HP and WSJ.com Mobile Advertising

I saw a pretty cool like mobile ad banner on the Wall Street Journal's Mobile (WAP) website. The tiny banner just says "$200 Built-in." Upon clicking through, there is a WAP landing page that matches the current marketing campaign of $200 built-in savings to selected HP laptops. The landing page is powered by mLogic, a product offering by Crisp Wireless. They also power the ad serving technology giving publishers the ability to sell mobile ads in house. Unfortunately, the landing page doesn't allow you to buy a computer over mobile browser. They offer a link to a phone number which encourages visitors to buy a computer over voice call.

Mobile advertising and transaction is going to a hot topic for the next two years. I will try to capture as many practical examples for my audience!

Microsoft Joins Google and Yahoo in Mobile Banner Ads

Microsoft announced they will be launching mobile banner ads to advertisers interested in reaching customers using mobile Hotmail and Messenger. This is a natural progression for Microsoft to continue its pursuit to compete with Google in two playing fields: Mobile and Advertising. While Google's mobile advertising model is based on a more open-ended network (Adsense publishers can be anyone), Microsoft's staple of users on Messenger and Hotmail is pretty sizable in itself. In addition, its mobile operating system has had a first mover advantage with a large user base.

My only concern is if Microsoft can deliver a solid mobile ad platform with reliability and usability for its advertisers. As a paid search marketer, we find the user interface with Microsoft's search engine advertising to be a bit cumbersome. When compared to Google's adwords platform, it just doesn't feel as intuitive and easy to use. If Microsoft is to be taken seriously in its mobile advertising effort, they should focus on this area.

Microsoft will now join Google, Yahoo, Third Screen Media and AdMob to the mobile advertising space.

Google Mobile Image Ads

Google launched Mobile Image Ads last week to their mobile content network. It functions in the same way as their standard desktop image ads. Google suggests this network to be great for branding since most companies still do not have a mCommerce site to offer mobile conversion. For publishers, all you have to do is modify your code slightly for this to work. More support info here.