Rubicon Project announced today that it is expanding its international operations with a strategic partnership with Netric Sales in the Nordic region. Here Oliver Whitten, VP & Commercial Director, EMEA, Rubicon Project, discusses the new partnership with Netric Sales.

For those unaware of Netric Sales, can you give some background on company?

Netric Sales was founded in 2008 under the umbrella of parent company Wyatt Media, owner at the time of local Swedish social networks such as LunarStorm and Bilddagboken. Then CEO Daniel Ahlbert saw an opportunity to manage ad network optimisation for third party publishers in the region so launched Netric Sales. Netric has grown significantly over the past four years, working with premium publishers across Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

In late 2011 Wyatt Media and Netric Sales were sold to Nyheter24 Gruppen. The current, CEO Dilem Guler, manages a team of four based in Stockholm. Today the business manages relationships with over 40 publishers and 30 demand partners.

Can you give overview of the deal between Netric and Rubicon Project? How will the deal work? Is Netric reselling Rubicon tech in the region?

Netric has done a fantastic job of recruiting local publishers and brings a very strong team with local contacts and experience. Rubicon Project's Real Time Trading Platform, REVV, is the first choice for premium publishers in both Europe and the US. This integrated partnership will see Netric Sales representing REVV Platform across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

Netric will manage sales, account management, yield management and demand generation in market, with support from Rubicon Project's centralised management and operations team in London.

Is this partnership a sign of maturity in the data-driven ad market?

Certainly increased maturity yes, but at present the Nordic markets are not as mature as others in Europe such as the UK, France or the Netherlands. However, that is changing rapidly and we're predicting these markets will grow significantly through 2012 as investment continues on both the buy and sell sides.

Is there more budget shifting into the automated channel in the Nordics?

Absolutely. We've seen a sharp rise in RTB revenue flowing through the REVV platform in the last twelve month. Since Q1 of 2011 there has been 500% growth. Sweden and Denmark are leading the way with Norway and Finland close behind.

There are a number of factors driving this one of which is the investment the large agency groups are making in the region. VivaKi, Xaxis and Accuen launching here, but the local players, such as Delta Projects and AdForm, are also driving growth. With the demand side developing this fast, we feel there's a significant opportunity for publishers to benefit as they have done in other European markets.

What are we likely to see in terms of programmatic buying from publishers in the Nordic market? Are we likely to see similar parallels to other markets like France, Germany and the UK. Or will the market develop a little differently?

There are only five markets in the world where the online channel represents more than 25% of advertising spend and three of these are Norway, Sweden and Denmark! Historically these markets have been early adopters of new technology in advertising industry and we expect real time trading to follow this pattern. As with most other markets, we predict that this will start with direct response advertising but expand to a wider client base as premium publishers realise the control, transparency and incremental revenue opportunities afforded by real time trading and commit more inventory into the channel.