• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, February 19, 2014

MediaMath and Sonobi on Wednesday announced a partnership that will make new “premium” inventory available to MediaMath clients. The inventory will be available via both programmatic and direct means.

It’s an interesting partnership because Sonobi and MediaMath are on opposite sides of the equation -- Sonobi on the supply-side and MediaMath on the buy-side. The companies maintain that the partnership represents a “win” for both sides, as advertisers will gain access to more premium inventory and publishers will “[gain] a better understanding of their audience" on an individual basis, rather than on an audience-at-large basis, explained Chris Karl, Sonobi's chief strategy officer and head of market development.

Sonobi says the inventory that will be made available to MediaMath is “certified premium” inventory. While Sonobi “certifies” the inventory themselves, they claim to follow a set of rules in doing so. For one, the inventory has to come from a comScore 200 publisher.

Greg Williams, co-founder, SVP of OPEN partnerships, MediaMath, stated that the company hopes brand advertisers “who have otherwise been hesitant to make the leap” to programmatic will be drawn in by the prospect of high-quality inventory.