• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, April 10, 2014

Perhaps no trend has been more apparent thus far in 2014 than the marriage of native and programmatic, and it’s one that appears far from over. Adiant on Thursday announced the launch of a real-time bidding (RTB) exchange for native advertising, RTM Daily has learned.

Adiant is just the most recent company to have launched a native ad exchange, as companies such as TripleLift, Bidtellect and OpenX have all unveiled exchanges of their own in recent months.

The inventory on the exchange comes from the Adblade and IndustryBrains ad networks -- both of which are owned by Adiant. The company plugs itself as a "premium-only ad network."

Publishers in the Adiant network include ABC News, Hearst, Bloomberg, Morningstar, Bizjournals and more. It says its network reaches 265 million U.S. users, 345 million global users, and 65 million mobile users monthly. The company says the exchange will boast 15 billion available native ad impressions per month.

The ad exchange is geared for Fortune 500 brands and other large advertisers. Adiant claims brands, including Sports Illustrated, Zagat, Geico, American Express, Wells Fargo, have already used the new exchange.

“Native” and “RTB” seem like oxymorons, but Ash Nashed, CEO of Adiant, told RTM Daily the company has technology that will help advertisers run native ad campaign at scale via RTB.

“Advertisers only have to enter one set of creative and our technology will morph everything to fit the look and feel of each publisher,” he claimed. “That’s one of the things that makes this such a unique offering.”

The ad units will feature image and text selected by the advertiser. Adiant says advertisers can buy ad “containers” -- multiple ads within a banner area -- or single ad slots. All of the ad placements are compliant with FTC advertising guidelines, and the native ads are labeled as either “Advertising” or “Sponsored Links,” per a release.

Nashed said it's an open exchange, so any advertising using Adiant will have access to the inventory. However, he said Adiant can provide the technology to publishers looking to creative a private exchange.

To give publishers additional control, Nashed said they “can block any ad that they like.” Additionally, he said the Adiant staff vets each ad and categorizes it. Alternatively, if a publisher isn’t ready to incorporate native or programmatic, Nashed said they can opt out of the exchange altogether.

Agencies can access the exchange using their own white labeled interfaces or by integrating an Adiant API into their demand-side platform (DSP) of choice.