The emergence of advertising technology has resulted in the faster and more effective creation and distribution of advertisements to the most relevant target market for any given product or service. Ad-tech firms are driven by strong algorithms that can analyze large volumes of data so as to ensure maximum yields for the advertisers. Given technological advancements like artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and machine learning getting into the advertising scene, many ad-tech players have begun to expand their list of offerings by opening up new arenas like programmatic advertising, targeted mobile advertising, data management, analytics and more.
In this article, we will be evaluating one such ad-tech player that has recently uplisted to the Nasdaq and is known to have a strong base in consolidated data mining, audience insight generation and programmatic advertising - Mobiquity Technologies, Inc. (MOBQ, Financial).
Company overview
Mobiquity Technologies is a diversified next-generation advertising and data player with a focus on programmatic advertising. The company helps advertisers to deliver their message to the correct person within a given time frame in a very effective and efficient manner. It was founded in 1998 and has its headquarters in New York.
It operates through two subsidiaries – Mobiquity Networks (focused on data intelligence) and Advangelists (focused on advertising). Its technological platform is known as ATOS, which is the abbreviation of "Advertising Technology Operating System." The ATOS platform makes an automated marketplace for advertisers as well as publishers on the digital media platforms so they can host auctions online. This facilitates the sale and purchase of the digital advertising inventory while ensuring that these ads get to the targeted users on any connected devices, like televisions, tablet, mobile, laptop, desktop computer and others.
The ATOS platform allows advertisers to know and interact with the target audiences while engaging them more effectively by utilizing ads in image as well as video formats. Mobiquity’s technology for mobile advertising solutions ensures proper collection and analysis of data, giving actionable insights to researchers, marketers and application publishers via this automated platform.
The Advangelist platform
Advangelist is Mobiquity’s flagship business which provides the programmatic advertising platform through a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model. This technology allows advertisers to provide very targeted, at-scale digital advertising. The platform is simple to use and includes all the tools required to run a succesful digital ad campaign. It makes use of a cutting-edge technology for brands and agencies wanting to opt for programmatic ad buying through a real-time facility for optimization.
Advangelist’s base technology is robust enough to counter ad fraud, which helps create a certain level of confidence among the advertiser community. It helps generate a higher yield per dollar spent on advertising by ensuring that its advertising users develop an understanding of the relationship between audience performance and advertiser demand and makes use of models that accurately predict publisher fulfillment. It is important to note that the management has kept this offering highly affordable for advertisers so we can expect its PaaS user base to scale rapidly.
The Mobiquity Networks business
Mobiquity Networks is the data intelligence arm of Mobiquity. Its proprietary algorithms make use of IP addresses, co-location and mobile location features to identify and target unique audiences for advertisers. The company provides mobile location data to marketers, advertisers and researchers in order to generate an insight into real-time consumer behavior and provide tailored messaging which is verified and based on empirical data identifiers. It delivers accurate data points in order to help advertisers understand marketing trends for research purposes.
Mobiquity's management has a belief that the places we visit define us. Based on this belief, it optimizes the use of the location data to create an audience behavior profile. It is currently working with more than 5.5 million precise location polygons showing 4,000+ retail chains all over the U.S. and its location dataset goes over every commercial building, entertainment building and sporting venue.
The company has various revenue-generating models under Mobiquity Networks, including one-time transactions as well as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model which generates ongoing recurring income.
The UNIFD agreement and other updates
Mobiquity Technologies recently entered into an agreement with UNIFD, a digital media player working on brand building for leading brands. UNIFD is known for building a Connected TV marketplace and also an ‘Audio Everywhere’ marketplace. Based on the agreement, UNIFD will be using Mobiquity’s programmatic advertising placements for Roku, FireTv, Samsung, and other Connected TV devices. The deal is highly material in nature for Mobiquity as UNIFD’s Connected TV marketplace covers all top news channels, entertainment channels, and sports channels in the U.S. where there are estimated to be 85 million monthly advertising opportunities and a 98% completion rate. As a result of Mobiquity coming into the picture, advertisers on UNIFD can add Roku and other high-performing Connected TV inventory to their programmatic media buy and reach out to their target audience across mobile desktop and connected TV ecosystems. Mobiquity’s technology plays a key role in analyzing behavioral and contextual data of users and understanding content consumption patterns in order to profile the users and enable targeted advertising.
As per the company press release, the total ad spend for Connected TV is expected to reach $19 billion by the end of 2022. Mobiquity is certainly looking to add to its revenue pile by helping advertisers achieve better targeting in this space. The UNIFD announcement came a few weeks after the company’s MobiExchange platform started allowing advertisers to use targeted text messaging by helping them make use of their first-party data in order to have precise targeting in their digital marketing campaigns. All these developments of the company appear to be highly promising.
Final thoughts
Mobiquity Technologies recently uplisted to the Nasdaq after a funding round. The company went through with a public offering of $10.3 million consisting of nearly 2.5 million shares priced at $4.15 each and is looking to use the funds to scale up its operations and further enhance its technology.
The resultant dilution is the reason for the recent fall in the stock price. However, I believe the company’s stock is quite undervalued as it is trading at a price-sales ratio of hardly 1.41, which is ridiculously low for an ad-tech player with such excellent potential. It is worth highlighting that the company has provided its services to many renowned tech industry players such as Amazon (AMZN, Financial) Web Services, Wawa, Rabobank, Backbase, Philips (XAMS:PHIA, Financial) and Otsuka (TSE:4578, Financial).
In summary, I am highly optimistic about Mobiquity and I believe that the company could be an excellent value opportunity for microcap tech investors with a high risk appetite.
