Adfonic Announces TV-Style Mobile Ad Units

Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and random startups. Previously, he worked as a staff tech writer at Adweek, a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... → Learn More

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
adfonic_video_forprint (1)

London-headquartered Adfonic is getting into the video side of the mobile ad business today with the launch of its first video ad units.

Chief Marketing Officer Paul Childs says that as smartphone and tablet usage grows, advertisers should be able to treat mobile as just another channel for their campaigns — so Adfonic wants to provide an easy way for them to bring the video content they’re already creating for TVs and movie theaters onto mobile.

Adfonic is also touting the seamlessness of the experience. Viewers aren’t pushed to YouTube or another video player to watch the ad. Instead, they activate the video by tapping on a banner, then the ad takes over the screen via the native iOS or Android player, and they return to exactly where they were in the app or mobile website once it’s over. Adfonic provides an engagement score for each ad based on how long people watched them, as well as other metrics like clickthroughs. The company says the data is delivered in real-time, so advertisers can see how their videos are performing as the campaign runs.

Last fall, the company raised a $7.5 million round from Gordon Shields and other angels.


Company: Adfonic
Website: adfonic.com
Launch Date: October 1, 2008
Funding: $8.1M

Adfonic is the smarter mobile advertising buying platform that gives advertisers and agencies broad access to global mobile web and app inventory through a single buying point. Adfonic’s customers run thousands of performance, rich media and video ad campaigns monthly across a wide range of inventory sources to drive direct response, increase consumer engagement and build brand awareness. In October 2012, Adfonic introduced Madison, its mobile demand-side platform which offers agencies and brands greater transparency, control and efficiency through real-time bidding. Adfonic...

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