Sprout technology solves the complexity of mobile rich media planning, creation, distribution, and measurement for brands and agencies globally

AUGUST 2, 2011, 08:00 a.m. PDT: Today, InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, announced the acquisition of Sprout, whose HTML5 rich media creative platform helps agencies and brands reduce the complexity of rich media mobile ad creation and distribution. InMobi’s global presence combined with Sprout’s rich media technology will help the mobile advertising industry easily build and distribute engaging rich media ads to consumers everywhere.

Known for simplifying the complex process of HTML5 rich media mobile ad creation and distribution, Sprout’s vision is to help advertisers “build once and deliver everywhere” on both mobile and desktop devices. Sprout’s cloud-based platform brings efficiency and scale to organizations creating mobile ads and its rich media creatives are compatible with mobile devices supporting HTML5, including Apple iOS and Google Android devices. Sprout works with some of the world’s leading brands, including Chevrolet, Disney, Paramount Pictures, HTC, Sega and Nokia.

Naveen Tewari, CEO of InMobi, comments: “Sprout’s technology solves a critical need for the industry by helping bring engaging mobile ad experiences to consumers all around the globe. The acquisition fits perfectly with our vision to enable the mobile ecosystem with best of breed technology and services. The entire industry will benefit from the combination of our technology and operational footprint on five continents and Sprout’s platform.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Ajit Nazre, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, says: “The mobile industry is struggling to fully capitalize on the engaging advertising experiences now possible through smart devices. This acquisition will help scale the use of rich media advertising globally – a critical next step in helping the industry realize its full potential.”

Sprout will operate as a fully independent company working with the entire mobile advertising industry to solve the HTML5 creation and delivery problem, and will continue to expand its product in the coming months by adding workflow enhancements, analytics, and innovative new ad units.

Carnet Williams, CEO and co-founder of Sprout, comments: “InMobi’s commitment to an open and independent Sprout made them the clear choice for us. We will continue to work with all existing partners, including competitive ad networks, globally.”

About InMobi

InMobi is the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network. With offices on five continents, it provides advertisers, publishers and developers with a uniquely global solution for advertising. Its network is growing fast and now delivers the unprecedented ability to reach 314 million consumers, in over 165 countries, through more than 36.2 billion mobile ad impressions monthly. InMobi was recently included in both the 2011 AlwaysOn Global 250 and the 2011 AlwaysOn OnMobile 100 Top Private Companies lists.

InMobi is venture-backed with marquee investors including: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. The company has offices in San Francisco, London, Bangalore, Tokyo, Nairobi, and Singapore.

To learn more, please visit www.InMobi.com, follow us on Twitter @InMobi, or read our blog atwww.InMobi.com/InMobiblog/.

About Sprout

Sprout is the leading platform for creating mobile HTML5 rich media advertising. Its team has been market leaders for social media and mobile technologies for the past five years, and was one of the first preferred Facebook Developers. Sprout has a simple philosophy: Creative professionals should be able to build once and deliver everywhere. Its platform creates HTML5 ads that are compatible with leading mobile ad networks, aggregators, and publishers.

Sprout is venture-backed by Polaris Venture Partners and has offices in Honolulu and San Francisco.

To learn more, please visit www.sproutinc.com and follow us on Twitter @sprout.

Please contact Dan Gamble, for further information or for a briefing with a senior spokesperson.

Tel: +1 415 598 8902

Email: dan@If-communications.com

Sprout is happy to be working side by side with Adobe, EyeWonder, Greystripe, Medialets, MediaMind, and PointRoll on this ad format launch. We’re also the only ad creation platform in the lot so we’re thrilled about that as well. We’ve created three ad units for the launch which you can see here.

Our units are built in HTML5 using AdVine and include a unit for Nike that features our pananle image component. The video below showcases how the ad unit was built in 45 minutes, a fraction of the time it would take to build it using Flash Pro.

This mixer will include chances to brainstorm around your own design challenges and needs with AdVine super-users. It’s also chance to get an up-close and personal look under the hood of Sprout’s platform and our AdVine ad creation software. And we’ll have some great cocktails on hand from Silverlake Wines.

Register for the event here!

Where: The Sprout offices are located at: 1551 S Robertson Blvd Ste F Los Angeles, CA 90035 (northwest corner of Robertson and Pickford, 3 Blocks south of Pico)
When: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 from 6:00 PM – 9:00

Here’s a short video that shows off some of the latest features we’ll be sharing:

Remember widgets? Well, they’re still around, they’re just far more interactive. Sprout, the company that launched an impressive widget builder two years ago, is diving deeper into advertising, as it shifts its products to better suit today’s market. This has all led up to Sprout integrating with DoubleClick, adding the ability to serve ads as well as help you create them.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the change in advertising methods, moving from display ads to app ads. This has occurred primarily in the mobile market, as apps from particular brands can act as methods of advertising themselves. The web overall is becoming more fluid and interactive, meaning ads need to keep up.

Read the entire article on SiliconAngle

by Anthony Ha

San Francisco-based Sprout made a big splash when it launched two years ago with its easy tools for building applications in the Flash format. In the last few months, it has been refocusing on advertising, and with today’s just-announced integration with Google’s DoubleClick ad products, Marketing Director Roland Smart said the company has completed “the major parts of this pivot.”

The company’s first big announcement in this area came in April, when it revealed that its tools could be used to build interactive ads that run in both the Flash and HTML5 formats (an Alice in Wonderland ad built with Sprout is pictured above), depending on what the viewer’s Web browser supports. Now, Sprout is also helping with the distribution of those ads — it allows users to import ads into DoubleClick Studio, where the ads can be previewed, then pushed out to DoubleClick’s ad servers.

Read the entire article on VentureBeat

San Francisco, CA – June ##, 2010 – Today, Sprout, the leading technology platform for creating rich, engaging ads and social media applications, announced that the Sprout Engage Platform, a visual authoring solution, has been integrated with DoubleClick Studio, a rich media production and workflow tool. The integration makes it easy for creative teams to develop ads in Sprout’s visual authoring studio and then use DoubleClick Studio to manage their workflow and submit creatives to DoubleClick’s ad serving products DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA) and DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP).

“With the February launch of Sprout Engage Ads we showed brands how they can bring the interactivity of a Facebook application into a standard IAB display ad,” said Carnet Williams, Founder and CEO of Sprout. “Today, we are ensuring that these ads can be quickly created and easily brought into the DoubleClick platform for trafficking and measurement.

Now, ads created using Sprout Engage can be uploaded to DoubleClick Studio. The integration allows ad properties, such as rich media events, to be setup during ad creation and carry over to DoubleClick Studio, where the Sprout Engage Ads can be previewed, tested and pushed to DFA or DFP. This ensures the ads can be served by DFA/DFP, which provides clients with accurate measurement metrics wherever the ads are run across the web.

Sprout Engage supports expandables, 3rd party APIs and social data integration with the leading social networks. It also includes a rich set of analytics to measure performance and optimize for success.

“Sprout Engage Ads have dramatically changed the way we look at what we can do in an ad unit,” said Matthew Wessel, Flash developer at ThinkGeek.com who was in the program beta. “Integrating RSS feeds into an ad unit used to be time consuming and difficult. Using Sprout Engage Ad Builder we were able to visually create a fully functioning ad unit in just minutes. And integration with DoubleClick means that we can measure the performance of the creative, which we need.” Wessel added.

About Sprout:

Sprout gives brands a better way to connect with consumers through next generation display ads and engagement applications. Our Engage Platform empowers advertisers and publishers to rapidly deploy rich, interactive, and social brand experiences that encourage consumer engagement. Fully integrated with the leading ad servers and social networks, Sprout campaigns can run anywhere your consumers spend time online. Sprout customers include Disney, Warner Bros., HBO, Federated Media, Intel, Technorati, Toyota, and MTV. Funded by Polaris Venture Partners, Sprout is based in San Francisco and has offices in Los Angeles and Honolulu. To learn more, visit sproutinc.com

The integration allows ad properties, such as rich media events, to be setup during ad creation and carry over to DoubleClick Studio, where the Sprout Engage Ads can be previewed, tested and pushed to DFA or DFP. This ensures the ads can be served by DFA/DFP, which provides clients with accurate measurement metrics wherever the ads are run across the web. Here’s a demo video that shows the process of completing an ad in Sprout and bringing it into DoubleClick Studio:

At Sprout we’re focused on way to streamline the process of creating ads and this integration is focused on the serving side. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can streamline to process of importing artwork into our platform, check out this post. And if you’re interested in learning about how to build HTML5 and Flash ads in a single workflow, check out this post.

Here’s what Matt Wessel, Flash developer at ThinkGeek.com has to say about working with Sprout as a beta tester of the DoubleClick Integration:

If you’re interested in streamlining your workflow even further, check this post about how our new FXG converter allows you to bring your creative from Photoshop directly into Sprout.

1. Layout your creative in a layered Photoshop file and save in .FXG format
2. Launch Sprout’s FXG Converter Air application and drag the .FXG file onto the converter. This will place a .zip file on your desktop.
3. Open your Sprout account and click on the “import” link, then select the .zip file.
4. Wait for the upload, then open the new project in your project list entitled “imported from FXG”

That’s all there is to it! Here’s a demonstration video that guides you through the import process and takes you through the creation of an HTML5 ad unit. If you’re interested in learning more about the details of building an HTML5 unit you can check out this video in which we walk through the build process step by step.