OPERA MEDIAWORKS now powering the mobile ad economy

SAN MATEO, Calif., March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Opera Mediaworks, the world's largest mobile ad platform, today announced a new, unified end-to-end platform, servicing the entire advertising value chain. This includes advertisers, agencies, ad networks, DSPs (demand-side platforms), rich-media and video providers, SSPs (supply-side platforms) and publishers. This new single platform also aligns under a single brand the various operating units -- AdMarvel, Mobile Theory, 4th Screen Advertising, Ltd., Opera Response, Handster and Hunt Mobile Ads -- and is designed to deliver more efficiency and better results for our customers.

"We are leading the curve, in a rapidly consolidating mobile advertising industry," says Mahi de Silva, CEO, Opera Mediaworks. "Our core growth has come from delivering technology innovation to remove friction in a highly-fragmented global mobile marketplace. Over the last year, we've been laser-focused on integrating our companies and offerings into a single platform to deliver a one-stop shop for our customers. We are also building new partnerships across the digital landscape to help us deliver even more value to our customers."

What is greater than the sum of its parts?

It's the power of one -- the integration of several point solutions into a single platform, delivering compounded efficiency and transparency to our customers and the broader mobile advertising industry.

A great example is illustrated in voice-activated advertising campaigns, delivered by Opera Mediaworks, using Nuance Communications' technology. Mobile Theory (Opera Mediaworks' brand-focused advertising network) was the first entity to bring this rich-media ad unit to the U.S. market. This was enabled by the broad adoption of the AdMarvel platform (Opera Mediaworks' mobile advertising platform deployed by the top 17 of 25 media companies around the world) and its mobile advertising SDK (Software Development Kit) that appears in over 80% of smartphones and tablets in the United States.

A leading U.S. toy retailer has leveraged this new advertising medium for the mobile component of its very successful "Gift Finder" campaign during the 2013 holiday season. This was made possible through strong collaboration across Opera Mediaworks, including media sales from the Mobile Theory team in the United States, creative services from the 4th Screen team in the United Kingdom and the enabling technology delivered by the AdMarvel SDK. Following the release of this campaign, the retailer continues to execute effective rich-media campaigns seamlessly from start to finish through the Opera Mediaworks platform.

Opera Mediaworks now combines the technologies and talents of several organizations to provide five core service offerings:

1. Mobile ad server and mediation (AdMarvel)
   AdMarvel, the industry's leading third-party mediation hub, provides the ability for publishers to deliver mobile advertising from media they sell directly or via ad campaigns acquired through more than 140 mobile-focused ad networks and DSPs around the world. This includes Opera Mediaworks' premium and performance ad networks.
   Opera Mediaworks reaches over 500 million unique mobile consumers a month and manages over 65 billion ad impressions a month, across more than 14,000 mobile sites and applications.
2. The largest brand-focused mobile ad network in the world
   Opera Mediaworks combines teams in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, servicing 23 of the top 25 global brands.
3. A comprehensive mobile and affiliate network for performance and direct-response advertising (Opera Response)
   A service that provides real-time targeting and optimization of performance campaigns, Opera Response helps advertisers generate quality leads, registrations, app downloads and sales.
4. A Mobile Advertising Exchange (OMAX 2.0)
   The Opera Mediaworks Ad Exchange is a real-time-bidding (RTB) platform that brings advertisers, agency trading desks, DSPs, SSPs, publishers and app developers together into a public and private marketplace for mobile. This enables efficient and automated buying and selling of mobile advertising.
5. A Cooperative DMP (Data Management Platform).
   Building on Opera Mediaworks' foundation for private DMP services for publishers, it now offers the industry's first cooperative DMP solution. Here, publishers can opt-in, consistent with their privacy policies, to share non-personally identifiable information about their consumers to improve ad targeting capabilities and drive better monetization.  This helps publishers pool their data to provide better targeting and advertisers to more easily identify and reach their target consumer.

Synergies across Opera properties and traffic
Opera Mediaworks is delivering synergies across the Opera Software Group, bringing various teams together to deliver Smart Page, Opera Web Pass and the Opera Mobile Store (which Inc. magazine reported as the #1 independent mobile store in the world). These synergies bring together a variety of advertising, payments and analytics capabilities to deliver a truly unique global marketplace to publishers that include Facebook, Google, VMMO, OLX and Naranya who deliver services to hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide.

A leading global beverage company is using this new platform to not only reach and engage consumers in a variety of global markets via traditional display advertising, but also leveraging Opera's Sponsored Web Pass product to sponsor bite-sized access to the mobile internet - via the Opera mobile browser. This is another example of Opera's ability to create a vibrant marketplace between advertisers, publishers, mobile operators and consumers.

As Opera Mediaworks moves into this new phase, it has launched a new branding campaign across major advertising publications including AdWeek, Digiday and Mediapost. Called the Big "O", the campaign is designed to raise awareness of the leading mobile advertising platform offering industry-leading technology, creative services, campaign management and ad delivery capabilities with an integrated global account management and sales force.

Commenting on the new campaign, de Silva says, "We are powering the mobile ad economy. It's a unique mix of art and technology: award-winning creative from our design teams and cutting-edge technology that focuses on removing inefficiency, creating transparency and driving optimization. Working collaboratively with our customers and partners, we believe we can have a meaningful impact in accelerating the growth of this industry."

About Opera Mediaworks
Opera Mediaworks powers the mobile ad economy through technology innovation, transparency and trust, to create vibrant marketplaces for publishers and advertisers across the globe. This enables advertisers to efficiently reach their target audience and publishers to improve their monetization. Opera Mediaworks operates the world's biggest brand-focused mobile ad network, serving 23 of the 25 top global brands. We also deliver the world's leading mobile ad server and monetization tools to 17 of the top 25 media companies worldwide. Our mission is to deliver relevance in the medium where it matters most -- on mobile devices.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Opera Mediaworks has offices in New York, United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Russia, Ukraine and Norway.  Opera Mediaworks is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Opera Software ASA, which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera Mediaworks at www.operamediaworks.com.

SOURCE Opera Mediaworks