Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Digital Transformation
    Marketing Operations
    Data
    Customer & Digital Experience
    Performance Marketing
    Marketing Management
    Special Reports
    MarTech Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech
    Mission
    Staff
    Newsletter
    Search Engine Land
    Third Door Media

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Performance Marketing » InMobi becomes Sprint’s exclusive in-app, CTV ad platform by buying the telco’s ad firm

InMobi becomes Sprint’s exclusive in-app, CTV ad platform by buying the telco’s ad firm

The purchase of Pinsight Media positions InMobi as the central player in Sprint’s ad future, and possibly in the ad future of T-Mobile and other telcos.

Barry Levine on October 17, 2018 at 3:51 pm
Graphic provided by InMobi

Graphic provided by InMobi

When a brand wants to advertise to telco subscribers, the process can involve many participants. But today mobile marketing platform InMobi took another step toward its vision of a more unified approach, with the announcement that it is buying Sprint’s mobile data and ad company Pinsight Media.

Exclusive data access. As a result of the purchase, InMobi co-founder Abhay Singhal told me, his company will now have the exclusive right to Sprint subscriber data for in-app advertising and for connected TV (CTV)/Over-the-Top TV (OTT) advertisting, the latter which InMobi is currently field testing. Deal terms were not made public.

Essentially, InMobi now becomes Sprint’s in-app and CTV/OTT ad and data platform.

Although Pinsight also offers mobile web advertising, Singhal said his company was not equipped to handle that inventory.

What this could mean for marketing to telco subscribers. Singhal said this is the first time InMobi will act in this capacity, as the exclusive ad platform and data processor for a telco and, to his knowledge, the first time it has been tried anywhere.

While other telcos like Verizon — and, previously, Sprint — have tried to develop this capability in-house, Singhal said it makes sense for a telco to farm out the need for an efficient mobile platform to target and deliver ads, and to generate insights about subscribers, because of the complexity involved.

“Telcos have had huge aspirations to create large ad units,” he said, “but they didn’t have the skillsets.”

In fact, he noted, InMobi is now in discussions “with about ten” other telcos worldwide to offer a similar service, with none of them involving mobile web ads. In the event deals are signed with others, he said, each telco’s data will remain individually siloed.

Sprint itself is in the process of merging with T-Mobile, and Singhal said it wasn’t yet clear what the arrangement will be for T-Mobile’s subscriber data and ad delivery. The data used by Pinsight is anonymized to a degree, and Sprint handles getting user permission.

Why this matters for marketers. As an external platform for Sprint’s in-app and CTV ads — and potentially for other telcos’ inventory — InMobi can provide a consistent and unified experience for marketers in an otherwise fragmented market.

Singhal also points out that brand marketers rarely know definitively about their users, except for the users’ interaction with the brand. Everything else — what the user did before entering the brand’s store, what she did afterward, and so on — involves matching data sets, often from other providers and often probabilistically.

By contrast, he said, telco subscriber data can provide a more consistent and reliable picture of a brand’s users, because virtually everyone carries their mobile phone everywhere. In that scenario, InMobi could offer a more complete understanding of a brand’s customers and potential customers inside a mobile or Internet service network.


New on MarTech

    How clean, organized and actionable is your data?
    Replacement Survey: The top 5 solutions replaced
    What’s the biggest hidden secret in Google Ads?
    Native video tops social media in brand awareness study
    Worsening economy has more shoppers getting online info before making in-store purchases

About The Author

Barry Levine
Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.

Related Topics

Connected TV and OTTCustomer & Digital ExperiencePerformance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS The MarTech Conference logo.

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Training Now: Master Classes

Start Discovering Now: Spring



The SMX Conference logo.

Start Training Now:: SMX Advanced

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes

Webinars

Agencies: Grow Revenue Streams Through Web Accessibility & Compliance

Protect Your Paid Advertising Spend Against Ad Fraud and Invalid Traffic

Build an Integrated Search Strategy Across Google, Amazon and YouTube

See More Webinars
Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports
Featured White Paper

Site Search 101

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.