Handheld

Advertisers are eager to embrace mobile initiatives. They're excited about gaming, they like social networking, and they're crazy about interactivity. AOL's new mobile-web gaming site may help bring these all together. The site will provide Cellufun games that require no payment or download, and AOL's newly acquired Third Screen Media will make a little money by placing and providing mobile banners.

Nickelodeon has just released three new casual games for cell phones. Online, it continues to roll out easy branded games. Nickelodeon claims an industry leading 25 million unique visitors each month to its gaming sites, and it's planning to roll out as many as 600 new games. And why not? With the government keeping an eagle eye on all TV advertising targeted toward kids, games (for now) allow a little more freedom. And fun.

The Law & Order franchise -- which has long published made-for-computer games -- has now developed a new game for mobile. Not only does the program enjoy the heavy branding, it also enjoys the 6.99 price tag. True, few gaming companies will grow wealthy at 6.99 per. But Law & Order isn't a gaming company, it's a TV show. As with Nike and its $30 t-shirts, Law & Order has figured out a way to let its fan base help pay for its branding.

Vans, a skateboard outfitter and provider of parks, is doing some advertising made for the iPhone. More to the point, it's providing a branded video game. The game includes two buttons, positioned on the iPhone screen just like you'd deploy fingers if using a fingerboard. Most boarders have fiddled around with those, so the game might stir a little nostalgia, while keeping the Vans logo front and center. Well, top left, actually.

innerActive Smart Media, a global provider of innovative, ad-funded entertainment channels, believes that its successful UK trial of a mobile in-game advertising service with digital entertainment partner Jamster, establishes a new benchmark for the ad-funded mobile entertainment industry. Data from the six-week trial -- which exposed UK mobile users to contextual, dynamically embedded advertising and promotions from brands such as Adidas, Domino's Pizza and Calvin Klein in exchange for free games -- produced a very high click-through rate of 39 percent.

Gesturetek has made its mark in interactive camera-driven games. Its technology is behind the PlayStation EyeToy and the Xbox 360 Live Camera. Now it's working on similar fun for cell phones. Since many mobile devices feature cameras, Gesturetek is now working on Eyemobile, a motion-based application programming interface. The first efforts will go toward developing motion-based games. The second, no doubt, will move on to advertising -- such as Gesturetek enables with its camera-and-projector based FunCam system.

Advergames for iPhones would seem to be a natural, but according to AdLab's Ilya Vedrashko, it's an uncrowded ad space right now. DrPepper's Matchcaps is a simple re-skin of Bejeweled, and it appears to be the only iPhone advergame out there for now.