Two of the “internet giants” continued their string of acquisitions in the advertising industry.

AOL has announced that it has bought TACODA, an online behavioral targeting advertising network, and Microsoft will purchase advertising exchange platform AdECN. more»

Omar Hamoui, CEO and founder of AdMob has been included in AdAge magazine as one of the 40 best marketers under the age of 40. AdMob, founded less than 2 years ago, is the world’s leading mobile advertising marketeplace and serves over a billion ads a month. more»

Nigel Sheldon is Director of Digital for Starcom Digital in London, one of the major media agencies. In this interview, Nigel shares his views of the mobile advertising market today, key drivers for the future, and why consumer behavior has to be at the center of the debate. more»

M:Metrics has released a report that looks at patterns of mobile content consumption in Europe and the US. Sports was the most popular genre in Europe, with Weather being the most popular among US consumers. more»

Ad-financed mobile social networking service “itsmy.com” reached an important milestone, signing up its 500,000th user. Only 14 months after launch and utilizing viral marketing almost exclusively, the mobile internet community reports to be the US off-deck market leader in the space. more»

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian mobile operator Telstra and Publicis Mojo are in talks to set up a new digital media company to sell tailored advertising messages and advertiser-backed content exclusively to Telstra’s Next G mobile network. more»

Danny Kalish, CTO at Unipier discusses mobile operators’ need to adopt an approach that allows them to target specific users with relevant advertisements and at the same time manage the overall ad-related user experience including user privacy and charging aspects. more»

PWC says 50% of E&M revenue growth will come from mobile and internet media over next 4 years

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released their study Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2007-2011, which says the E&M industry will grow to $2 trillion by 2011, with almost half of the growth expected to be generated through online and wireless technologies. more»

According to eMarketer’s latest report (“Mobile Search: Clash of the Titans”) mobile search in the US will account for about $715 million by 2011. This would represent 15% of the total mobile advertising market, which is estimated to be worth $4.7 billion by that time. more»

Interpublic, the worldwide marketing communications company, announced that it has formed a dedicated mobile marketing agency, Ansible, to work with all the IPG companies. more»

On Friday Google announced that they would be willing to invest at least $4.6 billion to acquire radio spectrum in the US . This would (eventually) allow them to setup as a mobile operator to compete with the likes of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. more»

Providing free wifi access all across a city has often seemed like an attractive idea, and a number of cities have projects in that area. But the question always arises as to what is the business model, and who eventually needs to pay for the infrastructure and operations. more»

German software developer Rock Your Mobile launches Call’n Cash technology. It allows ads to be distributed to mobile phones based on specific target consumer needs and profiles. more»

China Mobile has received licensing approval to create and execute its own mobile advertising and marketing services. Its services will focus on different forms of mobile advertising, including sending ads to clients’ mobile phones through service providers, more»

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released the latest edition of its MMA Consumer Best Practices (CBP) Guidelines, which includes guidelines for marketing to children. more»

Allen Adamson is managing director of the New York office of branding consultancy Landor Associates. He has written an thoughtful piece in Advertising Age on how to insure that your brand works well in this new era of mobile advertising. more»

In a long anticipated move, Google has started testing AdSense for mobile. AdSense is the program that allows publishers to include Google Ads on their site. more»

The MMA EMEA (Europe, Middle East, & Africa) Mobile Advertising Committee is accepting public comment on its EMEA Mobile Advertising Guidelines. Deadline is August 10, 2007 at 17:00 GMT. more»

Streamezzo recently announced a partnership with Nokia, under which Streamezzo will design, develop, and deploy MyNseries, a comprehensive platform that delivers a full rich multimedia experience to users of Nokia’s N-series family of mobile devices. more»

Hyundai has launched a multi-faceted mobile campaign that targets 18 to 24 year olds ands promote the Elantra brand sedan. more»

Multicasting may be the only way that mobile networks will actually be able to deliver the rapidly growing demand for mobile rich media content. “The need to cater to the techno-ravenous community has accelerated development in this area.”

As more content is delivered over this medium, it has broad implications for mobile advertising. more»

“Earnings from Web 2.0 could be peanuts compared to what’s ahead for mobile ads.”
Red Herring, the leading US magazine for “The Business of Technology”, has put mobile advertising as its cover story this month. more»

Israeli mobile operator Cellcom has just completed its first ad-funded mobile games service. The service was powered by innerActive technology. The results were very good with a 44% Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and 19% Acquisition Rate. more»

Mobile-Worx provides mobility solutions for Enterprises, MVNOs, Carriers, Content Aggregators, Media Companies and Content Developers. Their products include Mobile Storefronts, Value Added Services, Content Delivery Solutions, integrated billing system, Device management, Mobile-Polling and Social networking applications such as mobile IM/blogging.

Mobiclicks is a mobile advertising/marketing company, focused on WAP advertising, but capable of creating and delivering any mobile campaign, making use of various mobile technologies available in the market. Mobiclicks has experience in the mobile entertainment industry and use this experience to target a specific base enabling them to reach an advertisers objective.

Peperoni is a leading provider of mobile social services worldwide focused on site building, picture & video sharing and making new friends from all over the world through the mobile phone. Peperoni’s mobile community (peperonity.com), hosts 10m+ page impressions and a quarter million UV’s daily and is operated by Peperoni both in several on-deck versions for carriers worldwide (e.g. T-Mobile, o2, TIM) and in the off-deck version in the “free” mobile space.

Cellfish.com, who runs ad-supported mobile and web entertainment portals which allow users to store and share their content, has created a specific channel for fans of metal, hardcore, indie & punk music. more»

A few weeks ago we had the chance to attend the 2007 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. It was a feast of high level discussions about communications, networking, and a chance to see the best of the previous year’s advertising campaigns. more»

The growth of UGC (user generated content) has been explosive on the internet, and similarly is expected to become a major presence on the mobile web. How best to monetize UGC content with advertising is a topic of much conversation more»

The Sugar Mama program of Virgin Mobile US has just celebrated its one year anniversary. The Sugar Mama program offers free voice minutes to subscribers who agree to watch ads and answer a few short questions. more»

The world’s first completely ad-funded MVNO has announced that it is delaying it’s British launch. Blyk, who have been in development since January 2006, will now launch in Britain in October. more»

The GSMA has launched an ongoing programme to help the thousands of small and medium-sized companies developing innovative mobile products and services reach mobile operators and bring their innovations to end-users. more»

Nokia has announced the launch of a “Regional Language news portal” in partnership with Malayala Manorama. Nokia GPRS enabled phone users in Kerala will be able to get national and international news in their native language across the following categories: news, sports, travel, music, astrology and movies. more»

Cars.com has announced that Lexus will be the first sponsors of cars.com mobile. The campaign will connect potential customers to the Lexus WAP site were they can find their local Lexus dealer. more»

Virgin Megastores in New York and California recently launched a campaign using mobile coupons to bring customers to their stores. more»

Interview with Ujjal Kohli, CEO of Rhythm New Media, one of the leading mobile advertising startups.
Ujjal believes that mobile is best suited for Branding as opposed to Transactions. Rhythm has launched a successful ad-funded video service with well known brands and recently announced impressive numbers: 15% subscriber penetration in 3 months, and 75% more»

For more than 14 years Airwide Solutions has developed mobile infrastructure software to enable mobile messaging and mobile security solutions for wireless operators.

Airwide claims responsibility for the first text message ever sent. Airwide’s open Fusion architecture offers mobile operators more revenue options and a practical pathway to Mobile Messaging 2.0, while giving subscribers more messaging choices.

Probably the most hyped product launch in history, but the iPhone from Apple finally hit the streets this weekend in the US, reportedly selling 500,000 units over the weekend. Some people think this device may do a lot to increase the visibility and uptake of mobile web, especially in the creative/design community. On the plus side is more»

The era of free mobile video gets under way in Switzerland in June when Ad Infuse and Minick launch the country’s first ad supported video service to Swisscom Mobile customers. At the start, the content will come from a comedy channel but it is expected that music, sports and other content category channels will follow. more»

Orange UK has selected PhoneSpots Mobile Advertising Exchange to deliver enhanced listing information and targeted advertising to mobile phones that call the company’s “118 000” directory assistance service. Following each call to 118 000, a text message containing the enhanced listing and advertising is automatically sent to the caller’s phone. more»

The Nielsen Company has agreed to acquire Telephia, a leading provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets. This transaction accelerates Nielsen’s entry more»

Yahoo! Has announced that it has signed partnerships with six mobile operators across Asia. These six operators, who together have a subscription base of nearly 100 million, will distribute yahoo!’s mobile search service, Yahoo! oneSearch. more»