Will Kassoy is CEO of AdColony – again. On Monday, Opera Mediaworks said it is changing its name to AdColony as of January. If the name’s familiar, that’s because it’s the mobile video ad network that Opera Mediaworks bought for around $350 million in 2014. Kassoy was CEO of AdColony at the time, and then joined […]
It’s video FTW for Opera Mediaworks. Reporting earnings under Opera Software for the final time – the sale of Opera’s consumer-facing browser business is expected to close by the end of September – Opera Mediaworks on Wednesday cited a 23% increase in Q2 revenue year over year to $114.4 million. That number represents the lion’s share of […]
Although Opera Mediaworks is no longer packing its bags and moving to China, newly minted CEO Will Kassoy is still bullish on the opportunity there. “China is a huge market for advertising,” said Kassoy, who took the reins from former company chief Mahi de Silva in December after roughly two years as CMO. Kassoy joined […]
Deals fall through all the time. But the failed acquisition of Opera’s ad business could be a signal that China’s western buying spree is liable to hit a few regulatory snags. In February, a consortium of Chinese companies, which comprises mobile game maker Kunlun and security software provider Qihoo, announced its intention to buy up all of […]
Allison Schiff contributed. The fat lady hasn’t sung, but it appears likely that a group of Chinese companies will acquire Opera and its lucrative mobile advertising business. Oslo-based Opera told investors Wednesday that it had received a buyout offer of $1.2 billion led by investment fund Golden Brick Silk Road, along with security software player […]
When many creative agencies failed to pivot into mobile, tech and media companies converged on their own solutions. “Creative agencies were disinterested in making experiences for mobile,” said James Chandler, mobile director for the GroupM agency Mindshare. After all, app-oriented mobile campaigns aren’t built around flashy art or high-production videos. While this mentality frustrated him […]
Best practice No. 1: A tiny burger on a tiny screen isn’t going to convince anyone of anything. When Opera House, the creative strategy arm and ad lab under mobile ad platform Opera Mediaworks, consults with a brand or an agency on a mobile campaign, developing the right creative is the big thing – especially when […]
As feeds become the new standard for web design, there’s a greater need to develop ad units that accommodate them. Such was the thinking behind the IAB’s Wednesday release of specifications for three kinds of in-feed advertising channels: social feeds (notably sponsored Facebook or Twitter posts), product feeds (which encompass ecommerce sites like Amazon and […]
“Premium” can be a slippery term, but Opera Mediaworks defines it thusly: the ads publishers actually want to appear near their content and the content advertisers actually want to show up near their ads. That need was the instigator behind Opera Select, the mobile ad company’s new private mobile marketplace offering, unveiled Thursday. Publishers that contract […]
The singles ad would read like this: Mobile native inventory seeks demand. In an effort to act as matchmaker, global mobile ad platform Opera Mediaworks launched Tuesday a private marketplace native extension of its mobile ad exchange, Opera Mediaworks Ad Exchange (OMAX), which until now had just focused on programmatic display and video. Because the […]
“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Mahi de Silva, CEO at Opera Mediaworks. For the better part of the last 50 years, brands’ ad spending focused on the living room, which included TV, radio, newspapers and […]
Sub-Saharan Africa is a mobile market on the verge, and Opera Mediaworks is looking to take advantage. The global mobile ad platform acquired South African mobile ad network AdVine in an effort to expand its footprint into Africa, a region now home to more than 600 million mobile phone subscriptions. Ericsson predicts that number will push […]
“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Scott Swanson, president of global ad sales at Opera Mediaworks. A few weeks ago, I saw on Facebook that a friend of mine said she was being targeted there for […]
“We sometimes make the joke that we’re the largest mobile ad company that no one’s ever heard of, and it’s kind of true,” quipped Scott Swanson, president of global advertising sales at Opera Mediaworks. The mobile ad platform is looking to change that with the hire of Ryan Griffin as SVP of strategic accounts. Griffin, […]
Mobile advertising platform Opera Mediaworks has acquired Apprupt, a German mobile advertising service provider. The move was billed as allowing Opera Mediaworks greater access to Germany’s mobile ad market, which the company said it expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2017. “If you look at global ad spend . . . Germany is a top […]
Mobile ad startups take note: Opera Mediaworks is revving up its acquisition engine. Spun out from the Norwegian browser company Opera Software last year, Opera Mediaworks is made up of companies such as AdMarvel, Mobile Theory, 4th Screen Advertising and Handster. After integrating its various services into one suite, the company’s next goal is to […]
This year’s third quarter was marked by a lot of activity in the mobile ad space — several startups specializing in ad targeting, optimization, distribution and other services were snapped up, such as MoPub, JumpTap, Ad-X and EveryScreen Media. Marketers also continued to explore programmatic buying in mobile and saw Apple’s new iOS 7 drive […]
JetBlue is taking a stab at voice-activated mobile ads with new rich media units that will launch next week. Through the mobile ad network Opera Mediaworks, JetBlue will serve a banner ad to customers with the icon of a microphone and the message, “Click here to learn how to speak pigeon.” When the user clicks […]
In the second quarter of 2013, marketers maintained the momentum from the end of Q1. In AdExchanger’s Q2 mobile roundup, mobile ad networks and companies saw that rich media and in-app ads continued to drive expansion in the mobile RTB space. Mobile ad exchange MoPub saw advertisers continuing to adopt programmatic buying at increasing rates. […]
Moving beyond smartphones and tablets, Opera Mediaworks introduced AdMarvel, an ad network for internet-connected TVs that brings together an ad exchange, ad serving and ad management functionalities. “A connected TV looks a lot like a tablet computer,” explained Opera Mediaworks CEO Mahi de Silva. “Given our experience in the tablet and smartphone space, as well […]
After a strong 2012 holiday season for mobile advertising, marketers took a step back in the beginning of 2013, then charged ahead again toward the end of the first quarter. In AdExchanger’s third quarterly mobile roundup, mobile ad networks and companies found that rich media, targeting and the rise of tablets drove expansion in the […]
