Press Releases
For Immediate Release
Amobee Media Systems and Vodafone Italia Launch Ad-funded Mobile Video
- Free sports, news and comedy video clips powered by QuickPlay Media’s OpenVideo™ Platform; Dada Ad to manage advertising partners
- First brands on board include charity group ActionAid and RCS Media Group
London and Milan — January 22, 2008
Amobee Media Systems today announced its selection by Vodafone Italia to offer ad-funded mobile video content to the operator’s 29.1 million Italian customers.
The service, called FreeVideo, allows Vodafone Italia UMTS users to access a wide range of high-quality, local and branded video content for free in return for receiving relevant commercial messages from major brands. Two of the first brands to sign up to the service are the charity group ActionAid and the global media company RCS Media Group.
Amobee is providing the centralised ad-server to seamlessly integrate relevant and dynamic commercial messages. This service closely follows Amobee’s recent announcements with Vodafone in Spain, Greece and the Czech Republic, in which the company is enabling ad-funded peer-to-peer SMS and games as well as advertising on Vodafone Live!
Amobee and Vodafone Italia have brought together a best of breed set of partners to enable the launch of FreeVideo. QuickPlay Media, a world leader in the management and delivery of mobile TV and video services, is powering streaming video content with its OpenVideo™ service delivery platform. QuickPlay is also enabling dynamic real-time stitching of ads provided by the Amobee platform and FreeVideo content.
Dada’s advertising agency Dada Ad is responsible for recruiting and managing the relationship with advertisers aiming to run rich-media, tactical campaigns on mobile. Dada Ad has been successfully selling mobile campaigns for Vodafone Italia since March 2007.
UMTS users with a video-enabled handset can opt-in to watch free news, sport, comedy and music clips from media brands such as e-Class, Dorna and Digital Magics. Amobee instantly processes the user’s profile and contextual information and selects a relevant “pre-roll’” video ad, followed by the video content and then a “post-roll’” ad.
Zohar Levkovitz, CEO of Amobee commented, “We’ve been rolling out new and exciting mobile advertising deals with Vodafone across Europe. Vodafone Italy is the latest step in a very successful relationship. Ad-funded video services enable operators to develop a new revenue opportunity as brands make use of mobile as a channel to reach audiences. It also allows users to watch mobile video for free. Vodafone is really making great strides in maximising the potential of this.”
Notes to editors:
- Users pay only for the connection fee to Vodafone Live!, all further traffic and streaming is then free of charge
- FreeVideo can be accessed via a banner on the Vodafone Live! homepage
About Amobee Media Systems
Amobee Media Systems has built and designed the first and only telco-grade ad-serving solution 100% dedicated to mobile operators, allowing them to dynamically insert advertising impressions in all forms of mobile communication and content: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, SMS, MMS, and Games etc. Amobee’s complete ad serving solution is designed to facilitate the launch of advertising campaigns for brand building, direct response and lead generation campaigns helping mobile operators and their subscribers “get more for less”. The company has also engaged advertisers and media buying agencies to directly purchase ad inventory as part of Amobee’s growing advertising network.
Amobee’s media system is capable of supporting everything from in-game and in-video to in-wap and in-message mobile impression insertions. The insertions occur with full user consent and are made in a relevant, contextual and non-intrusive manner, thus increasing the media value while giving users control over the engagement.
Headquartered in San Francisco, the company enjoys financial backing from some of the biggest names in venture capital: Accel Partners (www.accel.com), Sequoia Capital (www.sequoiacap.com), and Globespan (www.globespancapital.com). The company also enjoys the backing of two leading operators: Vodafone and Telefonica. Amobee has commercial offices in London and San Francisco, with R&D in Herzliya, Israel.
About QuickPlay Media
QuickPlay Media provides content management and service delivery solutions for mobile television and video services. The QuickPlay OpenVideo™ platform offers maximum flexibility and streamlined application integration for mobile operators and technology partners. OpenVideo works in many different mobile media ecosystems, operating seamlessly with major advertising, search, billing and user interface frameworks. QuickPlay Media Inc. has offices in Toronto, San Francisco and London. For complete information, please visit www.quickplay.com.
About Dada
Dada Ad is Dada’s advertising agency which exclusively manages advertising spaces of well known websites and of the main Italian mobile operators.
Dada is an international leader in community and entertainment services, (http://dada.dada.net) and offers 12 million people in over 40 countries around the world the possibility of expressing themselves, having fun and making new friends via web and via mobile. Dada is quoted on the Italian stock market MTAX segment STAR (DA.MI).
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