Launch Partners IconApps, Tagged, RUN, mediasmart, and Celtra Participate in Industry’s Most Compelling and Diverse Exchange for Mobile Native Ads
BARCELONA, SPAIN – OpenX Technologies, Inc. (OpenX), a global leader in digital and mobile advertising technology, today announced the launch of Native O|X the first global, Real-Time Bidding (RTB) exchange specifically for mobile-first native ads. The exchange enables all app developers and publishers to apply the full power and scale of programmatic buying to the increasingly popular native in-stream ad formats. Launch partners for the new exchange include publishers IconApps and Tagged, demand partners RUN and mediasmart, and mobild display ad creation, serving and analytics platform provider Celtra. The new exchange is available immediately to qualified buyers and sellers. The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Native O|X offers premium brands the ability to bid on in-stream ad units within an exclusive private environment. The inventory is premium, largely in-app and the audiences are highly engaged. The new exchange offers application developers and publishers access to more than 300 pre-screened, multiscreen demand partners that will have access to the available inventory.
For both premium advertisers and publishers, Native O|X offers a new level of engagement. Native O|X provides four key benefits to publishers:
1. Create native formats, including rich media and video native ads
2. Sell them at programmatic scale to pre-screened, premium buyers
3. Exercise a high level of control, including the ability to approve any demand sources, filter and review specific ads
4. Generate significantly better monetization by harnessing the full power of one of the world’s largest programmatic exchanges
For buyers, Native O|X offers three key benefits:
1. Ability to use scalable programmatic technology to buy more relevant and high performing ad units in a highly efficient manner
2. Access high quality, largely in-app inventory that has not previously been available programmatically or on mobile
3. Access to rich targeting, including GPS-derived location data as well as a rich array of demographic and contextual insight
“As a top featured lifestyle app in the App Store, it’s critical to us to integrate advertising in a seamless way into the user experience of our app,” added Al Eisaian, founder and chief executive officer, IconApps. “OpenX worked with us closely to iterate and design an ad experience that works as both a premium user experience as well as a high yield ad unit. We’re thrilled with the results to date and are looking forward to launching more formats soon.”
“We chose OpenX for native advertising because of both their unique ability to collaborate and support us on determining an ad product that works within our native apps and to drive high yield through the new native exchange,” said Bjorn Laurin, vice president, product, Tagged. “In addition, OpenX has integrated install tracking enabling us to drive more active usage and downloads of our apps using cross promotion native ads.”
“We are proud to be part of the Native O|X launch, further enabling us to continue to provide our customers with the most innovative, scalable, and unique ad formats available across all connected devices,” said Dan Schwartz, co-founder and chief operating officer, RUN. “The combined power of native ad formats, rich mobile data, and programmatic execution continues to be a key differentiator for us as we work closely with OpenX to reach premium inventory efficiently on behalf of our demand partners.”
“We are extremely excited to partner with OpenX on this initiative, which fits very naturally with mediasmart’s mission to make mobile media buying as effective as possible for our clients,” says Noelia Amoedo, chief executive officer, mediasmart. “We believe in the potential of native ads to bring us much further along the path of maximizing engagement, and it is so refreshing to see OpenX innovating and making it possible.”
“With its unique approach of programmatically enabling rich media and video native ads at scale, Native O|X is an exciting new exchange for the mobile ad industry and we are pleased to be a launch partner,” said Grant Stratemeyer, senior vice president, business development, Celtra. “In particular, the exchange provides an excellent opportunity for both publishers and Demand Side Platforms to leverage Celtra’s self-service AdCreator platform with its benefit of creating a multitude of powerful native ad formats that can run programmatically across dozens of publishers.”
“In speaking with OpenX buyers and sellers, it’s becoming clear that a fundamental shift is underway in mobile advertising: more than half of the effective mobile campaigns are now being delivered in a native format,” explains Rob Kramer, general manager, mobile, OpenX. “With the launch of Native O|X, we’re bringing programmatic to native and mobile. Specifically, we’re helping bridge mobile-first companies and partners who want a seamless multiscreen experience at scale, which is what they need. And we’re taking it a step further from an ad unit perspective, in that our programmatic ad units will support a diverse set of creative attributes that will help publishers deliver a customized, differentiated ad experience within their apps. We were the first to introduce RTB to the exchange format and we’re once again taking the lead by offering the industry’s first flexible native platform for buyers and sellers of multiscreen inventory.”
The new native exchange is the latest step in OpenX’s mobile expansion and evolution. The company launched the first private mobile ad exchange in 2012 and earlier this month added Airpush as its latest partner with the launch of the AirX private exchange. OpenX’s mobile offerings include mobile monetization, a mediation layer with multiple ad networks, a comprehensive in-app SDK and multiscreen ad serving.
About OpenX
OpenX is a global leader in digital and mobile advertising technology. OpenX’s vision is to unleash the full economic potential of digital media companies. OpenX solutions provide unique Software as a Service platform by combining ad serving, an ad exchange, which includes Supply Side Platform technology, and content valuation.
OpenX Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenX Software Ltd., is based in Los Angeles and is backed by leading investors including Accel Partners, Index Ventures, SAP Ventures, and Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.
For more information, please visit www.openx.com
