Mobile advertising gets real

Activity around mobile advertising was subdued during the week, possibly due to the acknowledgement that ad spend – on mobile and elsewhere – is contracting due to the credit crunch. Most ominously, Nokia revealed that it is to cut staff from its Nokia Interactive Advertising group, only a year after it was launched. Blyk, the pioneering ad-funded MVNO, is also thought to be feeling the pinch and said at the show it was now in discussions to launch its model in conjunction with operators rather than go it alone. Microsoft was more bullish, announcing that it signed-up several major European publishers to its mobile ad platform and had been chosen by Orange Spain for the operator's mobile display advertising. Following on from it winning the race to become Verizon Wireless' ad search partner earlier in the year (beating off competition from Google in the process), mobile advertising is fast becoming a key area for the software giant. Elsewhere, the GSMA announced that it is ready to commercialise its Mobile Media Metrics audience measurement initiative. The service will launch in the second half of the year and will provide advertisers with mobile user behaviour and demographic information allowing them to more effectively plan mobile advertising campaigns. It is hoped that the initiative should go someway to revitalising the sector.

(This article is part of a series of follow-ups on Mobile World Congress 2009 from the GSMA Intelligence team.)