Sharethrough & AppNexus Announce First Complete Native Advertising RTB Integration

OpenRTB 2.3 standards-based integration will enable scalable non-interruptive advertising

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Sep 30, 2015, 09:00 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sharethrough, the native supply side platform, and AppNexus, the world's leading independent advertising technology company, today announced the first complete native advertising RTB integration. This integration will allow brand marketers to access billions of ad impressions at scale across hundreds of premium sites and apps via the Sharethrough Exchange (STX).

Sharethrough and AppNexus have implemented RTB-enabled native advertising via the IAB's OpenRTB Specification Version 2.3 allowing buyers to purchase native ads via the AppNexus buying console as well as through other connected DSP partners. The 2.3 spec, which was announced in February 2015, is the first IAB standard that supports native ads. Native ads can now be purchased using the same platforms and workflows in common use today for display and video.

"Before today, the only way for marketers to deliver native via a major DSP was to use non-scalable manual integrations that required a ton of time and legwork. Sharethrough's standards based integration with a leading demand side platform allows brands to build programmatic native into their media strategy using the types of advanced programmatic storytelling and targeting provided by AppNexus," said Dan Greenberg, co-founder and CEO of Sharethrough. "AppNexus is uniquely positioned to be a programmatic native, first-mover given the widespread use of the company's buying UI."

"At its heart, advertising is about delivering the right message to the right audience, in the right place, at the right time," said Brian O'Kelley, CEO of AppNexus. "AppNexus and Sharethrough will be the first to harness the scale and predictive attributes of programmatic technology in the service of powering compelling native advertising. We're excited about this partnership and equally excited about the value that it offers both publishers and advertisers."

The intersection of programmatic media buying and native advertising is set for continued market growth. According to Business Insider, spending on native is expected to reach at least $21 billion in 2018 - with 15% of all online advertising budgets dedicated to native by 2020. Meanwhile, RTB revenue is estimated to reach over $11 billion next year. The combination of these two burgeoning advertising categories means brand marketers can now tell data-powered stories by blending the precision of programmatic with the content-first approach of native.

About Sharethrough
Sharethrough is all-in-one native advertising software for publishers, app developers and advertisers. The company's flagship product, Sharethrough For Publishers (SFP), is a modern supply side platform that enables publishers to manage their entire native advertising revenue stack. The Sharethrough Exchange (STX), which is the largest marketplace for native ads, brings unprecedented cross-platform scale to content publishers and marketers. STX currently powers over four billion monthly impressions across 270 million global uniques. making any audience reachable with impactful native ads. Founded in 2008, Sharethrough's headquarters are in San Francisco with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, Detroit, London and Canada.

SOURCE Sharethrough