Media Scanner," an automated ad creative scanner from The Media Trust, to Shiny Ads' platform. Media Scanner scans creative for malware.

Programmatic direct -- not to be confused with real-time bidding (RTB) -- is a rising trend in the online advertising industry. Essentially, programmatic direct platforms automate as much of the direct trading process as possible. Shiny Ads' partnership with The Media Trust automates just one more step, but Rob Schneider, 24/7 Media's SVP of corporate strategy, claimed in the release that 24/7 Media can now "take direct advertising orders in a completely automated manner" using Shiny Ads.

According to the release, new creative on the Shiny Ads platform will be automatically scanned, and the publisher will be alerted if an issue comes up. If the scanner does detect something, the creative is "paused" until the publisher sorts it out.

Alex Calic, chief revenue officer of The Media Trust, stated, "While our customers understand the need to scan their creative for potential issues, they have always wanted the process to be automated."