• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, December 16, 2015

Seeking to boost the efficiency of both buyers’ and sellers’ programmatic ad strategies, Smart AdServer and MediaMath on Wednesday said they will now offer in-app compatibility, rich media and deals management, Real-Time Daily learned.

Through the MediaMath OPEN platform, clients will have access to premium inventory across display, mobile and mobile apps, and will be able to deliver rich media ads programmatically. They will also have some options on how they buy inventory — whether from direct deals, private auctions or guaranteed deals.

“Smart AdServer's platform integrates the ad server and SSP, so publishers can propose guaranteed deals to advertisers — meaning that they're now able to offer programmatic campaigns with the same level of options as for direct campaigns: capping, guaranteed volume and dates," Romain Job, U.S. regional manager for Smart AdServer, told Real-Time Daily in an email.

The integration between the two companies is expected to offer buyers a more seamless access to premium inventory and immersive ad formats that help optimize campaigns. It's also expected to help publishers better monetize their inventory.

The enhancement is the result of a long-term partnership between Smart AdServer and MediaMath and builds on existing synergies between the two companies — MediaMath's strength and focus on aggregating premium demand, and Smart AdServer's focus on enabling premium supply. The partnership is also an opportunity to use programmatic for brand marketing with "full transparency for both brands and publishers," Job said. "With this type of deep integration between the sell side and the demand side, buyers and sellers now have access to many more opportunities — particularly branding opportunities."

Job said in-app advertising is particularly important for marketers in Europe, where publishers are accustomed to monetizing their apps even as many American publishers struggle to do so. "In Europe, many premium publishers monetize their apps by way of Smart AdServer’s SDK. Adding MediaMath as a buying partner opens opportunities for advertisers, as they'll now be able to access high-quality inventory," he added. According to Job, the inventory will be fully MRaid-compliant (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions, as established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau) which ensures that rich media ad units and other creative formats work properly on all types of mobile devices. Revenues from mobile programmatic are a growing piece of ad tech companies' business and yet buying mobile inventory programmatically remains challenging.

The new capability is a vehicle for brand marketers to achieve higher CPMs for their campaigns programmatically. This can be achieved by using the rich media capabilities of Smart AdServer in conjunction with Mediamath buyers running non-standard units including parallax, full-page ads, MRAIDs and video creative.