• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, September 9, 2015

Adform, a Denmark-based demand-side platform (DSP), on Wednesday announced it has launched a programmatic direct buying platform dubbed “Automated Guaranteed.”

Programmatic direct trading allows marketers and publishers to negotiate terms of a deal on a direct basis, but the actual ads are served and targeted via programmatic technology.

Martin Stockfleth Larsen, CMO of Adform, asserted the addition of programmatic direct capabilities “adds the final piece” to Adform’s ad tech stack.

The programmatic direct component of Adform’s platform will be baked into the company’s existing technology -- which also includes a data management platform (DMP). Adform boasts that this will allow clients to run multifaceted campaigns, such as retargeting across mobile and desktop and “programmatic direct,” from a single platform. 

Adform’s programmatic direct offering will support display and video advertising on desktops and mobile devices. Just weeks ago, Adform inked a deal with mobile audience targeting firm adsquare to gain access to mobile audience segments.

The programmatic direct platform plugs into ad servers including DoubleClick, Adtech, Cxense and Adform’s own ad server (“Publisher Edge”). 

Adform is not the first and or will be the last ad tech company to hop aboard the “programmatic direct” train. Rubicon Project, for example, launched a programmatic direct offering in 2014, and earlier this month boasted that its programmatic direct business grew 150% year-over-year and now accounts for nearly 20% of its business.

Programmatic direct is expected to account for 42% of all programmatic ad dollars spent in the U.S. by 2016, per eMarketer estimates.