Amobee Media Systems and Vodafone Italia Launch Ad-funded Mobile Video

Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:00am EST
 
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Free Sports, News and Comedy Video Clips Powered by QuickPlay
Media's OpenVideo(TM) Platform; Dada Ad to Manage Advertising Partners
SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON & MILAN, Italy--(Business Wire)--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.

   Amobee is providing the centralized 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(TM)
service delivery platform. QuickPlay is also enabling dynamic
real-time stitching of ads provided by the Amobee platform and
FreeVideo content, as well as providing advanced reporting including
measurement of key metrics.

   Dada's advertising agency Dada Ad will be 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 Vodafone Live!
        homepage as well as in the 190 area available on
        www.vodafone.it.

   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(TM) 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).

for Amobee Media Systems
Richard George, +44 (0)20 7792 7432
Richard.george@nelsonbostock.com
Cristina Whittington, +44 (0)20 7792 7432
cristina.whittington@nelsonbostock.com
info@amobee.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008

 

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