With new terminology like ‘idle screen ads’ and ‘client applications’, you can begin to see why marketers aren’t yet familiar with the advertising tools mobile has to offer.

However, in 2007 mobile internet advertising started creeping onto the agenda. As talk of a ‘mobile web boom’ spread thick and fast, some publishers began early adoption of mobile internet advertising models. As we have already discussed, mobile internet is being used by consumers and advertising solutions are available now. Brands that have kept up with the trends are already exploiting the medium.

In this section we will showcase genuine and practical mobile internet advertising solutions that are available for you to use. If you aren’t familiar with them already, you soon will be.

Typical mobile web actions

Advertisers can run a variety of advertising campaigns. Beyond the branding opportunity of banner ads (discussed later) marketers can also use a variety of response mechanisms built into text and display ads (or within an actual text message) for example:

• Click-to-call (users place an outgoing call to the advertiser)
• Click-to-locate (users find the nearest supplier, e.g. car dealer, shop, restaurant or cinema etc, enabled by location-based services)
• Click to order brochure (users receive marketing materials by supplying their postal address)
• Click to enter competition (users enter prize draw or instant win)
• Click to receive email (users receive an email with links to a website by supplying their email address, enabling completion of the purchase online)
• Click to receive mobile coupon (users apply for mobile coupon – possibly a barcode – which provides access to an event or store discount etc)
• Click-to-buy (users make a purchase which may include some form of mobile or signatureless direct debit / credit card payment)
• Click to download content (users download content, including logos, wallpapers, ringtones, onto their mobile phones)
• Click to enter branded mobile internet site (users click a banner ad to connect to standing or campaign-specific mobile internet site)
• Click to forward content (users forward relevant content to friends, creating a viral campaign effect)

Source: MMA’s mobile advertising guidelines 2007

Mobile websites (also known as WAP sites)

You’ve got to start somewhere, and establishing your own web presence is as good a place as any. Without a mobile website people will be attempting to load your full website onto their phone and probably crashing it in the process. Although a number of devices, like the iPhone, now offer a full web experience on a small screen, ownership in the UK is extremely small in comparison to the mobile market as a whole. In any case, even on a larger screened phone with zoom functions like the iPhone, a standard website won’t offer the best user experience because it is designed for a screen 8 – 10 times the size and situated in a more relaxed environment. Ignore the requirement for a mobile website, and your brand could fail to be usable and accessible.

Considerations

Remember, this is internet on the move; users don’t have time to trawl through a vast website. Think carefully about what people will and won’t require. Potentially you could include all of your online information, but the way it is accessed and presented will need to be different.

A mobile site requires even fewer clicks than a standard site to reach key information. There is also less space to view content, so try to minimise the amount of content on a page. Don’t be worried about splitting long articles over multiple pages, once someone has found content they are interested in they won’t mind clicking for more, but getting them to that content in few clicks is key. Pay attention to images, particularly with text on them because images won’t scale well on phones. Also replicate graphs and charts on the mobile site pages rather than using graphics to ensure they can be viewed correctly.

Due to the many different mobile handsets available with different screen sizes and resolutions, it can be difficult to create pages to suit them all. The easiest way is to avoid using layouts reliant on images and don’t have a fixed width.

Other things to consider are linking the web and phone technology together. Telephone numbers can be linked directly from a website to a call, so ensure that ability has been added and think about expanding the amount of staff information available on the site. If someone’s late for an appointment, an email address isn’t the best use of information, but a direct line number is.

Useful tools / links

Test to see if your mobile site is accessible and usable on mobiles with Ready.mobi’s testing tool: http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN.

Search

Search commands 60% of internet advertising spend in the UK. The reasons? Search is integral to everyday life and it is also highly measurable, but primarily it is so popular among advertisers because it has such a high return on investment.

Likewise, on mobile, search is often the starting point for any web experience and mobile search advertising comes with exactly the same benefits as standard search. Already Google, Yahoo and the mobile operators themselves are offering mobile specific search advertising using their existing advertiser tools; in fact Google has had a ‘mobile’ tab on their Adwords console for some time.

Considerations

The way search is presented and used on mobile, while largely similar to internet, does bear significant differences. Due to the reduced available space, search results are limited. This usually results in 10 natural search listings sandwiched between 2 - 3 paid for listings at the top and bottom of the page. All listings have less space for text.

Other than these display differences, the functionality is more or less the same. Ads are placed using the same online tools and search engine optimisation principles from standard websites are carried across to mobile.

Geographical search is obviously at home on a mobile, however on the whole, search services aren’t yet able to tell advertisers the exact location of an individual without them entering the location themselves. The best example of geographic search is using a map service such as Orange Local.

Useful tools / links

Not only do all of the mobile phone operators have search engines built into their portals (some of which are powered by internet search engines) but the main internet search engines have gone mobile too:

Google mobile: http://www.google.co.uk/m/
Yahoo mobile: http://uk.wap.yahoo.com/
MSN mobile: http://www.msn.co.uk/ (the site knows automatically that you are on a mobile).

To place adverts on Google mobile search visit http://adwords.google.co.uk and to place adverts on Yahoo mobile search email:

Display: text and banner ads

Text and banner ads are exactly the same as internet ads but smaller. New systems such as Doubleclick’s integrated online ad booking software (DART) have made booking mobile ads part of same systems as the standard website counterparts. The systems know the size of the mobile screen, serving the correctly sized ads automatically.

Measurement is already available for mobile comparable to internet banner ads, but there is room for improvement. That improvement is happening quickly with enhanced systems due in 2008. At the moment it is still possible to target based on demographics, contextual and, unique to mobile, specific mobile handsets.

Considerations

Size factor means there are issues around the amount of creative that can be squeezed into the smaller space (often just a logo and a small image). Download speeds mean that animated or video ads aren’t really an option just yet. If a user is in a hurry, they won’t appreciate waiting for a mobile web page to load an advert before they reach their content.

There are greater differences too, created by the way people use mobile internet. People are often in a hurry when using mobile internet so they don’t browse in the same way as on standard internet, they have a predefined objective such as finding an address. Time is even more precious on mobile, so users will only click through on an ad if the incentive is particularly desirable.

Inventory is still relatively scarce because of a shortage of eyeballs. Both reach and frequency are a long way from their theoretical maximum due to the early stage of the market. Today less than a third of mobile subscribers regularly use the mobile internet and they average only one page per day (source: MMA UK).

Sponsorships and tenancies

A sponsorship is when a company finds a website with content that matches its values and then adds advertising and their branding to the site. For example, a brand like Nike could benefit from ensuring a high profile on a sports news website. Tenancies are when a brand provides content or a service specifically for a website other than their own. For example, AOL allows holiday companies to provide services and content for their travel section receiving a percentage of the revenues.

Both of these are two forms of mobile internet advertising that are incredibly similar to standard internet. In principle, they are exactly the same but for the smaller screen taking into account all of the considerations required for mobile websites and display advertising.

Sponsorships must take into account the reduced amount of space for graphics and messaging, aiming to really focus their campaign message. This encourages a greater selection process to find the right partner for a sponsorship and greater creativity to offer a better purpose for the sponsorship.

Video

One format that has flourished only really on the internet is video. Once it had arrived it wasted no time in becoming one of the largest methods of content delivery. On mobile, video is set to be one of the driving forces behind mobile internet with the likes of Channel 4 already offering video clips, and services like iTunes offering downloadable video content for mobile devices.

Advertisers are able to attach and integrate advertising within video content for mobile in exactly the same way as online. Pre-roll, post-roll and short sponsorship slots are perfectly at home on mobile video and offer all of the benefits you would enjoy online. These include contextual and demographic targeting as well as measurability in terms of how many people have downloaded the video.

There are other opportunities too like advertiser funded video. The laws for advertiser funded video that apply to television don’t apply online. This allows advertisers to produce their own programmes including the products. HowTo.tv is for traditional internet, but is an excellent example of advertiser funded video that could easily be reproduced for mobile.

However, the smaller screen size, even on larger screened mobiles, is still too small to view text used in standard TV advertising. This equates to the need for mobile specific video advertising. As with banner ads, there is less space for messaging, and clickthrough is currently impractical.

Mobile video ads are a brand building and message delivery tool. Due to the high level of engagement with consumers watching on the phone, it means video advertising is one of the most powerful tools for reaching consumers on the move cutting through the bombardment of other distractions.

Mobile affiliate advertising

Affiliate advertising is a working relationship whereby a merchant (online shop or advertiser) has consumers driven to it by ads on an affiliate (content website).

If a consumer visiting the affiliate’s site clicks on a link and goes on to perform a predetermined action (usually a purchase) on a merchant’s site then the affiliate receives a commission. For example, Amazon.co.uk offers an affiliate scheme allowing affiliates to advertise products on their sites. If visitors to the affiliate sites then click through and make a purchase, the affiliate receives a percentage of the revenue.

On mobile affiliate advertising principles are, as with most mobile advertising, exactly the same as on standard internet. The differences are in the delivery and presentation of the content that we have already talked about when discussing mobile sites.

There is one very large consideration with regard to mobile commerce (mcommerce): trust. While a lot of the legwork has been done by reassurance through internet commerce, trust will be an issue for mcommerce initially. Ensure the same reassurances are carried across to your mobile sites with clear messaging and transparency over transactions.

Client applications

Client applications are, in the simplest terms, small programmes that can be downloaded on to mobile phones. Once downloaded, the applications carryout a specific task and some of these will connect to the internet each time they are accessed to download dynamic content, allowing for dynamic advertising too.

The need for applications is purely for speed and accessibility. It’s far quicker and cheaper for a mobile internet user to download an application once than to download it each time they go onto a website. Complicated tools on websites can also crash mobile web browsers if they are old versions.

Idle screen and in-game ads

As well as the above discussed areas of advertising, mobile handsets allow for a number of different ways to interact, resulting in new ways to advertise!

When a mobile isn’t being used an ‘idle screen’ appears equivalent to a screensaver on a computer. It’s possible for this to be used for idle screen advertising. By downloading an application onto a phone, the ads can be loaded when the phone isn’t being used. This isn’t intrusive because the user opts in to receive the ads and because the ads themselves don’t interrupt the experience. In return, the user can receive free or discounted services.

Mobiles are now often capable of downloading and running games, bringing with them the ability for in-game advertising. These can range from simple graphical card games, through to fully rendered 3D worlds for golf, racing or adventure games (to name but a few). These work in very much the same way as computer or console games.