Sprint (NYSE:S) today announced that it has joined with Telefónica to create one of the largest mobile advertising alliances in the world.

Through this agreement, between Telefónica Digital, the digital innovation arm of Telefónica, and Pinsight Media+, powered by Sprint, the two companies will collaborate on ways to enable global brands to potentially reach more than 370 million mobile customers across the United States, Europe and Latin America with targeted advertising.

As investment in mobile advertising accelerates, global brands are increasingly seeking media partners who can deliver insights and access to scaled audiences at a global level.

The alliance between Telefónica Digital and Pinsight Media+ will deliver obvious benefits to advertisers through the potential for increased audience reach across key regions, including the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom and Germany, with a portfolio of impactful advertising formats that are powered by deep customer insights.

Together, Sprint and Telefónica will explore efficient ways of providing global advertisers and agencies with new and easier options to plan multicountry mobile campaigns. The intention is that the network will grow further in scale, particularly to include Asia.

“Telefónica Digital has led the way in Europe and Latin America in mobile advertising, championing consumer privacy, innovative targeting and impactful formats to create a fresh approach for brands to reach their most relevant customers with the right message at the optimal time,” said Simon Birkenhead, director of Global Advertising Sales at Telefónica Digital. “Joining forces with Pinsight Media+ extends Telefónica’s geographic reach and builds on our ongoing strategy to make it easier for global brands to gain access to global audiences, no matter where they reside.”

“This agreement fulfills a need in the advertising market for meeting the mobile advertising requirements of global brands,” said Mike Cooley, vice president of New Ventures at Sprint. “Through this alliance, we are seeking to efficiently expand our capabilities to deliver mobile marketing solutions for U.S.-based advertisers into Europe and Latin America, while Telefónica Digital aims to do the same for their regional customers in the United States.”

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world with more than 314 million customers across 25 countries. It has been pioneering mobile advertising, particularly in the United Kingdom, since 2009. Its global advertising team offers a range of mobile and online advertising services, including permission-based direct messaging, display ads, location-based offers programs and ad-funded consumer services. It currently works with global brands to connect them with customers at the most opportune moments and with a degree of relevancy and engagement not offered by other media providers.

At the heart of the Pinsight Media+ service is Sprint’s commitment to provide customers transparency and privacy choices for interest-based targeted advertising. Building on the existing segmentation targeting used today, Pinsight Media+ allows customers to choose whether they would like to share anonymous information about the way they use their mobile device. Pinsight Media+ then uses this information to provide targeted ads on Sprint-owned and -operated properties, such as Sprint Web on-deck portal for mobile and Sprint Zone.

Sprint customers will continue to see advertisements online and in ad-supported applications and content, regardless of whether they have opted in to receive usage-based targeted ads. If a user chooses to opt in, the interest-based targeted ads will be more relevant to the user’s personal interests.

Building cross-operator cooperation is becoming increasingly important in a sector where scale matters. In addition to the agreement with Pinsight Media+, Telefónica has also created the Weve joint venture in the United Kingdom with Vodafone and Everything Everywhere to accelerate the development of mobile marketing and m-commerce services in that region. Telefónica is committed to further partnerships in order to meet the needs of global advertisers.

Telefónica will be hosting an event on building cross-operator cooperation at this year’s Mobile World Congress, including presentations by both Weve and Sprint. Click here for more info.

About Telefónica Digital

Telefónica Digital is a global business division of Telefónica. Its mission is to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for Telefónica through research & development, venture capital, global partnerships and digital services such as cloud computing, mobile advertising, M2M and eHealth. It is also driving innovation in over the top communications under a new umbrella brand called TU and in Big Data through Telefónica Dynamic Insights.

Telefónica Digital will deliver these new products and services to Telefónica's 314 million customers as well as entering new markets. It is headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paulo, Spain and Tel Aviv. Jajah, Terra, TokBox, Media Networks Latin America, 48 and giffgaff are all managed under the Telefónica Digital umbrella.

To sign up for news alerts and read commentary on Telefónica Digital, visit www.telefonica.com/digitalhub and track them on Twitter @tefdigital

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 55 million customers at the end of 2012 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint No. 1 among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 industries, during the last four years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in both its 2011 and 2012 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

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