6 mobile ad trends from2013

www.operamediaworks.com [email protected]

6 MOBILE ADTRENDS FROM

2013

About Opera MediaworksOpera Mediaworks is the world’s largest mobile advertising platform, helping to power the global mobile economy. We improve ef�ciency, through technology, innovation, transparency and trust, to create an open and vibrant marketplace for publishers and advertisers across the globe. Opera Mediaworks includes AdMarvel, a mobile ad server and ad exchange; Mobile Theory, a premium mobile ad network in the United States; 4th Screen Advertising Ltd., a premium ad network in the United Kingdom; and Mediaworks Performance, a results-driven, mobile ad network. Also included are impressions served within Opera mobile properties, including the Opera Mini Smart Page and the Opera Mobile Store. Opera Mediaworks is part of the Opera Group.

60 BILLIONad impressions per month

400 MILLION global consumers reached

Insights from Opera Mediaworksthe world's largest mobile ad platform

What a difference a year makes! At the start of 2013, numerous headlines proclaimed various versions of "the year of mobile," but few of these foresaw some of the most signi�cant shifts and industry-shaping events that took place this year.

This report highlights the signi�cant trends in mobile advertising that we observed while managing over 700 billion mobile ad impressions this year.

Lift from targeting Example: Music application, ad campaign for a restaurant

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In 2012 Q4, we began running top-level performance campaigns that take advantage of our intelligence prioritization capabilities. While click-through rate (CTR) is still important to advertisers, conversions are ultimately what matters. Creative, relevant rich media ads work well to engage potential customers and build a lasting relationship with them, but conversions are the goal, as they directly drive business forward.

Targeting with intelligent prioritization

Standard targeting

6 mobile ad trends from 2013



1. Rich media changes mobile in the eyes of brand advertisers

While traditional banner ads continue as the leading format for mobile publishers, rich media ad units are rapidly changing the way advertisers engage with their audience. Within the rich media category, tap-to-expand and mobile video units both reached 6% share for the �rst time. The expansion of rich media in terms of both share of ads delivered, and more signi�cantly its share of revenue, is an area to watch in 2014.

2. Interactive voice ads put “the phone” back into mobile advertising

With all of the reading, watching, tapping and swiping we do on our smartphones, it’s easy to forget that what we’re holding in our hand is something you can speak into — and get a reply.

While consumers have been exposed to the convenience of speech recognition for a long time, it wasn’t until Opera Mediaworks and Nuance Communications launched the �rst interactive voice advertising units in the U.S. that advertisers saw �rsthand the power of voice in a mobile ad campaign.

Garnering media attention from Adweek, Mobile Marketer, AdExchanger and the Wall Street Journal, the JetBlue interactive voice campaign was hailed by industry insiders as the next big step for mobile.

3. Advertisers improve optimization methods, achieve better performance

This year, advertisers and ad networks found better ways to optimize ad delivery performance, while still safeguarding user privacy. The market-place moved rapidly from simple contextual information such as device (or OS) and connec-tion type (e.g, mobile vs. WiFi) to more complex parameters such as time of day, day of week and carefully thought out frequency capping regimes. More re�ned prioritization made possible by Opera Mediaworks saw major improvements in conversion rates by segmenting by OS version. We see intelligent prioritization as a big trend to watch in 2014.

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6 mobile ad trends from 2013



4. Publishing for mobile is now a mustIn 2013, both the Apple App Store and Google Play reached the one-million-app mark, and more and more publishers optimized their websites for better performance with mobile browsers.

The number of sites and applications accessing the Opera Mediaworks platform increased from 12,000 at the end of last year to over 14,000 at the close of 2013. In this same period, the global reach of these mobile ads has gone from 140 million consumers to over 400M consumers today.

5. Android drives mass adoption of mobile webLast spring, Samsung introduced a series of ads positioning its new Galaxy S4 Android devices against the iPhone. The ads mocked Apple fans and got people talking about which brand was better. By August, the company noted that they experienced a “tipping point” where consumers see Samsung as “starting to really mess with the order of things.”

While this ad campaign drove positive sales for Samsung and lengthened its lead in market share among Android users, it also drove an overall increase in the adoption of Android devices globally.

So, while the iPhone consistently topped Android in monetization by a cool 10 percentage points each quarter, the two were neck and neck for total mobile ad impressions through much of the year. Late this fall, however, Android emerged as the global leader in ad impressions.

6. The mobile coalition of phone + tablet is displacing the desktop PCIt is now clear that “mobile” no longer means “smartphone,” and the combined force of phones and tablets are being used to complete tasks that once required a PC.

While we have always observed signi�cant iPad usage, this summer Android tablets began to climb in market share. While still a long way from challenging the iPad, the combined power of iPad and Android pushed tablet share of total ad impressions under our management to over 12% of all mobile devices, up from just 6% the previous year.

It is no longer a stretch to predict that mobile devices (phone + tablet) may one day completely replace the desktop.

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From acquisitions and IPO's to the invention of entirely new mobile ad units, 2013 was de�nitely a year of change and surprise. To get a better perspective on these changes, we've created this graphical timeline of signi�cant moments on our own mobile advertising platform compared to those that occurred in the broader mobile industry.


Opera Mediaworks announces that it put $400 million in mobile adpublishers’ pockets in 2012 and projects $600 million in 2013

The opening of Major League Baseball season pushesSports to the top category for monetization

Opera Mediaworks crosses the mark of 300 million monthly uniques

Facebook announces that mobile ads generate 30% of revenuesand share price rises signi�cantly

US Smartphone Audience tops 140M (Comscore)

Mobile ad traf�c in the US is still swinging upwards, but not at thebreakneck pace witnessed in emerging markets like

Indonesia and the Russian Federation

Samsung demonstrates success using the interactive “Parallax” unitto drive user engagement around its smartphone launches

Samsung announces the Galaxy S4. When released the nextmonth in 155 countries, it became the fastest selling smartphonein the company’s history (40 million units)

Seasonality in mobile traf�c patterns is observed as mobile use increasessigni�cantly during Spring Break, up from its February lows

Tumblr introduces mobile ads

Tap-to-expand and VAST interstitial (mobile video) ad unitsare the fastest growing units among brand advertisers

Nuance launches �rst interactive voice ads, in Sweden

Millennial Media acquires Jumptap ($225M)

Within a few weeks of its release, iOS7 is used by 61%of the users on the Opera Mediaworks platform

The Opera Mediaworks platform now gets over 400 million unique users per month

iOS7 launches

Fairfax Financial makes an offer to acquire BlackBerry for $4.7B

Twitter acquires MoPub and announces its plans for an IPO

Instagram to allow video and image ads in its feed

Apple announces 1M apps in the App Store

Google announces a new anonymous identi�er for Android, allowingusers to reset or opt out of interest-based ads

U.S. mobile ad revenue for �rst half of 2013 reaches$3B, a 145% increase from previous year (IAB)

Google announces 1M apps in Google Play

80% of smartphone shipments are Android devices (IDC )

Tablets will comprise 50% of all PCs shipped in 2014 (Canalys)

On Cyber Monday, mobile sales exceeded 17% of total onlinesales, an increase of 55.4% year-over-year. (IBM)

Global spending on mobile advertising forecasted toreach $8.8B by end of year (eMarketer)

Opera Mediaworks is �rst to launch voice-activatedrich media ad unit in the U.S. (JetBlue campaign)

Tablets, led by iPad, grow over 100% year-over-year tonow account for 12% of all mobile ad traf�c

Though mobile traf�c was lower on Black Friday than the Novemberaverage, engagement (click-through rate) was 20% higher

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6 mobile ad trends from2013

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