Mobile Marketing Magazine

AdMob Updates AdWhirl

AdMob has announced an update to the AdWhirl mediation solution for application developers that it acquired last year. The update enables developers to use an unlimited number of ad networks in their apps. Previously, developers could add one ad network of their choice, in addition to AdWhirl’s explicit support for AdMob, JumpTap, MDotM, Millennial Media, and Quattro Wireless for iPhone apps and AdMob and Quattro Wireless for Android apps.
AdMob has also built upon AdWhirl’s existing support for Quattro Wireless to fully support iAd, Apple’s upcoming ad network, when it becomes available. Developers who plan on using iAd when it launches can be confident that AdWhirl will support their needs, the company says.
AdMob has also updated the AdWhirl House Ads functionality to give developers the ability to centrally manage their House Ads across their iPhone and Android apps. Developers can use House Ads to cross-promote their apps and to serve ad campaigns that they sell directly to advertisers. AdMob says it has also made AdWhirl’s user interface more intuitive and powerful, so that developers can easily manage their inventory across multiple applications.
Prior to this announcement, AdMob had previously made AdWhirl open source to give developers complete control and full transparency over how they utilize their ad inventory, and also recently added support for Android apps.  
In a blog post, AdMob VP Engineering, Kvin Scott, says:
“We believe that open source mediation plays an important role in the mobile ecosystem by giving developers the control they need to manage their business. The improvements we’ve made to AdWhirl have all been based on input from the developers who are using it and contributions from AdWhirl’s growing open source community. There are now more than 1,700 apps actively using AdWhirl, including more than 175 Android apps – up from 1,300 apps just 4 months ago. Daily ad requests have also jumped significantly from 40 million when we open sourced AdWhirl to more than 100 million today.
“We plan to continue to invest in AdWhirl and launch additional functionality that will help developers manage their increasingly sophisticated inventory management needs.”

InMobi Unveils AdROIt Solution

Mobile ad network InMobi has unveiled AdROIt, which offers advertisers automated, cost per acquisition-based performance tracking to improve ROI for their mobile advertising campaigns. InMobi says that AdROIt for advertisers expands on its focus to provide detailed, transparent analytics that seek to improve performance for its network partners.
AdROIt utilises ‘goal seek’, allowing advertisers to track key mobile advertising campaign objectives (e.g. quotes for car insurance; reviews on a new digital camera; requests for hotel rates) on a cost per acquisition (CPA) basis,  and then link this performance to a myriad of influences such as the advertising creative, publisher, and consumer targeting details. Using real-time reporting and automated performance feedback, InMobi creates a self-learning network that according to the company, improves performance for advertisers with every impression and every click.
Craig A.  Owensby is Chairman and CEO of PT Code Jawa, an Indonesian content provider and mobile technology developer. He says:
“Over the last six years, we have found that the key to profits is accurate, meaningful information about the effectiveness of our distribution channels. For WAP advertising, the situation is no different. PT Code Jawa has been using InMobi's AdROIt technology for the last two months, and we can say, without question, that the impact has been huge. In the past, we would need to make educated guesses as to which ads led to the needed conversion rates - now we know. Using AdROIt, we know which kinds of publishers generate the best results for us, which means we can spend more in order to drive up market share for those publishers that work, while de-targeting those who do not generate good results. In my opinion, InMobi's AdROIt technology is a game changer in the WAP ad industry.”
Sridhar Ranagathan, VP of Product Management at InMobi says the benefit of AdROIt lies in its ability to incorporate feedback in real-time and automatically adjust the campaign performance accordingly.
“In a mobile advertising industry that is increasingly competitive and complex to manage, we continue to deliver innovative products such as AdROIt, to help advertisers to effortlessly improve performance and feed our self-learning network technology,” he says.
There’s more information about AdROIt here.

Droid Leads the Way for Android in AdMob Stats

AdMob has released its March 2010 Mobile Metrics Report, which takes a closer look at Android Operating System (OS) traffic in its metwork.
The report finds the diversity of devices in the Android ecosystem is increasing, driven by the launch of new devices from different manufacturers with various form factors, capabilities, and OS versions over the past seven months. In contrast, the iPhone OS runs on devices from a single manufacturer, a single form factor (until the launch of the iPad in April), and all devices have the ability to upgrade OS versions.
In March 2010, there were 34 Android devices from 12 manufacturers available to consumers, according to comments from Jeff Huber in Google’s Q1 2010 Earnings Call. In AdMob’s network in March 2010, 11 devices accounted for 96% of Android traffic, up from two devices in September 2009. The three primary versions of the Android OS all drove significant traffic in March 2010 – Android 1.5 (38%), Android 2.0/2.1 (35%) and Android 1.6 (26%). Motorola and HTC were the leading Android device manufacturers with 44% and 43% of traffic respectively.  
Highlights from the report include:

• Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset in March 2010 generating 32% of Android traffic, while the Google Nexus One drove only 2% of Android traffic.
• At least 54% of Android traffic came from devices with a QWERTY keyboard.
• Three devices – the iPhone 3GS (39%), second generation iPod touch (25%) and iPhone 3G (20%) – generated 84% of total iPhone OS traffic.
• iPhone 3GS traffic share has increased from 30% in September 2009 to 39% in March 2010. The 1st Generation iPhone only generated 2% of iPhone OS requests in March 2010.
• Total worldwide traffic in AdMob’s network increased 18% month-over-month.

You can access the full report, plus archived reports from other months, here.

Mobile Ad Spend Up 32% say IAB/PwC

The UK mobile advertising market grew by 32% in 2009 to reach £37.6 million, according to the second annual study of the market carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Every quarter in 2009 showed consistent, strong growth with Q4 delivering a record display advertising spend of £5.5 million – an increase of 28% over Q4 2008. The study also identifies Entertainment & Media as the biggest mobile advertising category, a long way ahead of Telecoms in second place. 
Here are the highlights of the report:

• Mobile search was the fastest growing format – up 41% to £20.2 million and a market share of 54% compared to 50% in 2008
• Mobile display – which includes banners, text links, tenancies, pre- and post-roll video and in-game advertising – grew by 24% to £17.4 million and a market share of 46%, compared to 50% in 2008.
• Spend on banners and text links was 26% year on year to £14.6 million
• Tenancies were up 17% year on year to £1.4 million
• Other formats, including display advertising within SMS/MMS, were up 26% year on year, to £1.2 million.
• The top five display advertising categories in 2009 were Entertainment & Media (61.5%); Telecoms (14.7%); Finance (8.1%); Consumer Goods (3.2%); and Government, social and political (2.7%).

Jon Mew, the IAB’s Head of Mobile says: “While market conditions saw many advertisers reduce their investment and testing on mobile, these findings paint a positive picture of a compelling new advertising medium. Mobile is an effective, highly targeted and complementary advertising channel. Signs are that 2010 will be important year as confidence and budgets increase.”
But  PwC’s Eva Berg-Winters points out that: "A successful year for mobile has been underpinned by mixed performances. There were two distinct approaches from advertisers and publishers. They either cut spend or continued to invest and develop their use of mobile - with a view to come out on top following the downturn. Recent investment in mobile has significantly outweighed the budget cuts. This signals the belief that it is set to become an important medium."
The study reports on actual media spend, in order to ensure fair comparison to other media, including display advertising. Figures do not include SMS/MMS production and delivery costs, nor other mobile marketing revenues such as app production. All growth figures are like for like, meaning that the results compare companies that submitted in 2008 and 2009. 17 companies representing “hundreds” of websites, took part in the survey. The figures in the report are based on participants’ data, except for search figures, which are derived from “modelling and industry estimates”.

Jumptap, Medialets and Crisp Launch Rich Media Ad Platform

Mobile advertising solutions provider and ad network Jumptap has teamed up with Medialets and Crisp Wireless to create what it says is the industry's first Unified Rich Media Ad Platform, delivering highly-engaging, rich media ad units for mobile apps and the mobile web.
The combination of the three mobile ad providers gives advertisers and publishers a single point from which to run diverse rich media ad units across multiple devices, technology platforms, browsers and publishers, from one ad network. In addition, Jumptap's published open standards allow any rich media provider to plug into its ad network.  
"Advertisers have an opportunity to capitalize on the personal, always-on nature of mobile devices with rich media ad units designed to interact and capture the minds and hearts of its users," says Jumptap Chief Product Officer and General Manager, Adam Soroca. "Rich media campaigns are proven to drive higher levels of user engagement, more than any other media, with demonstrated increases in message lift association and higher CTRs."
The Unified Rich Media Platform offers various new and creative formats to capture consumers’ attention. These include banners; video and web interstitials; configurable click through actions; tap-to-video; tap-to-audio; scrolling shakable; take-over-branding; location-aware, and more. The ad units are designed to retain the experience within the app or on the mobile site.
Jumptap will initially be offering its unified rich media support on mobile websites and with an iPhone SDK. Android and iPad rich media support will be coming soon.  
"Brands are willing to make a deeper financial investment for the highest engagement opportunities, rapidly accelerating demand for these interactive innovative units," says John Swafford, President, Swafford & Company Advertising. "We've seen rich media campaigns generate a 10 - 30% increase in engagement. Jumptap's new platform should make it easy to implement rich media into our mobile campaigns."

Maserati Goes Mobile with 4th Screen Campaign

Premium mobile advertising agency 4th Screen Advertising has completed a deal with global media agency MEC for a mobile campaign for luxury car manufacturer Maserati, to support the launch of its latest model, the GranCabrio. 
Using 4th Screen’s rich media advertising format, iSlide, mobile advertising for the new car targets iPhone users across 4th Screen’s premium mobile advertising engagement platform, Mpression, to include high quality inventory in UK from publishers such as Guardian mobile and ITN. This is the first time that Maserati has used a mobile advertising campaign targeted specifically at Smartphone users, with bespoke rich media formats.
The iSlide expandable format is similar to online formats, where users can click on the banner which expands the ad to deliver a full screen, rich media display. The iSlide format also integrates seamlessly with the iPhone, enabling a direct connection to be made to a full blown ‘above-the-line’ advert. For Maserati, the expandable ad format features a hero shot of the GranCabrio, which links through to a dedicated micro site for the new car, enabling consumers to explore the car in more detail.
The mobile activity forms part of an integrated campaign to raise the profile of GranCabrio as it launches in the UK. The mobile activity will run alongside online and press. All media was planned and bought by MEC.
“Detailed analysis of TGI and Comscore, which provides information on target demographic groups and mobile behaviour, showed that Maserati’s customer base correlates highly with Smartphone consumers,” says 4th Screen Account Manager, Will Rusack. “More than this, new Smartphone demographics allow us to execute high-quality campaigns based on an array of campaign parameters and this is essential for Maserati’s brand. We are delighted to be working and engaging with such a premium brand. It is a sign of the growing maturity of mobile as an advertising channel."

Alcatel-Lucent Launches Operator Ad Solution

Alcatel-Lucent has unveiled its Optism Mobile Advertising Solution, a while-label offering that enables mobile operators to offer preference-based mobile advertising services to their subscribers on an opt-in basis.
Optimism includes a media arm, which brokers relationships between mobile operators and advertisers, simplifying the media selling process for aggregated operator inventory. Since the service is aggregated across multiple operators, media buyers can make a cross-network mobile media buy via the Optism web-based interface.
The solution is based around a scalable, hosted advertising platform that reduces barriers to entry for mobile operators and easily and directly connects them with advertisers. Alcatel-Lucent takes a share of the revenue from advertising spend.
The platform uses permission and stated preferences to deliver advertising to subscribers’ mobile phones. Interactions are tailored to their specific interests and lifestyles, such as discount offers on products and services related to subjects they have expressed an interest in.
The first two operators to sign up for the service are E+ in Germany and Orange Austria, whose Senior Business Developer (Advertising Solutions), Juergen Pillinger, says: “By working with Alcatel-Lucent, we can provide value to our subscribers by ensuring that ads are interest-based, while growing our revenue without adding complexity to our operations. The Mobile Advertising Solution allows us to deliver targeted ads that subscribers actually want to receive, while providing a highly responsive channel for brands and media agencies.”
Eden Zoller, Principal Analyst, Ovum Consumer Practice, notes that fragmentation and lack of scale have acted as a brake on mobile advertising, deterring the advertising community and slowing overall growth,” describes Alcatel-Lucent’s move as “a positive step in the right direction.”
And David Kyffin, Global Chief ROI and Direct Marketing Officer at media agency Mediacom has also welcomed Optim, saying: “The most desirable inventory involves user permissions supplemented by explicit preferences and must offer broad scale to truly harness mobile as a marketing channel. Clients are increasingly asking if they can run campaigns over multiple regions and at scale. Alcatel-Lucent's operating model and access to multiple mobile operators is a big step towards meeting these requirements.”

Indonesia Dominates BuzzCity Ad Index, but UK Rising Fast

Mobile media network BuzzCity has released the results of its Global Mobile Advertising Index for Q1 2010. The Index tracks activity across BuzzCity’s network of over 2,000 publishers worldwide. The data, gathered over the three month period from January to March, reveals a 38% increase in the number of ads served in the BuzzCity network over the previous quarter.
Indonesia, India, the US and S. Africa continued their dominance among the top five and were joined by Canada for the first time. The UK also demonstrated strong growth, with approximately 230 million ads served over the three month period - an increase of 114% on the previous quarter.
The top 10 most active countries in were:

1. Indonesia: 2.9bn ads served (+38% on Q4 2009)
2. India: 1.1bn (+71%)
3. US: 465.2m (+54%)
4. S. Africa: 357.9m (+15%)
5. Canada: 238.9m (+68%)
6. UK: 229.4m (+114%)
7. Saudi Arabia: 162.3m (-15%)
8. Norway: 131.1m (+92%)
9. Nigeria: 125.7m (+47%)
10. Malaysia: 116.2m (+14%)

“During Q1, a total of 32 markets each delivered monthly traffic in excess of 10 million impressions per month,” says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “This demonstrates the continued advertiser interest in mobile Internet advertising, and with many of the campaigns now being run through experienced agencies, we are starting to see a more constant and structured investment in the medium. We are also starting to observe a greater investment in mobile from brands outside the mobile content sector, most notably among operators.
“With the increase in affordable high-end phones and greater public awareness of the mobile web, 2010 has also driven a rise in the volume of global mobile traffic. This increase in volume and continued advertiser interest has meant publishers can expect better returns as a greater variety of advertisers get better acquainted with the media. This is a trend which we predict will continue to fuel the rise of the mobile advertising industry during 2010.”

McDonalds Scores with Cheesy Location-based Campaign

NAVTEQ has released the results of its first location-targeted campaign in Europe by a global brand advertiser, McDonald’s.
The campaign, powered by NAVTEQ LocationPoint Advertising, enabled McDonald’s to deliver location-relevant mobile ads to users of Nokia Ovi Maps when they were within a certain distance of McDonald’s 82 restaurants in Finland. The ad campaign promoted a McDonald’s cheeseburger for €1. Consumers who clicked on the ads saw the details of the promotion, and could receive driving or walking directions to the nearest store location.
The campaign delivered a 7% clickthrough rate, and of those who clicked through, 39% selected the click-to-navigate option, which offered ‘drive to’ or ’walk to’ navigation to the nearest McDonald’s location, using Nokia’s Ovi Maps navigation.
“Targeting consumers when they are near our locations and then navigating them right into our stores is powerful marketing for McDonald’s,” saysTomi Wirtanen, Head of Marketing for McDonald’s Finland. “We are thrilled with the results from this campaign. NAVTEQ LocationPoint proved that location targeted mobile advertising does indeed drive foot traffic into our restaurants.”
Tuula Rytilä-Uotila, Vice President Location at Nokia, believes that NAVTEQ is uniquely positioned to bridge the digital and physical worlds by combining its location assets with Nokia’s consumer reach. “As consumers turn to their mobile devices for more services, such as music, maps, and entertainment, contextually relevant advertising can enhance the consumer experience while minimizing costs of the services to users,” he says.
And Christopher Rothey, Vice President Market Development and Advertising for NAVTEQ, flags up the unique characteristics of mobile as a marketing channel. He says: 
“If you look at what the mobile environment brings to advertising, it’s two things, personalisation and location, and if you involve those in an ad campaign, you get high relevance, which is extremely valuable to both the advertiser and the consumer.
“McDonald’s is among the first advertisers in Europe to provide insight into the growing location-based advertising market. The outstanding performance of the McDonald’s campaign validates the promise that location-based ads are more relevant to the consumer and greater relevance means higher impact.”

Greystripe Finds Advertiser Interest in iFlash for iPad

Mobile advertising network Greystriipe has released the results of a survey among its advertisers that show more than 50% expressing interest in the company’s iFlash advertising units on the iPad.
 With over 300,000 iPads sold and over 1 million apps downloaded on the iPad on the first day, many predict the iPad as the catalyst for growth among application developers and advertisers. Apple reports that iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of opening their new iPad.  Before the iPad’s official launch, there were already more than 1,000 applications written specifically for the iPad.
Greystripe recently extended its iFlash ad units to the iPad platform. iFlash takes ads created using Flash and transcodes them to run on the iPhone and iPad. Greystripe says that advertisers see higher performance with iFlash ads on mobile, compared to the same online campaigns, with average clickthrough rates well above 1%.
“Greystripe’s iFlash technology allows advertisers to easily integrate the online world and the iPad,” says Josh Mallalieu, Director, Mobile Media & Integration at mobile marketing firm, Ansible. “Brands understand the potential that the iPad has to change the way data is consumed, like the iPhone did. They know they need to participate, but many do not have a clear vision of how to take advantage. Greystripe enables brands to expand their existing campaigns by delivering their standard online creatives built in Flash on the iPad and iPhone.”
There’s more information about iFlash here.

Smaato Unveils iPad SDK

Mobile ad optimization firm Smaato has released a new version of its iSOMA SDK (Software Development Kit) for iPad applications and mobile websites.
The iSOMA for iPad SDK will support multiple new ad formats, including the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Universal Ad Package (UAP). The SDK also supports the Mobile Marketing Association’s mobile ad formats, including new, rich media banner formats that are emerging from Smaato’s 36 ad network partners.
“There is a lot of excitement in the mobile publishing market about the iPad and new features in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 release,” says Smaato CEO & Co-Founder. Ragnar Kruse. “We are happy to continue our support for the iPhone platform and the iPad as the new addition to mobile device choices.”
Apple’s iPad is a hybrid mobile device that is expected to be heavily used to surf the web, access media application, and play with mobile entertainment offerings. First applications and media offerings from publishers of TIME, Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are using a blend of new innovative advertising formats that add multimedia functions, like video and sound.
Smaato Advanced Mobile Analytics will be included in the iPad SDK 1.0. This provides a comprehensive set of tools that enable mobile publishers to optimize their inventory for the iPad to maximize user experience and insights. Smaato will make the new iSOMA for iPad version available for free download with registration on the sign-up portal.
Smaato notes that better options for iSOMA mobile advertising functions are now available with the multitasking and background functions in the new “tentpoles” of the iPhone 4.0 OS. This will make easier interaction available for cross-platform, mobile-branded landing pages, because the user flow while in an app is not disconnected – the app can stay open in the background. This will allow similar mobile advertising features to those offered by Apple’s iAd mobile advertising platform unveiled yesterday.

Apple Unveils iAd Mobile Ad Network

Apple has announced the launch of its iAd in-application mobile advertising network, as part of a preview of its iPhone OS 4 software. The iPhone OS 4 beta release also includes an updated Software Development Kit (SDK), with over 1,500 new APIs (Application Programming Interface) and over 100 new features.
Apple says that iAd “combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads”. Apple will sell and host the ads, and give 60% of the revenue to app developers.
iPhone OS 4.0 also introduces the concept of multitasking to the to the iPhone, iPad Touch and iPad, enabling users to run multiple applications at the same time. Users can switch between applications by double-tapping the ‘Home’ button, which brings up the icons of all the apps currently in use.
“iPhone OS 4 is the fourth major release of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” says Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “We’re delivering over 100 new features, including multitasking, folders, a unified inbox, deeper Enterprise support, and an iPhone version of our iBooks reader and online iBookstore.”
The iPhone OS 4 beta software and SDK are available immediately for iPhone Developer Program members here.
iPhone OS 4 will be available as a software update to iPhone and iPod touch users in the summer. iPad owners will have to wait until the autumn.

AdMob Campaign Boosts Game's App Store Ranking

Zattikka’s ‘Finger Frenzy’ game has raced up the UK App Store ranking with the help of an ad campaign on mobile ad network AdMob. The iPhone-focused advertising campaign pushed Finger Frenzy’s position from within the 100’s to number 24 in just a few days.
Following the successful launch of the game with an Apple ‘What’s Hot’ co-promotion at Christmas, the number of downloads and popularity level declined sharply. With 140,000 apps currently available in the App Store, Zattikka found it difficult to get its paid-for app noticed. To achieve its objective of breaking into the UK’s top 25 paid games, Zattikka turned to AdMob to help propel Finger Frenzy back into the App Store rankings and increase public interest.
Zattikka used AdMob’s cost-per-click text and tile ads, which send users directly from the ad to the app’s download page. With just one click, consumers were able to buy the game, which challenges them to type the alphabet as quickly as possible.
The campaign concentrated on the 3G and 3Gs iPhone and iPod touch handsets, reaching consumers in the UK across more than 3,000 iPhone apps in AdMob’s network. To provide transparency to the consumer and ensure qualified clicks, the £0.59 game price was highlighted.
 “We turned to AdMob to re-ignite download activity, and our campaign resulted in an immediate increase in downloads, and an even higher ranking impact than the ‘What’s Hot’ placement we previously held in the UK App Store” says Matt Spall, Head of Product Development at Zattikka.
Thomas Schulz, Managing Director at AdMob, EMEA, notes that with nearly 38,000 apps added to Apple’s App Store so far in 2010, and millions downloaded every week, it is becoming increasingly difficult for developers to grasp the attention of consumers.
"The Finger Frenzy campaign is a fantastic example of how developers can employ mobile advertising to improve sales of their applications,” he says. “Mobile advertising benefits both consumers and developers, as the ads help consumers find new apps, and developers can devote more time to creating and updating their apps." 

blinkx and Mobica in Mobile Video Tie-up

Video search engine blinkx has announced a strategic partnership with Mobica, which provides mobile solutions and services for handset vendors, platform providers and mobile carriers.
Under the terms of the agreement, blinkx and Mobica will collaborate to build a platform-independent service that delivers professionally-produced news and entertainment highlights to mobile devices, so consumers can enjoy a variety of themed channels, featuring relevant and up-to-date video clips in a ‘snack-size’format. The companies say the joint offering will deliver unique benefits to operators, enabling them to act as mobile broadcasters  and thereby gain advertising revenue, as well as increasing  user satisfaction and retention.  
Leveraging blinkx’s AdHoc platform, the first contextual advertising platform for online video, the offering also offers advertisers the opportunity to combine professionally-produced video content with contextually targeted advertising. 
“Consumer demand for mobile video continues to grow exponentially, and blinkx can deliver top quality content in an ideal format – a playlist of relevant, snackable content,” says blinkx CEO, Suranga Chandratillake. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Mobica, one of the most dynamic companies in the mobile development space, to deliver this unique video solution to wireless operators.”
As part of its web-based offering, blinkx has formed more than 650 partnerships and indexed over 35 million hours of video and audio content to date.

Smaato and Alcatel-Lucent Partner to Cut App Development Costs

Mobile ad optimizer and advertising company Smaato is teaming up with Alcatel-Lucent to deliver what it says is the industry's first packaged API (Application Programming Interfaces) bundles, to simplify and reduce the cost of application development.
Providing an advertising API within Alcatel-Lucent’s larger bundled set of APIs for app developers,  Smaato is participating in a new industry revenue-sharing model that it says radically transforms application innovation, by eliminating upfront costs for developers, extending application reach, and opening new revenue opportunities for developers and service providers alike.
"We welcome the pioneering social API initiative of Alcatel-Lucent to provide more upside for developers to reach better monetization through mobile advertising and added targeting value, such as location," says Smaato CEO, Ragnar Kruse. “We are proud our SOMA mobile advertising platform supporting Android and iPhone is already implemented to help mobile publishers maximize their impact on mobile audiences through value added services.”
Smaato is joining other enterprises participating in Alcatel-Lucent’s delivery of API bundles that collectively includes SMS, advertising, location, virtual goods, credit card and billing. The bundling targets the 14 million-plus developers worldwide, and the two fastest growing and increasingly profitable application markets today: mobile advertising and virtual goods. Recent industry research suggests mobile advertising will exceed $3 billion by 2013 and that today's virtual goods market is worth between $4-6 billion globally.
The bundled API offering is part of a larger push by Alcatel-Lucent to give developers the ability to use the service provider network as a development platform in the same way they currently build applications for mobile devices and the web.
“The bundles provide developers with immediate, pre-integrated access to broad application capabilities, without having to understand the underlying application or network APIs, says Redg Snodgrass, Senior Director, Strategic Developer Alliances at Alcatel-Lucent. “In addition, developers are able to make API calls without upfront cost, and instead share revenue on the back-end when applications using the APIs actually make money. Service providers and third party API providers also get a cut of revenue when their APIs are accessed.”
Developers can access the bundles through Alcatel-Lucent’s developer community.

Smaato Adds Analytics to SOMA Platform

Mobile ad optimization firm Smaato has announced a partnership with Motally to deliver smarter and cross-platform analytics for mobile developers and publishers. Motally is a San Francisco-based provider of independent mobile analytics for mobile Internet, iPad, iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone and other platforms.
Smaato notes that many app developers and mobile website publishers have serious issues in trying to track the usage of their properties across different platforms. Smaato Advanced Mobile Analytics provides a set of tools that enables mobile publishers to optimize their inventory for iPhone, Android, Symbian and the upcoming iPad, to maximize user experience and insights. In addition Smaato’s SOMA platform adds visibility and aggregated reporting across all major mobile ad networks worldwide.
Smaato Advanced Mobile Analytics offers developers and publishers a dashboard view that enables them to see mobile traffic at a glance or drill down into more detailed stats and charts. It also offers data on users’ location, device and network provider, as well as detailed traffic tracking to reveal the click flow and the top pages on a site. The solution is easily integrated into mobile sites and apps via   SDKs and code snippets.
Anyone wishing to use Smaato Advanced Mobile Analytics can sign up as part of their SOMA registration here.

madvertise Secures Funds for European Expansion

Mobile ad network madvertise has closed its third series of A-round with Earlybird, which, together with  madvertise co-founder Team Europe Ventures, has invested a medium, single-digit million Euro amount.
"The growing global mobile advertising market worth billions of dollars and the associated growth potential for madvertise encourage us to consistently strengthen our position", says madvertise CEO, Carsten Frien. "The significant changes in media consumption lead to a significant shift of advertising budgets towards mobile services. We use the advanced madvertise technology and our sales team to efficiently address this trend for our clients."
Frien adds that the company’s aim is to establish madvertise as market leader for mobile advertising in German-speaking countries, and to expand internationally in Europe via partnerships. "With the network and expertise of our experienced investors, we are now in the position to achieve these goals in a faster and more sustainable way," he says.

iAd for the iPad?

Ever since the iPad was announced, the question on many people’s lips has been what impact it might have on the mobile marketing business. Rumours are now circulating that it could be pretty significant. The US website Online Media Daily reports that Apple is preparing to announce a personalized, mobile advertising system – it believes it could be called the ‘iAd’. According to the report, Apple boss Steve Jobs will reveal all to US ad agency chiefs on 7 April.
That’s about as much detail as there is in the report. All will be revealed – or not – in just over a week’s time.

Touch Leads the Way in Mobile Internet Device Growth

Mobile advertising network AdMob has released its Mobile Metrics Report for February. The report examines the growth rate of Smartphones, feature phones, and mobile Internet devices over the past year.
In February 2010, Smartphones accounted for 48% of AdMob’s worldwide traffic, up from 35% in February 2009. The strong growth of iPhone and Android traffic, fuelled by heavy application usage, was primarily responsible for the increase, AdMob says.
Although the share of feature phone traffic in AdMob’s network declined from 58% to 35% year-on-year, absolute traffic from feature phones still grew 31%. Mobile Internet devices experienced the strongest growth of the three categories, increasing to account for 17% of traffic in AdMob’s network in February 2010. The iPod touch is the top mobile Internet device and is responsible for vast majority of this traffic. Other devices include the Sony PSP and Nintendo DSi.
Highlights from the February 2010 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report include:

• iPhone OS increased its share of Smartphone requests from 33% in February 2009 to 50% in February 2010.
• Symbian's share of Smartphone requests fell from 43% in February 2009 to 18% in February 2010.
• Android increased its share from 2% in February 2009 to 24% in February 2010. 
• The top five Android devices worldwide, by traffic, were the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Hero, HTC Magic, and the Motorola CLIQ. The Google Nexus One generated just 1% of total Android traffic in February 2010.
• Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and LG were the top manufacturers of feature phones. Top feature phones from each manufacturer in AdMob’s network were the Samsung SCH R350, Nokia 3110c, Sony Ericsson W200i, Motorola RAZR V3, and LG CU920.             

For the purpose of categorisation, AdMob considers a Smartphone to run an identifiable Operating System, a feature phone to be mobile phone that does not fit into the Smartphone category, and a mobile Internet device to be a handheld device that connects to the mobile Internet but is not a phone. AdMob has changed the format of the country pages in the February 2010 Report to include the top 10 Smartphones and additional trended data.
You can access the full report, as well as archived reports from previous months, here.

AdMob Rolls Out SDKs and Ad Management Tools

Mobile advertising network AdMob has launched new SDKs (Software Development Kit) for Android and Flash Lite platforms, and updated its iPhone SDK. The company is also launching a number of new tools to enable publishers to manage their mobile business, including a Publisher Dashboard, an enhanced Reporting UI (User Interface), a (beta) Reporting API (Application Programming Interface) and server-side SDK Controls.
In addition, AdMob has introduced an ‘Adaptive Mobile Ad Unit’. This is a banner ad unit that remains a constant size as consumers pinch and scroll through a web site that’s designed for a PC screen on their mobile device. The company is also rolling out AdWhirl for iPhone and Android applications. This is an open source mediation tool that gives the developers of more than 1,500 mobile applications additional choice and control in monetising their mobile traffic
 “Developers and publishers are building engaging services across multiple mobile platforms and need the tools to effectively monetise their traffic,” sais AdMob CEO, Omar Hamoui. “The explosive growth we’re seeing makes it an exciting time to be an important part of the mobile advertising industry. We’ve worked very hard to create innovative ways to help mobile developers achieve their goals and easily manage their business – whether on the iPhone, Android or other emerging platforms.”
According to AdMob, Android devices now account for 10 per cent of Smartphone ad requests in the UK, while the HTC Hero and Dream devices are the third and fourth top handset models. “Apple’s devices drove the creation of many new ad formats to engage and interact with consumers, and our new SDKs will ensure that this innovation continues across other platforms,” says Thomas Schulz, EMEA Managing Director at AdMob.
A recent AdMob survey found that 31% of developers in the company’s network are working across multiple mobile platforms today, while 47% said they plan on developing on more than one platform in the next six months. Other findings from the survey include:

• More than 70% of iPhone developers plan to develop for Android over the next six months and 48% of Android developers plan to develop for iPhone.
• Developers are generally satisfied with the success of their applications, with 64% rating their app “very” or “somewhat” successful. Developers were most satisfied with the iPhone platform and least satisfied with RIM.
• 58% of developers currently develop mobile Web sites.
• Many developers are new to mobile, with 49% saying they have been developing for mobile less than a year.

ReplaceAds Launches Mobile Ad Network

ReplaceAds, which operates a network offering audio, video, and display ad inventory in the Internet radio sector, has launched a mobile advertising platform. With over 2,000 radio stations available on iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, Android, and other handsets, ReplaceAds generates more than 250 million mobile advertising impressions per month (source: comScore). These impressions can filled with video, audio, or display ads on Smartphones, or standard banner, text, SMS or MMS ads on feature phones.
“Mobile audio and video streaming is growing at a phenomenal rate,” says John Williams, CEO and Founder of ReplaceAds’ parent company Jetcast. “Our new mobile monetization platform allows broadcasters to quickly grow their mobile revenues and for advertisers to easily and cost effectively reach our affluent, and highly engaged mobile audience."
Jetcast notes that with mobile streaming hitting an all time high, more people today are listening to radio via their iPhone, BlackBerry or Android Smartphones than ever before. Bridge Ratings projects that the mobile phone radio audience will reach 40 million by 2015.
Stations with mobile streaming applications can join the ReplaceAds network and start earning advertising revenue immediately with little or no integration necessary. Advertisers interested in reaching the ReplaceAds mobile audience should head for the ReplaceAds website.

Out There Campaign Goes Down a Storm

In 2009, BlackBerry maker RIM launched the the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm 9500 Smartphone.
RIM and Out There Media teamed up to create and manage a mobile advertising campaign across Austria to target the under-26 year old market with the new device. The campaign ran for two weeks in August 2009 and was delivered to Vodafone subscribers via the Vodafone live! portal. Visitors to the portal were offered a free Justin Timberlake music video as an incentive to watch a short 15-second advertisement.
Over the course of the two-week mobile advertising campaign with Out There Media, the BlackBerry Storm ad was viewed a total of 140,000 times via the Vodafone live! portal. The advertisement as a clickthrough-rate of 5.5% and the Justin Timberlake video was streamed a total of 2,101 times. The conversion rate for the entire campaign was 27.5%.
“This is a great example of targeted mobile advertising in action and the fantastic results that brands can achieve through this medium,” says Out There Media CEO, Kerstin Trikalitis. “We believe very strongly in the power of reaching out to consumers directly and we are very happy to witness through all our campaigns that mobile advertising is an ideal way of doing so. Targeted and appropriate campaigns, such as this one for RIM, prove that this approach can achieve great results.”

MMA Releases Rich Media Ad Whitepaper

The Mobile Marketing Association has launched a whitepaper on Rich Media Mobile Advertising. The whitepaper is designed to educate the mobile marketing industry about currently available Rich Media mobile ad units.
The whitepaper includes definitions, attributes and examples of Rich Media advertising that are currently being used in the marketplace.  In producing the document, the MMA created a definition for Rich Media Mobile Ad Units, which are interactive and/or non-interactive ad units displayed on a mobile web page and/or in a mobile application that offers one or more of the following: inclusion of streaming video content or animated GIF within the ad unit; inclusion of sound; or a richer interactive feature set than basic mobile clickthrough, such as user interaction that occurs through input other than a click or a tap.
The whitepaper was created by MMA member companies serving on the organization’s Mobile Advertising Committee, including Crisp Wireless, Eyewonder, GOGII, Greystripe, JumpTap, Medialets, Millenial Media, Quattro Wireless, Rhythm NewMedia, and The Weather Channel.
“The 2009 Asia Pacific Smartphone market is estimated to be 52 million devices, which indicates a tech-savvy consumer group that wants to get the most out of their mobile experiences. With increasing penetration of these feature-rich Smartphones, marketers have now started to increase mobile ad capabilities and provide richer content on mobile devices,” says Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, MMA. “The purpose of this whitepaper is to educate the industry about the Rich Media Mobile Ad units that are available for use in mobile advertising. We aim to encourage experimentation with these Rich Media Mobile Ad Units, and to influence future Rich Media Mobile Advertising Guidelines.”
You can download the whitepaper here.

Federal Trade Commission Pries Into Google/AdMob deal

Google's proposed buy-out of AdMob may have hit its first serious hurdle, as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gears up for what looks like the beginning of an antitrust challenge to the deal, writes Martin Conway. It has emerged that the FTC has asked two of Google's competitors, both as yet unnamed, to submit sworn declarations to this effect, amid concerns that the AdMob acquisition could grant Google an unfair advantage over its rivals in the US.
Although the requests for declarations are being conducted privately, the Internet was awash with speculation this week, with some mobile sector commentators rumouring Apple to be one of the two companies cooperating with the FTC.
The FTC's proposed investigation will hardly come as a shock to many, least of all to Google. When the AdMob deal was announced in November 2009, Google's own blog somewhat presciently stated: "Closer scrutiny has been the consequence of our success [and], on that basis, we wouldn't be surprised if there were some regulatory review before the deal closes."
Both parties remain tight-lipped on the situation, although Google's mood appears fairly upbeat, with Google spokesperson Adam Kovacevich claiming to be "confident that [the FTC] will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive after this deal closes." Similarly, Russell Buckley, Vice President of Global Alliances at AdMob, tells Mobile Marketing: "This is nothing we didn't expect – we're just going through the normal approvals process."
The AdMob acquisition, valued at $750 million (£495 million), is Google's most significant foray into the mobile advertising sector to date, and represents the third largest purchase in its history, following its acquisition of DoubleClick in 2008 ($3.2 billion) and of YouTube in 2006 ($1.65 billion). Should the deal now be allowed to progress, it is estimated that Google and AdMob would jointly command a 21% share of the US mobile advertising market. AdMob's publisher network currently boasts  more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications for iPhone, Android and webOS.
The question now is whether the investigation will constitute a temporary setback or a major headache for the Internet search giant. Readers may recall that Google faced similar accusations of anti-competitive practice while concluding its acquisition of DoubleClick, although that deal was eventually cleared by both US and European legislators. However, the threat of an antitrust law suit, issued by the US Department of Justice, was enough to scupper the group's 2008 plans to forge an ads-search partnership with Yahoo.
Julien Theys, Analyst at research company Screen Digest, believes that the FTC's investigation is a "nice compliment" to Google's position in the market, while simultaneously being bound to "make Google's competitors very happy". Realistically, he opines, such scrutiny is just a "sign of the times". He tells Mobile Marketing: "Google's going through the same regulatory hassles that Microsoft has encountered for years. I'm not sure that this move will be a major setback, and I don't think it's likely that the deal will be stopped, as there are so many other big players in the US market. From the mobile end, it's very scattered in terms of marketplace, and there isn't yet one predominant force."
On the other hand, Greg Sterling, Founding Principal of research and consulting firm Sterling Market Intelligence, claims that while the intensified scrutiny does not necessarily equal a formal challenge to the deal, it is too uncertain to make a call either way, and that the investigation should be taken seriously. "I don't think it's a tempest in a teapot," he comments. "There are a number of industry watchers, privacy advocates and commentators who are genuinely concerned about Google's strength and power, and who would like to prevent anything that might enhance it further, even if this particular deal does not technically fall foul of the US antitrust rules."
However, like Theys, Sterling doesn't see a challenge to the deal as being in the mobile advertising industry's best interest. "Most of AdMob's immediate competitors have cheered the deal because they see it as validating and raising the profile of their businesses as well," he says. "They would all like to be bought like AdMob, and the Google deal has helped that possibility. The US, European and Asian mobile advertising markets will remain very competitive if the deal is approved, though it would make Google a formidable company in mobile."

Jumptap Secures Mobile Content Bid Management Patent

Mobile ad network Jumptap has been awarded Patent No. 7,676,394 by the United States Patent Office. The patent relates to an automated bid management system for dynamically managing bids for presentation of mobile content on a mobile device.
The patent is one of five issued to Jumptap in less than nine months. Since June 16, 2009, Jumptap has been issued four other patents, Numbers 7548915, 7577665, 7603360 and 7660581. The company currently has over 70 published patent applications and anticipates receiving additional patents over the coming quarters.
“Morgan Stanley recently predicted that more users will access the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years. Mobile advertising is achieving equally rapid growth in adoption and acceptance as the most effective channel for reaching and engaging consumers,” says Jorey Ramer, Founder, Vice President of Corporate Development and a named inventor on the patent. “Advertisers are increasingly demanding more sophisticated capabilities from mobile advertising solution providers. Our patent portfolio is a direct reflection of our early innovation, greater R&D investment, and superior functionality.”

Todacell Secures Funds for Expansion

Mobile ad network Todacell has secured an additional $1 million (£667,000) round of funding from existing investor AfterDox. Part of the investment has been allocated to sales and marketing, including the opening of five new sales offices in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Bombay. To date, Todacell has secured $2 million from AfterDox and others, including $350,000 seed funding from the Fore Group.
Todacell is a publisher-centric mobile ad network whose proprietary inventory analysis technology examines and maps a publisher’s ad inventory based on user data, location, time, and the performance of ad campaigns on that publisher’s mobile website or application. Todacell says that this process results in a very accurate match between publisher and advertiser, generating better ad performance for advertisers, while providing greater ad revenue for publishers.
“Todacell’s technology and analysis of our mobile site and application enables them to deliver effective campaigns that exceed our advertisers’ goals, which in turn generates greater revenue for eBuddy,” says  Rogier van den Heuvel, VP World Sales at eBuddy. “Thanks to Todacell, mobile advertising can be a win-win for advertisers and publishers, too.”
Todacell works with a select group of publishers including Fring, MobiLuck, Mocospace and TuneWiki. By limiting the range of publishers that the company works with, it says it is better able to optimize performance for each publisher. The limited list of publishers also ensures that advertisers know exactly on which publishers sites and apps their campaigns will appear, bringing complete transparency to the mobile marketing industry.
Beyond advertising on traditional mobile phones, Todacell’s ad network enables advertisers to reach other non-phone mobile devices, including hand-held gaming consoles by Nintendo, Playstation and Sega, and soon the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle.
According to J.P. Morgan industry analyst Imran Kahn from the company’s recently released ‘2010 Internet Industry Outlook’, the mobile display advertising space in which Todacell operates will grow 81% this year from $140 million in 2009 to $253 million in 2010.

GoldSpot Launches Video Ad Solution for the iPad

GoldSpot Media has released an enhanced version of its mobile advertising client SDK, miAPI, to support iPad applications. The miAPI client SDK offers developers a single video advertising monetization solution across the Apple family of devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, as well as Android, RIM, Symbian S60, J2ME and BREW handsets.
According to GoldSpot, the miAPI client SDK provides publishers with the flexibility to render video ads anywhere, in any size on the mobile device screen, and in various formats including Full Screen, Split Screen, Overlays and Partial Screen.The enhancement also extends to the company’s mobile advertising campaign creation tool, miSpot, enabling publishers to run the same interactive video ad campaign on the iPad in partial screen mode, in place of a Flash video ad; as a full screen video ad on iPhones at app startup; and as a one-third overlay video ad on iPod touch devices during app consumption.
“The iPad has generated strong interest from consumers and created new opportunities for publishers to reach their targeted audience,” says GoldSpot CEO,  Srini Dharmaji. “GoldSpot Media enables publishers to immediately monetize their apps and content with the most compelling and high-quality video ad experiences possible on the iPad as well as other Apple devices, regardless of the network coverage or bandwidth.”
Since Flash is not available on Apple mobile devices, the publisher community is still seeking effective alternatives to monetize their web content. To address these issues, GoldSpot Media developed the miSpot video advertising solution. The company says that this solution enables publishers to deliver a user-experience comparable to the interactive advertising power of Flash on PCs today, without requiring on-device Adobe technology.
You can see a video demo of GoldSpot Media’s advertising technology in use on the iPhone and iPad here.

Snatpu Joins YOC Media Network

Full service mobile solutions provider YOC has announced that Snaptu has joined the YOC media network. As part of the partnership, YOC will provide brands and advertisers with ads across the Snaptu mobile application portal, which includes Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, AccuWeather, the Guardian, ESPN Cricinfo and other major news and sports outlets. YOC will work with Snaptu across the UK, France Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. Snaptu will sit alongside a number of other publishers in YOC’s premium media network, including 3 Favourites, GetJar, PC Advisor, Macworld, Stuff.tv, Perez Hilton, Elle UK and Digital Spy.
“YOC came highly recommended by every reference we took. We were impressed by their experience working with brands and advertisers across Europe and its track record in providing high quality inventory to its customers,” says Simon Davies, Managing Director of Europe at Snaptu parent company, Moblica. “Growing at over 1 million users per month and topping the bill on most quality app stores such as BlackBerry’s AppWorld, Ovi and Play Now arena, Snaptu can offer YOC’s advertising clients not only great reach, but also access to a number of specifically targeted demographic groups.”
YOC’s networks launched in July 2008. It now receives more than 600 million monthly page impressions and reaches over 35 million unique mobile users.
“Snaptu’s access to a number of hugely successful social networking applications, portals, news sites and content is very attractive to our brand and advertiser customers,” says YOC UK Managing Director, Christian Louca. “Working with Snaptu, one of the most exciting applications in the market, we can help advertisers to target several million mobile users on a number of devices all across Europe.”

Mobile + Online Raises Brand Awareness, says IAB

New research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade association for digital marketing, has revealed that using mobile and online advertising in combination can significantly increase brand awareness and purchase consideration.
The study, based on a sample of 875 mobile Internet users and qualitative focus groups, investigated current trends in consumer behaviour, and specifically the impact of cross-media ad campaigns on a range of brand metrics.
The IAB partnered with research agency Brand Driver, mobile agency Mobext, and financial services provider Nationwide Building Society, who ran a series of mobile and online display ads promoting Home Insurance. The campaign, which ran simultaneously over the mobile operator sites of 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone, and the mobile and web portals of MSN and Sky, found that:

• When exposed to ads across online and mobile, recognition was 43% greater than those exposed just to the online component.
• Consideration of Nationwide Home Insurance increased by 24% when respondents had been exposed to both the mobile and online ads.
• Spontaneous brand awareness was 50% higher amongst those who had seen mobile ads than those who had seen no Nationwide advertising, and increased to 114% when the sample was exposed to both online and mobile.
• Advertising across both platforms increased performance - the clickthrough rate online was 150% higher amongst those that were exposed to - and recalled - the mobile ad.

The study also identified three key trends for the mobile Internet, concerning consumer attitudes and behaviour, which the IAB says marketers should be incorporating into their 2010 communications strategies.
The first is using mobile to build brands and raise awareness. The research emphasises the fact that even in its relative infancy, mobile advertising can be a great brand-builder, raising awareness and prompting consumers to seek information. 37% of consumers stated that when they saw advertising on a mobile phone that interested them, they go to a PC or laptop to find out more.
The study also found, however, that consumers are still unsure of the cost implications of clicking through on mobile ads, with 60% of respondents still wary of clicking for this reason. However, this figure is around 17% lower than the last IAB mobile research, with KitKat, in July 2009. It is critical for brands to address this challenge by using mobile to spark intrigue or reinforce marketing messages to increase the impact of their cross-media campaigns, the IAB says.
The second trend is targeted advertising on mobile phones. The study confirmed that mobile Internet users respond better to advertising that is more relevant to their interests or intentions. Those in the purchase window for buying home insurance were 38% more likely to recall the mobile ads. In addition, for both media, the clickthrough rate was higher for those who were in the purchase window for home insurance – six  times more effective in both cases. Irrelevance was the top barrier for respondents who did not click on the mobile ad, with 48% of respondents citing this as the main reason for not clicking through for more information.
Brands across all sectors should look to complement the user’s session by looking to target their advertising based on interests or demographics, particularly as such mobile Internet techniques have become more sophisticated.
Finally, says the IAB, user experience is critical. Ads on what the user considers to be a ‘quality site’ are significantly more effective. Recognition of the mobile ads was 112% higher for those who enjoyed browsing the mobile site, and clickthrough rates were also 200% higher for those who rated the mobile site as ‘good or very good’. While mobile Internet usage may be more basic than PC-based surfing behaviour, consumers still felt that the experience and ease which which they were able to access information was of fundamental importance.
And with 18% of respondents stating that within the next year they expect to use the Internet more on a mobile than on their PC, brands need to be aware of the user experience not just on their own sites, but of those on which they advertise.
“In order for mobile to become a core part of any advertiser’s marketing mix, it’s essential that it is able to prove its effectiveness alongside more traditional media,” says Nationwide Digital Marketing Manager, Alex Bennett. “The use of industry research will be a key way of demonstrating the benefit of including mobile within a marketing plan.
“Partnering (with) the IAB on this project has provided some valuable insight into how mobile can influence the performance of other media, and the results have provided a positive case for the increased use of mobile as our digital strategy matures.”
Tim Elkington, head of research at the IAB adds: "The research shows us that mobile advertising is driving brand awareness and is particularly effective when experienced by users in a trusted and valued environment. We’ve also learnt how mobile internet consumption now fits seamlessly into users’ digital lives and how comfortable they are when switching between devices."

InMobi Launches City Targeting, iPhone Creative

Mobile ad network InMobi, which has operations in 37 countries and serves 7.5 billion ad requests monthly, has launched what it says is the mobile advertising industry’s most ambitious local targeting capability for advertisers to date. The program, which is available immediately in the UK, France, Indonesia, S. Africa, US, and India to over 15,000 cities and regions, will continue to expand during 2010. The program also includes the ability to target iPhone consumers with new, optimised creative, specific to the iPhone experience.
Both the city targeting and iPhone enhancements are part of InMobi’s most comprehensive, advertiser-focused product release in the past year. The iPhone platform includes several creative options, including video, search and local calls-to-action served in an iPhone-optimized, 320x48 banner. 
Other key features include more detailed handset targeting by model; operator-level targeting by country and city (e.g Orange, France, Paris); and expansive technology improvements to InMobi’s ad-serving engine, based on improved targeting data and quality control procedures. The advantage of this advertiser-focused program, says InMobi, is better ROI via millions of new targeting options and technology that serves the right creative for each consumer’s particular phone environment.
“Today’s enhancements allow advertisers to confidently target iPhone or feature phone consumers in Paris, London, Johannesburg, Jakarta, and Mumbai, knowing these customers will experience their brand in an optimal manner,” says InMobi VP Managing Director, Europe, Rob Jonas. “It’s a prime example of our engineering prowess, and the growing scale of our platform in Europe and around the world.  Advertisers can look forward to more of the same throughout 2010.”

Jumptap Launches Self-service Publisher Solution

Mobile advertising solutions provider Jumptap has unveiled a self-service application for publishers of mobile websites and mobile apps for iPhone and Android handsets. Publishers can quickly and easily integrate their properties into the Jumptap mobile ad network and gain access to hundreds of leading advertisers looking to reach consumers on mobile sites and via Smartphone applications. As an incentive to join Jumptap’s ad network, the first 100 app developers or sites to do so will get to keep 100% of the ad revenue for the first 100 days.
Jumptap uses an algorithm engine and intellectual property (IP) portfolio to match the right ad to the right person at the right time, using text, banner and rich media ad units to enhance the user experience and engage users more effectively. Reaching mobile audiences with highly relevant and appealing ads drives increased clickthrough rates and higher conversions, says Jumptap, adding that its technology ensures that the most relevant ads are delivered, and that app developers and publishers realize the highest potential revenue from their mobile properties. Superior performance rates drive increased advertiser spend, which results in high fill rates and the highest effective yield (eCPMs) for publishers, the company says.
“Jumptap is committed to continually adding value to our network and this is a great means for app developers and site owners to take advantage of our exciting growth,” says Jumptap CMO, Paran Johar. “Preliminary data shows in-app ads are driving clickthrough rates five times higher than online advertising, increasing demand from our brand and performance advertisers. This presents an enormous opportunity for developers to earn revenue from their applications.”
To get started, developers and site owners just need to sign up and install the ad code. The Jumptap console offers real-time reporting to monitor revenue earned, and enables publishers to control the relevance of ads that run on their properties. There’s more information here.

AdMob to Hold Developer Day

Mobile ad network AdMob its first AdMob Developer Day on the afternoon of Thursday, 25 March in San Mateo. The event is open to any and all mobile developers, and people interested in the mobile industry.
The AdMob Developer Day builds on the firm’s previous meetups, and will feature a wide variety of sessions, ranging from SDK installation, to a discussion on various mobile business models. The company will also talk about some of the new products and features it has been working on over the last couple months, and CEO Omar Hamoui will give his thoughts on the state of the mobile industry, and what lies ahead.   
To make sure the event is relevant to developers, AdMob is asking those interested in attending to take a brief anonymous survey. The results of the research will be shared at the Developer Day.
You can take the survey here. Anyone who wishes to attend the event is asked to RSVP via the AdMob Meetup group.

Adenyo Secures Funds

Adenyo, a mobile marketing software company that has successfully implemented thousands of campaigns for global brands in N. America and Europe, has secured $26.9 million (£17.7 million) in financing that it will use to accelerate its growth internationally.
Adenyo, formerly known as Silverback Media, has over 200 active blue-chip customers in N. America and Europe, including Samsung, L’Oreal, Air Canada and Chevrolet.The company’s four technology offerings – mobile marketing and ad serving; mobile storefronts; mobile coupons and payments;and mobile analytics – provide an integrated platform, enabling agencies, brands and mobile network operators to quickly create marketing campaigns using a web-to-cloud (SaaS) model that is independent of applications, distribution and mobile devices.
“The mobile economy is growing at an astonishing rate, and global brands are beginning to realize its potential to extend their reach, interact with their customers with far greater precision, and gain immediate feedback and measurement,” says Adenyo Chairman and CEO, Tyler Nelson. “Our advanced software platform is an integrated set of applications that allow our customers to bring all these exciting and dynamic aspects of the mobile channel into their marketing mix through a single source.”
The $26.9 million financing includes a $17.2 million institutional round led by Genuity Capital Markets, and $9.7 million in private placements raised since July 2009. With the close of the institutional round, the company has appointed Dennis Kavelman to its board of directors. Kavelman served as Research in Motion’s CFO from 1995 to 2007 and then COO until 2009.

Windows Beats Apple on Mobile Clickthrough Rates, says Smaato

Mobile ad optimization and advertising agency Smaato has released its latest global mobile advertising metrics. Smaato's Worldwide Index, which analyzes ad network fill rates and sheds light on clickthrough rates (CTR) segmented by handset operating system, geography and response times, is based on data collected from 35 mobile ad networks and over 4 billion ad requests served in the Smaato network of more than 3,000 registered mobile publishers in February 2010.
Overall, Smaato's metrics show that the average worldwide ad network fill rates remain constant at 29% in February 2010. The fill rate is measured as the percentage of ads delivered per ad request, and varies by different factors such as country, device and content type.
Smaato's Index also provides a breakdown of CTR data, segmented according to operating system, showing that Symbian continues to lead the pack, with Android a distant second. However, there are some significant shifts that indicate the gap between operating system CTRs could be closing fast. For example, BlackBerry comes in at 51, up from 30 in December 2009, while Symbian – still the dominant operating system – has dropped slightly. It comes in at 147, compared with 173 in December 2009.
The biggest surprise, however, is the lead that Windows Mobile has over Apple. Specifically, the iPhone and iPod touch show a declining CTR, coming in with a rate of 89. This is the first time Apple devices have dipped below the average Index of 100, and the first time that Windows Mobile has edged ahead of its rival. In December 2009, the iPhone posted a CTR Index of 119, sliding to 104 in January 2010.
A more detailed analysis of the Smaato Worldwide Index, which covers the ad fill rates of the global top 10 ad networks and a special focus on the fill rates of mobile ad networks in the US and Southeast Asia, is available on MSearchGroove.  
Overall, the best performing mobile ad network in the Smaato Worldwide Index had a fill rate of 72% in February 2010, down 17 from January. Despite this decrease, the average for worldwide ad network fill rate performance remained steady at 29%. What's more, Smaato found that six of the top 10 ad networks performed above this average. This re-enforces the pivotal importance and advantages of the network aggregation business model, says Smaato, which aggregates 35 ad networks across the globe to ensure partners get the highest possible fill rate.
“Publishers struggle to identify, in real-time, the right ad network to deliver the right results," notes Peggy Anne Salz, Chief Analyst at MSearchGroove. "Smaato's aggregation model, which has gained traction globally through its ability to dynamically identify the ad networks that monetize publishers' inventory best, is core to Smaato's competitive advantage."

Leap Year Movie Targets Orange Shots Subscribers

Target Digital, the digital subsidiary of independent entertainment media agency Target Media, has brokered a campaign between Unanimis, who exclusively represent Orange’s Shots opt-in mobile advertising service, and Optimum Releasing, which has become the first film distributor to use Orange’s interactive SMS and MMS mobile advertising service.
‘Leap Year’, the new release from Optimum Releasing starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, is the first film to use the Orange Shots service, where a client can target 110,000 Orange customers, a section of its opted-in Monkey pay-as-you-go customer base.
The deal sees a strategically timed burst of activity today, Wednesday 3rd March to drive interest amongst those who may be using the Orange Wednesdays cinema promotion. The mobile activity will take the form of a text message leading interested recipients to a WAP page where they will be able to view the film trailer and download wallpapers and film information.
“We are incredibly proud to secure this activity between Unanimis and Optimum Releasing, as it is a first for the film industry,” says Andrew Coroneo, Digital Account Manager at Target Digital. “It is the perfect way to target the film-loving Orange customers and drive cinema bookings with the UK’s entertainment-hungry, youth audience.”

YOC Handed Horoscopes Ad Brief

Full service mobile solutions provider YOC has been selected to sell the advertising inventory on the ELLEuk Horoscopes iPhone application. The app, launched in January 2010 provides readers with free access to ELLEuk’s popular Horoscope content, offering daily, monthly and yearly astrological updates from ELLEuk’s resident astrologers, The Saturn Sisters.
YOC will deliver mobile advertising to the app, targeting advertisers in the luxury and high end retail space, automotive sector and beauty industry. The app, which is available for download free of charge from Apple’s App Store, will feature ads from UK and European advertisers.
The deal represents YOC’s second partnership with publisher Hachette Filipacchi. YOC began selling advertising inventory on entertainment and showbiz website Digital Spy’s mobile offering in 2009.
“We already have a trusted relationship with YOC, having worked with them on our Digital Spy mobile website, and we’re excited to continue to grow this partnership with ELLEuk,” says Jonathan Asfaw, Digital Commercial Director at Hachette Filipacchi Media. “With one of the largest mobile media networks in Europe, we’re confident that YOC can help us to effectively monetise our iPhone application by providing our users with relevant advertising that’s of genuine interest to them.”
YOC’s media network currently receives more than 600 million monthly page impressions and reaches over 35 million unique mobile users. “What this means for advertisers is that whatever their message or target audience, we can guarantee them the reach and excellent return on their investment,” says YOC UK Managing Director, Christian Louca. “The ELLE Horoscopes iPhone app is a unique offering in the UK market as it enables advertisers to reach an almost entirely female audience. This is unusual as, traditionally, the female audience is harder to reach in mobile.”

iPhone Users Buy More Apps than Android Users, says AdMob

Mobile ad network AdMob has released its January 2010 Mobile Metrics Report, which includes a survey of consumer usage and attitudes across the Android, iPhone and webOS application platforms.
The survey found that consumers on the Android and iPhone platforms continue to be actively engaged with applications. Consumers who use iPhone and Android devices showed remarkably similar activity levels – downloading approximately the same total number of applications and spending approximately the same amount of time using them.
iPhone users continue to download more paid applications, however, with 50% of users buying at least one paid application a month, compared to 21% of Android users. The survey also included consumers on webOS devices, and found that while they were active, they downloaded fewer paid and free applications.
The report notes that the mobile Internet device category has grown rapidly. In July 2009, approximately 12% of requests in AdMob’s network came from these non-phone devices compared to approximately 17% in January 2010. The survey asked consumers if they currently own a mobile Internet device or intend to buy one in the next six months. iPhone users showed the highest level of interest in purchasing an iPad, at 16%, compared to 11% of webOS users and only 6% of Android users. Approximately the same percentage of Android users were interested in purchasing the Amazon Kindle as were interested in purchasing the iPad.
Highlights from the survey and the Report include:

• 91% of iPhone users and 88% of iPod touch users would recommend their device, compared to 84% of Android users and 69% of webOS users.
• iPod touch owners download an average of 12 applications a month, 37% more than iPhone and Android users, who download approximately nine new apps. webOS users downloaded an average of six applications per month.
• iPod touch users spent an average of 100 minutes per day using applications. webOS users spent an average of 87 minutes per day, followed by Android users at 80 minutes and iPhone users at 79 minutes per day.
• 73% of Android users are male, compared to only 56% of iPhone OS users. The average iPhone user is 14 years older than the average iPod touch user, of which 78% are below the age of 24.
• iPhone represented 47% of US Smartphone usage in AdMob’s network in January 2010, followed by Android, RIM and webOS devices at 39, 7, and 3%, respectively.

AdMob first ran the survey in August 2009 and again six months later, in February 2010. The survey was conducted with 960 respondents over a two week period, spanning consumers on Android, iPhone, iPod touch and webOS devices on the more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications in AdMob’s network in February 2010. The survey did not include the RIM platform, as AdMob does not currently serve ads into BlackBerry applications.
You can access the full report, and the report archive, here.

Admoda Hits 3bn Ads per Month

Admoda and its partner service Adultmoda have revealed that they have achieved 3 billion ad request in a month for the first time, recording 3.3 billion requests in January 2010.
The company says the jump in traffic is due to more and more mobile site and app owners realising that the earning potential of Admoda and Adultmoda is possibly the best in the industry. 
“We are particularly excited about this growth because it is all high quality traffic,” says Admoda CEO, Terry Jackson. “We actually reject about 70% of all publishers who sign up with us. Our strategy is to allow only publishers with good quality sites and apps onto our network. Our advertisers therefore run ads only on great sites, which translates into converting traffic. Our 90% rebook rate from advertisers is testimony to the quality, and volume, of traffic we provide.”

Xtify Launches Geo Messaging Platform

Xtify has announced the release of its Xtify Geo Messaging Platform, an online software tool for developers and publishers to push geo-targeted messages directly to their mobile customers.
Developers of local search and discovery applications can now drive prospective customers into a retail store with a message sent only to those who are currently nearby. Publishers of travel and restaurant guide applications can send their users interesting facts and recommendations related to their actual location.
The Xtify Geo Messaging Platform includes a web-based campaign management tool for creating messaging campaigns, and a Software Development Kit (SDK) that is integrated into a mobile application to determine where and when a message should be sent and how it should be displayed.
“For the first time, mobile application developers and publishers have an effective platform for communicating with their mobile audience beyond the confines of their application,” says Xtify CEO, Josh Rochlin. “Developers have been dreaming of a solution that remains active, even when the mobile application is not. Developers (and marketers) can now communicate to their customers, with the right message, in the right place, at the right time, to drive the actions they want.”

Shazam Makes TV Ads Interactive with SARA

Mobile discovery firm Shazam has launched the Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (SARA) program, which allows brands and broadcasters to extend the reach and depth of their campaigns to mobile. The program enables interactivity with broadcast and with advertising by providing deeper consumer engagement using a mobile device. The program has already been used by clothing brand Dockers for its global Wear the Pants´ campaign at the Super Bowl earlier this month.
“Our partnership with Dockers has already shown how our technology takes consumers on an extended brand journey, allowing them to explore, discover and interact with all elements of a campaign,” says Shazam CEO, Andrew Fisher. “With the launch of the SARA program, we are enabling brands and broadcasters to achieve consumer engagement beyond traditional television whereby the promotion can be captured on a mobile with exclusive content and offers. For consumers this means the promotion can reside on their mobile and live on, such as ‘two for one’ pizza offers promoted via television and radio advertising, or unique media packages from a broadcaster that consumers can watch while on the move. Most importantly, more than 50 million Shazamers have this capability already and we are expanding the value of what we bring to this community beyond music”.
Shazam has also announced a deal with mobile marketing company Augme Mobile to take the SARA program to the N. American market. 
The SARA program lets brand advertisers directly reach, influence and interact with target audiences using Shazam´s music recognition technology to tag a commercial. Advertisers can create campaigns that incentivise viewers to engage with the promotion and ‘Shazam’ the spot, meaning viewers access the Shazam service on their respective mobile devices, point the device in the direction of the commercial and hit the "Shazam " button. Shazam's audio technology recognizes the specific advert and returns a customized result.
Broadcasters can use SARA for special promotions and hidden content - such as exclusive videos and interviews - by providing a clickthrough to a branded mobile web experience where viewers can interact directly with branded content. The tagged item remains in the viewers tag list so they can revisit it and share it with friends.
This form of advertising is 100% ‘opt-in’ and is wholly controlled by consumers who can choose to interact with only those adverts or programmes that are relevant and of value to them.
The SARA program also provides brands with a unique opportunity to assess the effectiveness of a campaign. By capturing the details of user clickthroughs brands will be able to tailor future campaigns around content that is highly targeted and relevant to consumers. 

VimpelCom Hands Mobile Ad Task to Out There Media

Mobile advertising firm Out There Media has signed a partnership agreement with VimpelCom, which provides  telecommunications services in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Southeast Asia. VimpelCom has a total subscriber base of 64 million consumers, including 51 million in Russia.
The deal sees Out There Media providing VimpelCom with targeted mobile advertising through Mobucks, its multichannel mobile advertising marketplace platform.  Out There Media will also be responsible for monetization, sales, business development and operations support.
The two companies plan to roll out a range of mobile advertising commercial pilot projects in Russia this year, using WAP, SMS, MMS and USSD channels. The partnership will be the first to make the most of the latest version of  Mobucks, V2.5, which will be released shortly.  Mobucks 2.5 offers a large choice of advertising channels, including WAP, display advertising, SMS, MMS, USSD, WAP Push, Rinback tones, and video ads. It also offers VimpelCom the ability to collect data across all channels, and cross-channel user segmentation and targeting.
“We believe that mobile advertising is the way forward in the mobile sector and we are keen to be the first to offer this multichannel solution to our partners in Russia,” says VimpelCom Group Chief Marketing Officer, Martin Furuseth. “We are very happy to be working with Out There Media towards this objective, because we are convinced that by joining forces with the leader in this sector, the prospects for growth and success are endless. We are sure that this unique personalized and premium channel with its wide opportunities of targeting provides our partners with direct access to their consumers and will help us to provide relevant and practical information to end-users.”
  www.out-there-media.com   

 

Orange to Extend Opt-in Ad Service Across Europe

Orange is to extend its interactive SMS and MMS advertising offering across its European footprint, following its launch in the UK last year to its ‘Monkey’ youth segment. Customers will be invited to opt in to receive the advertising, and offers will be tailored to local markets to incentivise customers with localised, relevant rewards. These will include exclusive content, film and games reviews, celebrity gossip, free texts, prizes and up-to-date sports information.
Paul Francois Fournier, Executive Vice President in charge of audience and advertising says: “Orange is at the forefront of giving advertisers exactly what they need – direct, targeted dialogue with customers. Supported by our global ad-sales network and combined with our unique multi-screen reach, our new mobile ad-models go beyond display advertising to create more value for advertisers, create a richer experience for customers and maximise the use of our networks with clever innovation.”
The service will roll out in Spain this month under the brand name, ‘Mio’. Orange is taking a different approach with Mio, offering all mobile customers in Spain the chance to opt-in, reaching beyond youth audiences. Mio customers will receive gifts, content and the opportunity to win monthly and annual prizes. Interactive SMS and MMS advertising campaigns will roll-out to other Orange markets in 2010. Other mobile advertising trials are also taking place in Egypt and Jordan in the first half of this year, allowing for expansion into emerging markets, as well as mature markets.
To help localise interactive offers in different markets Orange has formed strategic partnerships with various providers, including Blyk in the UK and Velti in Spain.
“Highly targeted messaging campaigns have shown good results for our clients,” sasy David Fieldhouse, Head of Mobile at media buying agency Mediacom. “Innovative models like these that allow audience feedback let campaign planners better understand how their campaigns resonate with consumers. Orange’s ability to tightly segment audiences will also result in a better consumer experience and deeper engagement with an advertiser’s message.”

Sendandsee Launches Tweet Monetisation Tool

Sendandsee has implemented a method for content owners to catch the relevant discussions and images on Twitter and integrate them into the content owner’s own mobile service, enabling automated integration of user-generated content and tweet monetization.
Sendandsee’s mobiprint is a patented mobile service creation platform that uses architecture well suited for the mobile ecosystem of low network speeds, unlimited terminal variation, and rapid and radical market evolution.
The company says the Twitter integration fits perfectly with what is known from mobile service usage analysis: mobile media is complementary to other media formats and thus a growth sector for media companies.
It notes also that media on the go is consumed with methods and behavioural patterns that are different to those of other types of media: the consumption of mobile media just happens it is not planned. The ability for a content owner to integrate the discussions on Twitter and possibly even monetize them could therefore be an important feature.
“We see this feature as an important add-on to existing mobile services. It can integrate user-generated content and discussions back to the original story, creating a loop with many opportunities.” says Jorma Kario, VP for Sales at Sendandsee.
Sendandsee also offers weblink building capability, which the company says will help to build the service’s pagerank and increase its visibility on search engines. Advertising in mobiprint can come from pre-defined sources, or Sendandsee can insert it automatically. Sendandsee’s mobiprint is linked with multiple advertising sources, including Smaato’s mobile ad optimization platform, SOMA, which aggregates multiple leading mobile ad networks globally to maximize mobile advertising revenues.

Comverse Handed Ukrainian Ad Brief

Comverse has been selected by Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator with over 22 million users, to deploy a multi-channel mobile advertising platform in its network, enabling Kyivstar to launch targeted promotional campaigns to its subscribers.
Kyivstar will use the Comverse HUB Mobile Advertising platform to promote its own products and services to subscribers via multiple channels, such as text messaging, and replies generated by self-service options made possible by Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). For instance, balance notifications generated by Kyivstar’s existing prepaid billing system from Comverse will include promotions of Kyivstar‘s own products.
Advanced metrics will make it possible for Kyivstar to precisely track and fine tune the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. In addition, because the billing system is always on and available, Kyivstar is assured that these results are accurate and not skewed by system downtimes.
 “Mobile advertising gives us creative new ways to enrich the user experience and provide subscribers with information and promotions relevant to them,” says Vitaliy Vorozhbyt, Product Management and Development Director at Kyivstar. “We selected Comverse for their mobile advertising expertise across all channels around the globe, as well as their ability to integrate it with their systems already here, such as our existing Comverse prepaid billing system. This is especially important because our promotions will depend heavily on reliable, real-time information.”

adsmobi Launches Media-buying Platform

adsmobi has announced the launch of its new mobile media-buying platform. adsmobi has partnered with ad network aggregator Smaato and has access to Smaato’s worldwide network inventory of over 2,500 publishers. The company says it delivers value to brands and mobile advertisers by providing targeted access to premium mobile inventory, consisting of mobile website publishers and mobile applications, including apps for iPhone and Android devices.
The adsmobi team is led by Managing Director Ramy Yared, who was formerly with Smaato and Buzzcity. adsmobi  says it will provide advertisers with sophisticated targeting by location, demographics and channel category. It will also offer advertisers online access to analytics and performance data.

Jumptap Secures Another Patent

Mobile advertising firm Jumptap has been issued with US Patent No.7,600,581. The patent relates to, take a deep breath, “a computer-implemented method for targeted distribution of sponsored content item of a first or second sponsor to a plurality of mobile communication facilities whose respective users have a common usage history characteristic statistically modeled as a profile associated with the respective users, wherein the profile is identified as a category, wherein advertising of the sponsored content item relates to the category”. And that’s just an extract. In effect, it sounds like a mobile advertising bidding model, though we are happy for any legal experts to pick the bones out of it and put us right
The patent is one of four issued in less than eight months. Since June 16, 2009, Jumptap has been issued three other patents, and currently has over 70 published patent applications.
“We were the first company to recognize that information access and content consumption through mobile devices would one day eclipse all other devices, causing a major disruption throughout the entire advertising industry, including both traditional and digital media,” says Jumptap Founder and Vice President of Corporate Development, Jorey Ramer, who is a named inventor on the patent. “We invested heavily in developing technologies that best match advertisers to mobile consumers and deliver superior ROI to the various stakeholders throughout the mobile advertising ecosystem.” The patent is one of four issued in less than eight months. Since June 16, 2009, Jumptap has been issued three other patents, and currently has over 70 published patent applications.

Netbiscuits in Mobile Ad Tie-up with MADS

Mobile marketing firm MADS has announced the integration of its MADS ONE mobile marketing platform with Netbiscuits’ mobile website publishing platform, enabling all Netbiscuits publishers to monetize their sites utilizing premium mobile ad campaigns via the MADS network of over 20 global ad sales agencies. The
MADS ONE mobile marketing platform also allows publishers to backfill bulk ads from all major performance networks, including AdMob, Google, BuzzCity, InMobi and Quattro Wireless. Netbiscuits has expanded its Ad Banner Biscuit to ensure that all portals using the Netbiscuits software platform can easily deliver MADS ads.
“The mobile web is changing the way we live, work, and play and the customers utilizing our platform are taking full advantage of it," says Netbiscuits CEO, Michael Neidhoefer. “Our partnership with MADS gives our publishers an additional option to monetize their mobile sites by tapping into MADS’ existing ad sales business network of premium ad sales partners with a strong footprint in Europe."

Smaato Launches SDKs for Android and iPhone

Mobile advertising and ad optimization firm Smaato has unveiled new SDKs (Software Development Kits) for its mobile advertising platform SOMA, supporting the iPhone and Android devices.
The ‘SOMA SDK for Android’ opens up access to 35 mobile ad networks worldwide to serve display ads within apps and mobile websites on Android handsets. Smaato recently released its metrics report for January 2010, which showed a significant increase in clickthrough rates on Android devices on Smaato’s network
Smaato says it will enhance the upcoming SDK releases and the SOMA mobile web API (Application Programming Interface) with a free analytics and reporting dashboard to visualize usage data and help advertisers keep track of advertising revenues.
Smaato is also strengthening its mobile advertising technology and adding more partners to its ad network. The most recent addition is adsmobi, based in New York. adsmobi will use the Smaato services already available to SOMA ad network partners, and is focusing on providing a media buying platform for brands, working with advertisers and media agencies.

Telmap Partners with 4th Screen for Real-time Geo-targeting

Mobile search, mapping and navigation firm Telmap has announced a partnership with mobile ad sales agency 4th Screen Advertising that will enable real-time geo-targeting for brands on a global scale, while creating new revenue streams for mobile operators and delivering a more engaging, relevant experience to consumers.
Telmap’s white-label solution, Telmap5, enables brands to target consumers on the go, in a manner that is both timely and relevant to their current environment. The solution provides mobile operators with additional inventory which generates new revenues from ad sales, while enabling advertisers to increase ROI. The solution provides localised and relevant search and a personalised mapping and navigation experience. Telmap describes it as “the world’s first personalised location companion”.
4th Screen Managing Director, Mark Slade says: “We look forward to working with Telmap over the coming months as this is truly where mobile advertising is meant to be. With the integration of Telmap5 with 4th Screen’s ad serving platform Mpression, we are offering brands the opportunity to deploy location-based campaigns to consumers on the move.”

GyPSii and Telmap Partner for Location-based Social Networking

GyPSii, which describes itself as a “mobile digital lifestyle application and geo-mobility social media platform”, and Telmap, the mobile search, mapping and navigation firm, have announced a partnership to develop advanced location-based social networking as part of Telmap’s Mobile Location Companion solution. 
As part of the agreement, Telmap will introduce social networking and user-generated content to the Telmap5 Mobile Location Companion, using GyPSii’s Open API, OpenExperience. Telmap5 will offer users access to all their networks of friends across social networks including Facebook and Twitter. The companies say that the integration with GyPSii’s Open API will empower Telmap5 mobile users to connect the real world with the digital world, accessing and contributing location-aware content; sharing locations; reading and posting recommendations, videos and pictures; finding friends, events, and places; geo-blogging, and more.
They add that the new Telmap5 offers mobile operators an opportunity to introduce a richer location-enabled solution to their subscribers, arguing that a single app combining key social media, navigation, search, and mapping features provides a compelling experience for users. 
GyPSii’s OpenExperience Open API offers Telmap transparent integration of its patented technologies in mobile user-generated content creation, friend-finding and a robust suite of development toolkits that support rapid development, fast-track product enhancements, and easy app localization.  OpenExperience also delivers a contextual advertising solution for ultra-targeted commercial messages, including advertisements and coupons with a high value to the end user.
“The Telmap-GyPSii enabled offering is fully supportive of people’s desire to explore their surroundings and interact with friends around them not only while at home, but also while on-the-go,” says Telmap CEO, Oren Nissim. “GyPSii and Telmap share a vision to offer operators the ultimate location companion they need in order to maintain their subscriber’s loyalty through an excellent solution and a superior user experience, and we are sure that this new cooperation will open up additional opportunities for operators to achieve just that.”