Press Release, December 12 2016

World’s largest independent mobile ad platform poised for 2017 growth, with investments in creativity and data science-driven automation and artificial intelligence

Los Angeles, December 12, 2016

Opera Mediaworks today announced its new company name will be AdColony with the goal of unifying the brand, performance and publishing business under a single name, while continuing its commitment to quality mobile advertising experiences that deliver outcomes fueled by creativity and data science-driven automation and artificial intelligence.

The name change will become effective starting in January 2017, and the company will continue to stay independent, with the corporate entity listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under Opera ASA.

“I am excited to unify the advertising business under the AdColony brand globally,” said CEO Will Kassoy. “We are passionate about brand experiences that evoke emotion and drive real outcomes by combining both creativity with the next generation of advertising technologies like data science-driven automation and artificial intelligence. We look forward to building the AdColony brand around this positioning and hope to help elevate the state of mobile advertising.”

AdColony is the mobile video ad platform that the parent company Opera ASA acquired in 2014. After the acquisition, AdColony remained an integral part of and major revenue driver for the Opera Mediaworks business. It felt natural to turn to that established name and to continue the momentum and reputation the brand already had in the mobile ecosystem.

As such, this rebrand will not bring any changes to the company’s customers and partners, and they will simply continue to receive the very best mobile advertising products and services from us. Although the former AdColony business was mainly associated with mobile video advertising, the new AdColony in 2017 will encompass all areas of the former Opera Mediaworks and AdColony business, including rich media/display, streaming video, Instant-Play™ video, and all associated technologies and ad formats across our programmatic marketplace.

The reason for the change is the recent acquisition of Opera ASA’s namesake consumer browser by a Chinese consortium of companies. As part of the deal, acquirers are retaining the “Opera” name and brand, which required a shift away from the name “Opera Mediaworks,” which is a fully-owned subsidiary of Opera ASA.

Second-largest SDK footprint in top 1000 apps

The company will continue to leverage its deep SDK footprint among the world’s best mobile app publishers, second only to Google in the top 1000 apps. These popular apps, which AdColony is lauding as “Today’s Primetime” include fast-risers in the charts like DraftKings, Musical.ly, Shazam, Wattpad, Wishbone, Zynga and many other next-generation media companies. Mobile users are spending more than 37 minutes a day in the top 100 apps, and in other metrics such as session time they often exceed the norm for mobile app use.

Outcomes driven by mobile creativity

AdColony’s market-leading technology unlocks mobile creativity to drive results for brands and publishers. With a dedication to purpose-built, high-performing mobile creative formats, AdColony has been a leader in innovating new, immersive design to leverage the native hardware of mobile devices. The company will be launching new creative formats across video and rich media in 2017 to drive levels of creativity that aren’t possible on other platforms. The company garnered more than 40 awards for its creative work across the globe in 2016 alone.

Data Science and AI: Key initiatives for 2017

The strong SDK footprint also allows AdColony to have access to stronger data signals than other players for better data and targeting, resulting in optimal outcomes for customers. AdColony continues to invest in data science and machine learning, and one of the key initiatives for the company in 2016 has been to unify all of the mobile advertising technology platforms that have been acquired over the years into one powerful and integrated platform.

Over the past several months, the company has invested in state-of-the-art technology and data scientists to work on this unified platform, called Apollo, which will be launched in various phases throughout 2017.

The company plans to launch a new, refreshed website in 2017 which will reflect the new, unified offerings of the global mobile ad platform and the combined businesses as part of the corporate rebranding.

About AdColony

AdColony is one of the largest mobile advertising platforms in the world with a reach of more than 1.4 billion users globally. With a mission to elevate the state of mobile advertising by focusing on the highest quality consumer experiences that deliver outcomes for brands and publishers on today’s primetime apps and sites, AdColony is trusted by Fortune 500 brands and more than 85% of the world’s top grossing mobile publishers. Known for our exclusive Instant-Play™ HD video technology, proprietary rich media formats, our global performance advertising business and programmatic marketplace, and our extensive ad SDK footprint in the Top 1000 apps worldwide, we are passionate about helping brands connect with consumers at scale on the most important screen in their lives. A fully-owned subsidiary of Opera ASA, AdColony is a global organization with over 20 offices worldwide.

Media Contact:

Hollis Guerra
Blast PR for AdColony
hollis@blastpr.com