• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, January 14, 2015

Adslot, a programmatic direct ad platform, and PubMatic, a supply-side platform (SSP), on Wednesday announced a global partnership.

The partnership will give PubMatic’s publisher partners the ability to sell inventory via “programmatic direct,” a mix between automated and direct sales tactics. Adslot’s media-buying clients include GroupM, Omnicom, Public, Aegis/Dentsu and others, per a release.

“We believe that automated guaranteed technology will provide a more efficient and effective way of trading all media in the future,” stated Rajeev Goel, co-founder and CEO of PubMatic, “Building this interoperability of supply and demand at scale will move the market forward.”

In fact, the programmatic direct market is already poised to move forward, and PubMatic is catching the wave. According to eMarketer, programmatic direct accounted for 8% of all programmatic ad spend in the U.S. last year, and that number is expected to grow to 42% by 2016, or $8.57 billion.

Adslot has struck partnerships similar to the one with PubMatic in the past. Just last month the company inked a deal with Operative, an ad management firm. Two of Adslot’s largest competitors in the programmatic direct space -- iSocket and Shiny Ads -- were scooped up by Rubicon Project late in 2014.

Integration between Adslot and PubMatic is expected this year.