www.operamediaworks.com info@operamediaworks.

com
6 MOBILE AD
TRENDS FROM
2013
About Opera Mediaworks
Opera Mediaworks is the worlds largest mobile advertising platform, helping to power
the global mobile economy. We improve effciency, 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 BILLION
ad impressions per month
400 MILLION
global consumers reached
Insights from Opera Mediaworks
the 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 signifcant shifts and industry-shaping events
that took place this year.
This report highlights the signifcant 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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Untargeted Intelligent prioritization
0%
50%
100%
150%
200%
250%
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
www.operamediaworks.com info@operamediaworks.com
Insights from Opera Mediaworks
the world's largest mobile ad platform
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 frst time. The expansion of rich media in terms of both share of ads delivered, and more signifcantly
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, its easy to forget that what were 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 wasnt until Opera Mediaworks and
Nuance Communications launched the frst interactive voice advertising
units in the U.S. that advertisers saw frsthand 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 refned 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.
6%
SHARE
TAP-TO
EXPAND
MOBILE
VIDEO
6 mobile ad trends from 2013
Insights from Opera Mediaworks
the world's largest mobile ad platform
www.operamediaworks.com info@operamediaworks.com
4. Publishing for mobile is now a must
In 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 web
Last 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 PC
It 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 signifcant 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.
1,000,000
APPLICATIONS
jan
feb
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apr
MAY
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jul
aug
sep
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nov
dec
From acquisitions and IPO's to the invention of entirely new mobile ad units, 2013 was defnitely a year of change and surprise.
To get a better perspective on these changes, we've created this graphical timeline of signifcant moments on our own mobile
advertising platform compared to those that occurred in the broader mobile industry.

Insights from Opera Mediaworks
the world's largest mobile ad platform
Opera Mediaworks announces that it put $400 million in mobile ad
publishers pockets in 2012 and projects $600 million in 2013
The opening of Major League Baseball season pushes
Sports to the top category for monetization
Opera Mediaworks crosses the mark of 300 million monthly uniques
Facebook announces that mobile ads generate 30% of revenues
and share price rises signifcantly
US Smartphone Audience tops 140M (Comscore)
Mobile ad traffc in the US is still swinging upwards, but not at the
breakneck pace witnessed in emerging markets like
Indonesia and the Russian Federation
Samsung demonstrates success using the interactive Parallax unit
to drive user engagement around its smartphone launches
Samsung announces the Galaxy S4. When released the next
month in 155 countries, it became the fastest selling smartphone
in the companys history (40 million units)
Seasonality in mobile traffc patterns is observed as mobile use increases
signifcantly during Spring Break, up from its February lows
Tumblr introduces mobile ads
Tap-to-expand and VAST interstitial (mobile video) ad units
are the fastest growing units among brand advertisers
Nuance launches frst 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 identifer for Android, allowing
users to reset or opt out of interest-based ads
U.S. mobile ad revenue for frst 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 online
sales, an increase of 55.4% year-over-year. (IBM)
Global spending on mobile advertising forecasted to
reach $8.8B by end of year (eMarketer)
Opera Mediaworks is frst to launch voice-activated
rich media ad unit in the U.S. (JetBlue campaign)
Tablets, led by iPad, grow over 100% year-over-year to
now account for 12% of all mobile ad traffc
Though mobile traffc was lower on Black Friday than the November
average, engagement (click-through rate) was 20% higher
$
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CTR