Quattro Wireless » mobilegroove

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mobile advertising is certain the hot topic at CTIA, where Mobile Web And Apps World Forum (Ajit Jaokar's CTIA partner event) was standing room only. (Well done Ajit!) Players from across the ecosystem are anxious to explore new models to monetize inventory, apps and services. However, as I pointed out during my panel -- moderated by well-known analyst and author Chetan Sharma – there's still is a lot of mileage left in established models such as text and MMS approaches to advertising before we focus too much of our effort on the whiz-bang new ad units and creatives. In his guest contribution, Martin Wilson – MSG columnist and owner of Indigo 102, a strategic consultancy with a focus on media and mobility and a deep understanding of the local space— argues that traditional media owners also have a lot of untapped energy and assets.

This week the Carnival of the Mobilists (COM) brings the best of mobile blogging to Volker Hirsch over at Volker on Mobile. Regular Mobilists - including Russell Buckley from MobHappy, Mark Jaffe from Mobile Mandala, Andy Favell from mobiThinking and WIP Jam -- submitted a thought-provoking selection of posts.

How can/should brands monetize our passion? What happens when cloud computing shifts app development to the Web? Will Amazon have to offer us an in-store experience? And how do the mobile ad networks really stack up? Read on and find out!

NIELSEN SAYS MILLENNIAL MEDIA HAS THE BIGGEST MOBILE AD NETWORK IN THE US, MAYBE: the research firm released a list of the five mobile ad networks with the biggest reach in the US, but with the caveat that it's not standing behind the list with much confidence. Nielsen says it's difficult to measure reach with any real accuracy because publishers may use multiple networks on their sites, and if a publisher appears on a site at all, they'd get credit for all its visitors. Furthermore, the data came from the networks themselves, rather than an independent source. That said, the ranking of ad networks according to potential monthly visitors is: 1. Millennial Media: 45.6 million 2. Third Screen Media: 28.6 million 3. AdMob: 25.7 million 4. MSN Ad Network: 25.4 million 5. Jumptap: 23.4 million 6. Quattro Wireless: 23 million Source The bottom line: Nielsen's warning makes it hard to put a lot of faith in these numbers, but as the company itself pointed out, overall, they illustrate the reach mobile ad networks can now offer, alongside all of their other benefits like effective targeting. So, in some way, having the biggest reach isn't as important as having the right reach - that is, targeting the correct audience - for each advertiser. --- ADMOB TO SERVE UP ITS 100 BILLIONTH AD sometime over the weekend, the company said in an email. It's certainly a big number, reached in three years or so, and the company says it's now serving more than 8 billion impressions per month across its network. Source The bottom line: Admob continues to grow its number of impressions, but as the above point indicates, it's not all about quantity. Establishing significant inventory is important, but going forward, that won't be an issue, as the previous point shows. Effective targeting and other enhancements will be key to unlock the real potential of mobile advertising. --- MARKETERS ARE STILL SKEPTICAL ABOUT TWITTER, with just 8 percent saying they think it's a "very effective" promotional tool, while 50 percent say it's "somewhat effective". Consumers feel the same way, with half of them saying it's "not that effective" or "not at all effective" for promotions. Source

This first in a series of exclusive interviews with mobile ad networks, profiles JumpTap and details what today's announcement means for advertisers, publishers and market rivals. Look for more interviews/podcasts with ad networks you need to know better including Greystripe (CEO Michael Chang tells how his company made the move from advertising enable to ad network); Mojiva (CEO Dave Gwozdz walks us through a new white-label platform for publishers), and itsmy.com (CEO Vince Staybl talks about targeting options in itsmy.biz, the mobile social network's ad network). If you are an ad network with a story to tell, then contact me directly or arrange a briefing with Andrea Henninge (andrea@msearchgroove.com). On the heels of JumpTap's announcement of tapMatch, its pay-per-click (PPC) performance mobile ad marketplace, I can finally post this exclusive Q&A with Paran Johar, JumpTap CMO. During the pre-briefing we went through the nuts and bolts of the offer (unlike Google, which offers keyword bidding and MCN - a provider of mobile search management, search merchandising, and PPC content promotion solutions offering category bidding- Jumptap offers both), and took a closer look at how the search technology potentially maximizes performance by delivering contextually relevant advertising. Q: Let's start with the landscape. When I read the draft press release I thought it competes with Google at one level and MCN at another. What is the differentiation?