Programmatic ad platform PubMatic and automated media trading technology firm Adslot have signed a global partnership agreement.

As part of the partnership, Adslot is set to provide PubMatics publishers with the ability to trade forward guaranteed ad inventory for forward sale (as opposed to real-time bidding) both directly and through automated processes, via Adslots global client base of media buyers.

AdSlots clients include some of the worlds largest media buying groups, including GroupM, Omnicom, Publicis and Aegis Dentsu, and covers markets including the US, Europe, APAC and China. While PubMatic already has relationships with these agencies, the partnership.will allow buyers who use AdSlot to do so when looking for guaranteed inventory on PubMatic.

“We believe that automated guaranteed technology will provide a more efficient and effective way of trading all media in the future,” said Rajeev Goel, co-founder and CEO of PubMatic. “The Adslot-PubMatic global partnership will secure for our publisher clients greater access to demand in an automated guaranteed environment from multiple and otherwise disparate sources. Building this interoperability of supply and demand at scale will move the market forward.”

According to a report by eMarketer, by 2016 over $8bn (£5.2bn) of forward guaranteed buying will be channeled via automated guaranteed technology annually in the US alone.

“The Adslot-PubMatic partnership materially advances our objective of assembling a coalition of leading technology providers through which to achieve interoperability,” said Ian Lowe, CEO of Adslot. “Both companies believe interoperability at scale is one of the pillars that will allow for meaningful automation of the existing forward guaranteed display advertising market, which is estimated to be worth $40bn globally. Therefore, todays announcement is a significant step forward for the future of automated guaranteed.”