Feb 2, 2007 3:15 PM,

Mobile advertising in motion

By Dan O'Shea

It’s no secret that Superbowl Sunday means as much to the advertising market as it does to the teams that will be playing, but TV is no longer the only medium capable of delivering their messages. Mobile content services and devices represent the latest frontier for advertising, and perhaps the idea of the more personal and targeted reach that so many advertisers crave.

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Informa Telecoms & Media has said the mobile advertising market could be worth $11 billion by 2011. Carriers such as AT&T are looking at the best way to use their mobile devices and content platforms. Karl Spangenberg, vice president of IP advertising at AT&T, told Telephony this week that the company is at the stage of studying how mobile advertising would be delivered and presented, what benefits AT&T can derive from it and how customers might feel about seeing more advertising in places like mobile content decks or portals.

“If specialized ads could work in tandem with the rest of your media mix, that would be the key,” Spangenberg said. “A mobile ad could be part of our three-screen strategy, and not something that would be standalone. He said AT&T doesn’t currently have a trial underway, but that its exploration of the concept could eventually lead to a mobile ad trial.

Meanwhile, numerous companies are lining up to serve mobile ads over carrier networks. Among them is Millenial Media, whose name reflects the demographic of “millennial,” people born between 1977 and 1995 who are viewed as the generation that is most directly inspiring advertisers to reach them through their mobile devices.

Paul Palmieri, founder and CEO of Millenial Media and a former Verizon Wireless executive, said increasing mobile advertising will help mobile content adoption and revenue. “It’s still hard to get mobile content services out there and get people to adopt them,” he said. “Display advertising will help support it and help get the word out about all of this valuable content.”

Yet, Palmieri also knows the mobile industry needs to be careful how it approaches customers with more advertising. “This is an industry where we have great respect for protecting customers, and the we have to start with the idea of ‘first, do no harm.”