Telefónica is launching Amobee Media Systems' global mobile advertising platform to provide a single point of contact for agencies and advertisers wishing to buy, deploy and monitor campaigns across all mobile channels.

Spanish wireless carrier Telefónica now uses a single ad server that supports WAP, games, video, messaging and other built-in applications for its 170 million mobile customers in South America, Mexico and Europe. Consumers will have cheaper access to premium mobile services when they opt-in to receive relevant targeted advertisements.

"Telefónica is using Amobee's mobile ad server technology platform in 24 different countries," said Patrick Parodi, chief marketing officer of Amobee, Redwood City, CA. "This will help Telefónica fund its growing number of mobile data services and let its advertisers reach their target audience more effectively."

The technology will be unveiled this year in Britain, Spain, Mexico and Colombia, and will roll out across the remainder of Telefónica's regional businesses in 2009.

Amobee has deployed its platform with 10 operators in nine different markets worldwide, including campaigns with O2 Active in Britain and Vodafone in Italy.

Amobee also operates in the United States, having signed a deal with mobile virtual network operator Boost Mobile. It is in discussions with other major U.S. carriers, but those deals have not been made public.

O2 has sold advertising on Amobee's platform to Britain's Fourth Screen Media. Pizza Hut, the BBC and Canon have run campaigns through O2 Active via Amobee's ad-supported mobile gaming platform.

"Recently we've worked on a pre-roll video advertising service with Vodafone in Italy, which screens a 15-20-second ad before the end user can access free streaming video content of music, sports and other entertainment," Mr. Parodi said.

In another initiative, mobile consumers in the Czech Republic can download free SMS applications, which have ads along the bottom of their mobile screen.

The single centralized ad server enables precise contextual and behavioral targeting across all users on all handsets for non-voice related applications and services. This includes WAP banners, games, video and music players, SMS and MMS messaging, ringback tones and video and music streaming.

"All ads are interactive," Mr. Parodi said. "Each campaign features click-to-call, click-to-WAP, click-to-SMS or click-to-download-a-coupon."

Telefónica retains complete control of the solution, which means that each operating business will have access to customer data, localization, behavioral profiles and the opt-in database. The business will then instruct the ad server to deliver a relevant ad to customers with a certain profile and handset type.

"The key player for unlocking value is the operator," Mr. Parodi said. "Our business is to engage these operators with this tool for ad agencies, media buyers and brands to engage with consumers across the whole inventory of mobile channels.

"Now that you've got great handsets, these devices are enabling an enormous amount of consumption, and visual real estate is increasing," Mr. Parodi said. "Consumers can also enjoy more rich media mobile services and pay less because advertisers will pay for deployment of these services."

The advertising impressions from the Amobee platform are claimed to occur in a relevant, contextual and non-intrusive manner, thus giving the users control over the engagement.

"We're helping companies around the world get in on the new revenue stream of mobile advertising," Mr. Parodi said. "The wireless business is a $700 billion industry.

"What's most exciting about the mobile medium is that it's very interactive, allowing advertisers to interact with users in a very personalized, relevant way," he said.