Mobile Advertising

YouTube video courtesy of Google Business

I didn't read the title of this Google Mobile Blog item carefully when I first saw it in my feed list...

Announcing the AdSense for Mobile Applications beta

My first thought was, I thought they already provided Adsense ads in RSS feeds. Then, I read it again and realized that there's probably a bit of scrambling going on in the various firms that specialize in providing in-application advertisements for iPhone and Android apps. Why? AdSense for Mobile Applications does exactly what it sounds like (if you didn't misread it like I did): It lets developers place Google Adsense advertisements in Android or iPhone apps. A number of big name iPhone app developers have been beta testing prior to the announcement and it looks like Urbanspoon is using it.

YouTube video courtesy of gmancine

Credit to Digg on this YouTube video gem.

There are two mobile phone types in this 1989 commercial. One no longer exists: The car phone. If you watch near the end of the add, you'll see the guy talking on a phone with a telephone cord coil dropping down. This is a car phone which was usually installed in the car (like a car stereo) and powered by the car's electrical system. The giant phone the woman and child use is an example of what those of us who remember it call a brick. Why? Well, take a look at it. You could do some physical damage with those old cell phones.

Back in 1989, portable cell phones like the one seen here could cost well upward of $1000 with little or no included minutes. And, local cell minutes were between 50 and 75 cents each. I remember my first cell phone in the mid-1990s only came with 20 free minutes per month.

From time to time I'll dig through my personal collection of ancient mobile gadgets or items I find via the web for your amusement. If you have some personal favorite mobile memories you want to share, please let me know and perhaps we'll feature it in a Retro-Monday item. I'm planning to make Retro-Monday a semi-regular feature here.

To promote its new Sweet Deals value menu, Dairy Queen is making its way onto consumer cell phones. The soft-serve ice cream chain and digital agency space150 recently ran a pilot campaign to market the new menu using Mobile Posse's idle screen advertising platform.

Ads delivered using the Mobile Posse platform are unobtrusive since they're delivered during the phone's downtime. Also, all content is opt-in, so consumers needn't worry about getting spammed.

The DQ pilot campaign ran in March and saw click-through rates of around 22%. The Sweet Deals ads, which promoted meal options in the $3-$5 price range, were delivered at 5 p.m. to reach folks just as they were leaving work and starting to think about dinner plans.

Dairy Queen also pushed the value menu by sponsoring Mobile Posse's daily weather forecasts with a banner ad. More than half of all Mobile Posse users chose to receive the DQ ad, and more than two-thirds viewed the Dairy Queen-sponsored weather forecast at least once during the campaign.

AdMob has released its March Mobile Metrics Report, with a special focus on the Android and iPhone platforms.

According to AdMob, in the five months since the Android Market for applications launched in the US, requests from Android devices increased an average 47% per month. As good as that sounds, it's nothing compared with the traffic generated by iPhone; in the first five months after the iTunes App Store went live in the US last July, requests from the iPhone grew 88% per month.

Still, the T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) now claims 2% of the US market, based on traffic over the AdMob network. In March, it ranked 10th overall in the US and was the fourth most popular smartphone, after the iPhone, BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry Pearl.

AdMob's metrics are based on requests for AdMobs across the mobile Web and in mobile applications.

For more in-depth comparisons of Android v iPhone as well as other metrics, you can access the full AdMob Metrics report for March here.

Azuki Systems, whose interactive mobile media services platform enables the delivery of rich media and video content to mainstream cell phones, has partnered with personalized mobile ad solutions provider Ad Infuse. According to the duo, their relationship will help media companies "create rich, interactive mobile content services that not only extend and enhance their brands, but also contribute to the bottom line," something that's especially important in today's economy.

Under the deal, the companies will integrate Azuki's content solution with Ad Infuse's adInMotion ad-serving platform and Maestro brokering engine. This also gives content publishers on the Azuki platform access to Ad Infuse's extensive campaign tracking and reporting capabilities.

According to Azuki product line director Sam Harp, one of the biggest challenges facing content providers wanting to extend their brand to the mobile Web is that "the ad dollars needed to support the transition to mobile are not always easy to come by. This is where Ad Infuse's Maestro platform is particularly helpful. With Maestro, our clients can cast a wider net and source advertising from multiple ad networks at the same time. They can optimize the inventory that runs on their site and lift sell-through rates to maximize revenue," he said.

Mobile ad network Millennial Media has launched something it's calling SMART, a monthly Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting. The new brand-advertiser-focused SMART delivers key metrics gleaned from Millennial Media's ad networks, providing insight into reach, targeting, impressions and handsets.

All the SMART details come from actual traffic on the company's ad networks. Some facts and figures in the March SMART include:

* More than 10 billion impressions served in Q1 in the US, with 3.39 billion in March.

* Millennial's ad networks reach nearly 31 million out of the 56 million Nielsen-identified mobile Internet users.

* The top 20 handset models make up 43% of all mobile Web traffic on Millennial Media's networks.

* 58% of all campaigns used some form of geo-targeting.

You can get more info from Millennial Media's Web site. In the meantime, here are a couple charts from the report:

AdCentricity, an agency focused on digital out-of-home media, has partnered with mobile marketing solution provider Impact Mobile on a new full-service, cross-carrier offering that covers both of these growing advertising arenas.

The joint solution offers advertisers new opportunities, such as interacting with consumers by adding a mobile component like text messaging to their digital campaigns.

AdCentricity can execute campaigns on some 140,000 screens across the US. Through its partnership with Impact Mobile, AdCentricity customers can add "hyper-targeting" capabilities including:

*Call-to-action: SMS, voting, polls, sweepstakes, contests, promotions, coupons, call-back requests, text for info and surveys.

* Retail & Redemption: Mobile coupons, unique PIN numbers and ticketing.

* Content delivery: ringtones, wallpapers, games and videos.

* Applications: WAP sites and smartphone applications.

Mobile ad network Ringleader Digital has, well, ditched its mobile ad network with the intent of reinventing itself as a technology company. Rather than pushing ads on mobile Web sites, Ringleader will now market its Spark Server ad-serving platform and its Media Stamp software that collects information from browsers so marketers can target ads by context, geography, time of day, device and other demographics. Ringleader promises that none of the collected data unveils any "personally identifiable information," MediaPost reports.

According to the article, the company sold its ad network to Access Mobile Advertising, a new company created by former Ringleader VP of ad sales Kristine Latronica.

MTV Networks and NBC Universal have both signed new deals with SinglePoint. The agreements both call for the networks to use SinglePoint's SingleBrand Ad Marketplace for SMS campaigns.

SinglePoint will make mobile messaging inventory from the companies' various properties available through the SingleBrand Ad Marketplace where advertisers can peruse the inventory, buy ad space, submit the ads and monitor their campaigns. SinglePoint will also manage the networks' text-message campaigns for such things as mobile voting, sweepstakes, contest entries, breaking news alerts and content delivery.

NBC Universal networks using the SinglePoint solution include NBC, USA, Sci Fi, Bravo, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, NBC News and NBC Sports, plus Universal Studios and Universal Studios theme parks. MTV will run campaigns on CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV Tr3s and VH1.

Sybase 365 and m-commerce solutions provider Digby have partnered to offer Sybase 365's AvantGo mobile marketing and advertising solution to retailers on the Digby platform.

With the AvantGo Mobile Services' SMS Ad Exchange, Digby's retailers can deploy targeted SMS campaigns based on user demographics; create customized call-to-action campaigns complete with click-through, call-to-click and short codes; deploy full-service mobile Web storefronts and track campaign metrics.

1-800-Flowers.com, one of the first retailers to launch on the Digby platform, is the first to sign on for the new offering.