Rocket Fuel, a next generation ad network, who recently discussed their big data infrastructure at ATS London, today announced it will expand into Japan via an alliance with cyber communications inc. (cci), Japan’s largest digital marketing company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dentsu.

Rocket Fuel moving into Japan is not unexpected. The Japanese marketplace is beginning to see the impact of data-driven advertising and Criteo’s recent investment from Yahoo! Japan underlines the future significance of real time ad buying. Whilst still nascent (it is claimed that programmatic, real-time buying currently accounts for less than two per cent of media buys in Japan), advertisers have expressed strong demand for smarter ways to buy digital media through innovative technology. As Japan’s largest digital marketing service provider, cci's decision to work with Rocket Fuel is a move to fuel the rapid uptake of programmatic buying among the country’s largest brands and agencies.

Under the terms of the alliance, cci will run its digital ad management service, PerformanceX Management, on top of Rocket Fuel’s platform, offering full-service brand and direct response campaigns to clients.

Hideyuki Nagasawa, President and CEO of cci, comments: “From many possible solutions, we chose to create a strategic alliance with Rocket Fuel to deliver its artificial intelligence solution for programmatic buying of display, video, mobile, and social media to our over 1,000 agency and publisher customers. Rocket Fuel clearly provides the best automated optimisation technology on the market. With Rocket Fuel, advertisers and publishers can harness the power of real-time Advertising That Learns™ technology to obtain optimal performance and ROI from every single impression served.”

George John, CEO of Rocket Fuel, adds: “Programmatic buying is transforming the global advertising sector, and we’ve seen unprecedented demand for our artificial intelligence advertising solutions from brands and agencies around the world. Japan has a sophisticated advertising economy and is an important market for Rocket Fuel as we continue to expand globally. Signing a strategic alliance with the largest and most respected marketing services company in Japan is an honour, and will accelerate the adoption of Rocket Fuel’s technology to Japan’s top brands, agencies, and publishers. We look forward to working closely with cci.”

Check ExchangeWire.JP for a more indepth Q&A on Rocket Fuel’s move into Japan.