Content producers are outspending brands and agencies when it comes to marketing mobile content, Brand in Hand CEO John Hadl told an audience at the NAPTE Mobile Conference in Las Vegas yesterday. "By spend, they're the largest marketers today, with everything from ringtones to wallpaper to applications. They're doing it because mobile is closer to purchase," AdAge quotes Hadl as saying.

eMarketer forecasts put mobile marketing at $16 billion by 2011. However, AdAge points out, there isn't a lot of money going into mobile marketing yet, except for banner and text-based ads and a few blockbuster campaigns, such as the iPhone launch.

According to the publication, the popularity of the iPhone and the subsequent alternative touch-screen phones is sparking some interest in mobile video, which is a plus for all those content producers that are pouring money into their mobile efforts.