“AdMob’s new Interactive Video Ad Unit brings together consumers’ love of watching videos on their mobile device with advertisers’ goal of providing an interactive, social experience for consumers,” said Omar Hamoui, Founder and CEO, AdMob. “We are excited to create new ways for advertisers to engage with consumers on their mobile devices and for the developers behind the most popular and engaging iPhone applications to effectively monetize.”

The Interactive Video Ad Unit will be sold primarily as an interstitial that will automatically play as an application loads. This auto-play implementation delivers a captive, engaged audience similar to video interstitials on the traditional PC web. It will also be available through a banner ad unit where consumers will click to play the video. The ad unit features customizable interactivity buttons within the video player, putting users a touch away from deeper brand engagement with an advertiser as they experience branded video content.

AdSense for Mobile Applications allows developers to earn revenue by displaying text and image ads in their iPhone and Android applications. For our beta launch, we’ve created a site where developers can learn more about the AdSense for Mobile Applications program, see answers to frequently asked questions and sign up to participate in our beta. Advertisers can also learn about the benefits of advertising in mobile applications.

Under an agreement Microsoft and Verizon Wireless announced in January 2009, the Microsoft® Mobile Advertising team manages mobile search and display advertising across Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Web service. Verizon Wireless customers will now have a faster way to find Hyatt hotels, book rooms, view and change reservations, check in or out, receive special promotions, and access general information on the go when using Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Web service.

Mobile coupons are attractive to both consumers and vendors as they can be targeted at specific groups of customers and can be matched against particular interests and purchasing patterns, as opposed to the vanilla approach where “everybody gets every coupon” as in the traditional model.

Mobile Coupons Report author Howard Wilcox explained: “We believe that merchants will see targeted, quick one-to-one marketing campaigns via mobile coupons as a valuable marketing weapon. Considering that mobile coupons offer much better redemption rates and are more cost effective, they represent a win-win approach for innovative retailers.”

Other findings from the Juniper Research report:

• With in excess of 100m mobile phone users globally forecast to use mobile coupons in 2010, Juniper Research sees significant growth across the developed markets of North America, Western Europe, the Far East and China.
• As well as the key drivers, however, there are some significant hurdles, including the lack of suitable point of sale (POS) infrastructure at the supermarket checkout allowing for the quick and easy redemption of coupons, which is critical to the consumer shopping experience.

“Dockers® San Francisco is the first brand to fully utilize the iPhone’s technology to deliver an interactive message within applications, which is still a relatively new channel for advertising,” said Sherri Phillips, vice-president of marketing, Dockers® San Francisco. “The Dockers® brand will continue to seek out new interactive technologies and cost-effective ways to reach and engage our loyal consumers.”

The ad, titled “Shakedown 2 Get Down,” features Dufon, a.k.a. Orb/Orbit/Orbitron, a freestyle dance expressionist from a Seattle group “Circle of Fire,” dancing around the screen wearing Dockers® Vintage Workwear Khakis. In between levels of gameplay in the select application, users are prompted to “shake” the iPhone setting off Dufon’s unbelievable dance moves. Consumers will receive a full sight and sound dance experience. The creative concept and filming where handled by interactive creative firm Razorfish, in Seattle.

The ad will launch in early March and will run for four weeks within free iPhone applications, such as: iBasketball, iGolf, iBowl and iTV.

[via engadgetmobile]

The Kamppi indoor mobile service currently provides information about the shopping center, indoor maps which can be searched to pinpoint the location of shops or restaurants, as well as relevant retail information such as opening hours and discount vouchers. Anyone inside the shopping center can access the service by going to http://kamppi.nokia.mobi using the web browser on their mobile device. This service is being launched at the start of Kamppi Shopping Center’s spring promotion, Kampituspäivät, and offers the retailers a new way to interact with customers. Exclusive offers will also be available to those using the indoor mobile service.

“With this trial Nokia Research Center is making indoor location based services easy and accessible to shoppers with a web browser on their phone. By combining location information with promotions from the Kamppi retailers we aim to provide a compelling mobile offering. Later this year we plan to extend the trial to bring more customized information to the user,” said Hannu Kauppinen Head of Business Validation, Nokia Research Center.

“Here and now will encourage users to come back more often and spend more time on Nokia.mobi which is great news for the growing number of advertisers that have been using Nokia.mobi as the launchpad for their mobile advertising campaigns,” added Tom Henriksson, Head of Nokia Interactive Advertising.

The different sections of the site allow consumers to:

• Listen to music 
• Grab downloads 
• Read the Buzz about celebrities 
• Get to Know the latest news 
• Browse the mobile net 
• Discover Nokia services and products

“Greystripe’s rich media ads performed extremely well for us,” said Michelle Mayorga, Mobile Director at Rock the Vote, a Greystripe advertiser. “Advertising in the iPhone with highly engaging ads was perfect for our mission to build the political power of young people because the iPhone reaches a highly targeted demographic.”

“Greystripe is looking to address the lack of advertising standardization in mobile by committing to IAB online formats,” said Michael Chang, CEO and Co-founder of Greystripe. “We have made it easy for advertisers by removing barriers to execution. Brands like Jeep, RadioShack, New Line Cinema, Rock the Vote and Yahoo! have seen strong results.” 

[via slashgear]

The fastest-growing category of SMS advertising since August 2007 is food, at a rate of 53 percent, followed by clothing/fashion at 38 percent and restaurants at 37 percent.

Overall, slightly fewer Europeans report receiving an SMS ad, with a decline from 112 million in August 2007 to 110 million in August 2008.

[via Cellular-News]

These additions join other flagship Nokia Media Network publishers such as Reuters, CNET, Agence-France Press, Unidad Editorial, Hearst and AccuWeather; operators like Sprint and Airtel; and Nokia services like Nokia.mobi. The additions include the following publishers, who will further strengthen the Nokia Media Network’s reach in the United States:

• Fox News 
• A&E Network
• Bio Channel
• HISTORY
• The Hollywood Reporter