Mobile

Mobile TV and video firm QuickPlay has partnered with Amobee, which provides mobile advertising, to launch a mobile ad platform for video. The service was first implemented on Vodafone Italy's FreeVideo service. Amobee says Vodafone Italy's 3G users were able to freely access a plethora of "high-quality, local and branded video content" as a result.

2007 may not have been "the year of mobile marketing," but with the iPhone launch and other under-the-hood improvements, mobile marketers moved past the experimental stage. Still, compared to other interactive platforms, in 2008, mobile will remain small in overall spending.

According to a new report from The Nielsen Company, twenty-three percent (58 million) of all U.S. mobile subscribers say they've been exposed to advertising on their phones in the past 30 days. Half (51% or 28 million) of all data users who recall seeing mobile advertising in the previous 30 days say they responded to a mobile ad.

According to mobile entertainment company Limbo, telephone advertising is long on brand recall. Mobile-driven recall jumped 20 percent in the first quarter, with 41 percent of mobile phone users now remembering a brand that appeared on their phones. Unfortunately, Limbo also found that consumers with the most disposable income were least likely to remember the ads.

San Mateo based mobile phone advertising provider AdMob has passed the 20 billion ads served mark. Since March 2007, the company's monthly impressions have grown from 500 million ads per month to 2.5 billion per month. The client list includes Google and Yahoo, who use AdMob to advertise their services on mobile phones.

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.

Mobile TV--it could have 210 million viewers and global earnings of $11.7 billion by 2011. But while transforming promise to profit is acknowledged to be a challenge, the service characteristics of personalization and convenience, driven by video convergence and supported by original value-added products, can create the compelling experience that's imperative to switch on and retain a loyal audience for mobile TV. The fundamental building blocks for mobile TV-standards and content-are falling into place.

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.

Advertisers and wireless carriers are eager to start serving up mobile advertising. But how are they going to get wireless subscribers to play along? Bribes. But they have to be better bribes. The Silicon Alley Insider says that one free minute for every 30-second ad isn't close to enough.

As we all know, mobile marketing is finding it hard to gain traction. So you have to admire the strategy of Akoo, which in one campaign model, it's hitching its start to the digital signage express. Akoo is setting up a digital screen network that consumers can manipulate with the cell phones. Phone users can send text commands to screens in airports and bars, and effect what content will play. In return the screens send the phones ad messages - sometimes in the form of coupons for the very establishment you're in.