Mobile companies, from mobile marketing specialists such as Hipcricket to mobile ad networks such as Millennial Media, Jumptap and Greystripe, are enhancing their offerings in a bid to compete with giants Google and Apple.

With Google?s acquisition of AdMob having been completed and Apple?s acquisition of Quattro Wireless likely to be approved soon?along with the impending launch of iAd?there are two clear market leaders in the mobile advertising space. That is not to say, however, that independent players both large and small are not innovating and punching above their weight.

"We believe both mergers are strong validation of our industry, and we still see ourselves as extremely competitive," said Paran Johar, Los Angeles-based chief marketing officer at Jumptap. "We offer the industry's most open and flexible marketplace, supporting all devices, platforms, browsers and ad units. 

"Another important differentiator is our ability to deliver relevant ads powered by consumer intelligence, which drives higher ROI for advertisers and better yields for publishers," he said.

"We believe an open approach is in the best interests of advertisers because they only care about reaching and engaging targeted audiences, not specific devices or operating systems."

Jumptap has a number of partnerships with North American carriers and publishers.

"We are also the only independent mobile ad network that leverages our advanced IP portfolio to deliver the most relevant ads," Mr. Johar said.

"We have a healthy, diversified business that's growing 30 percent quarter-over-quarter and is best positioned to make this a three-horse race," he said.

Hipcricket unveils cloud-based mobile marketing, advertising platform
Mobile marketing and advertising company Hipcricket has unveiled HIP 6.0, the latest version of its cloud-based mobile marketing and advertising platform.

Key new features in HIP 6.0 include enhanced analytics, tighter integration with industry-standard customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing resource management (MRM) systems and new hyperlocal targeting capabilities which enable brands to target customers and prospects based on location.

?With the new HIP 6.0 platform, our goal is to take mobile marketing and advertising to the next level by ensuring that it?s fully integrated with overall marketing initiatives,? said Eric Harber, president and chief operating officer at Hipcricket, Kirkland, WA.

?This holistic view of marketing enables brands to control the message and target the right customers in the right place at the right time,? he said.

?Additionally the platform lets brands and agencies choose which mobile channels are best suited for their customers, including what level of service they require, thus guaranteeing that each solution is tailored to meet the unique needs of each marketer.?

Hipcricket has conducted more than 65,000 mobile marketing campaigns for brands such as Macy?s, Nestle, KFC, HBO (see story) and Clear Channel?as well as hundreds of radio and television stations nationwide.

Delivered as a software-as-a-service platform, HIP 6.0 provides brands and agencies with capabilities to create national and local mobile campaigns through SMS, including mobile coupons, the mobile Web, applications and Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

HIP 6.0 also provides access to the Hipcricket Mobile Marketing and Advertising Network through display advertising and to customers who have opted in to receive relevant marketing and advertising offers via SMS.

Hipcricket claims that its network gives brands and agencies access to more than 50 million unique users across Hipcricket?s national footprint representing more than 250 million impressions per month.

Mr. Harber said that while mobile display advertising can be effective, brands, agencies and marketers should not forget about SMS.

?The FCC?s approval of Google?s acquisition of AdMob represents a huge milestone for mobile advertising and marketing,? Mr. Harber said. ?This is additional validation that the mobile device has officially joined the ranks of other proven marketing channels such as the Web, broadcast and print.

?However, as the industry spotlight shines on mobile display advertising, it?s critical that marketers remember that SMS remains the most effective means for reaching the great majority of mobile subscribers, 286 million of which reside in the U.S.,? he said.

?In the end the most effective strategies will be those that tap into the strengths of both in order to most effectively capture the attention of consumers, connect them with their favorite brands and reach their ultimate objectives, securing sales and their long-term loyalty.?

Millennial Media updates Android, iPhone SDKs
Independent mobile ad network Millennial Media has released new Software Developer Kits for Android OS (Android SDK 3.5) and iPhone OS (iPhone SDK 3.5.5).

These releases mark the third SDK release on each operating system in less than six months.

Millennial Media claims that its developer community has grown 138 percent since January 2010 due to the company?s platform-agnostic position. 

Millennial Media?s new Android SDK provides developers parity with iPhone advertising functionality, for the first time, including static and video interstitials, expanding banners, transparent overlay and companion ads.

These capabilities are not new to iPhone developers, but they were not previously available for Android developers.

?We?ve worked with developers since the inception of Millennial Media four years ago,? said Steven McCord, head of product development, Millennial Media, Baltimore. ?We started working with Java and Brew developers as we saw, even back then, that the app space was and would be key for mobile.

?Over the past year, we?ve focused more heavily on the smartphone platforms, including iPhone and Android,? he said. ?Our developer community continues to grow exponentially?in fact, it?s grown nearly 140 percent this year alone.

?Developers come to us because we not only bring great brand advertisers, but our team is focused on partnering with developers to ensure they have the necessary tools to quickly integrate our SDK into their application, without affecting their core business?developing apps.?

In April, Millennial released an SDK and the PadMedia Creative Suite, with new creative ad formats built specifically for Apple?s iPad (see story).

?Our approach also includes working with other open mediators and integrators to fuel the development community,? Mr. McCord said. ?At the end of the day, developers will work with the mobile ad platform that provides them flexible integration, fastest time to market, and the greatest monetization opportunities.?

As reported in Millennial Media?s latest Mobile Mix: The Device Index, Apple was the leading operating system on the network, with a 62 percent share of smartphone impressions, and iPad ad requests grew nearly 77 percent week-over-week for the first full month the device was in market.

Android ad requests grew 77 percent month-over-month. Since January 2010, Android has grown 282 percent.

Android represents more than 10 percent of Millennial Media?s U.S. smartphone impressions. 

Greystripe CEO: Apple?s iAd needs to clear five hurdles to compete
Michael Chang, CEO of mobile advertising network Greystripe believes that Apple?s iAd network will need to meet specific performance benchmarks to compete for leadership within the mobile brand advertising market.

With Google staking out territory by picking up AdMob, other leading mobile ad networks are making moves to capture their share of the rapidly expanding mobile advertising pie.

Mr. Chang said that he believes like any new ad technology, especially something created by Apple with instant buzz, initial traction of iAds will be successful from an advertiser demand and publisher payout perspective.

To win over advertisers in the long run and compete with other ad networks like Greystripe, iAds will need to clear the following five hurdles:  

1. Steve Jobs will need to build consensus around metrics to measure the effectiveness of mobile advertising. Will it be click-through rates or another metric that better measures engagement or both?

2. If Apple decides to measure iAds based on brand engagement, the units will need to achieve at least 15-30 seconds of user engagement to compete with current iAd-like formats such as those made by Greystripe.

3.  If iAd advertisers buy CPC campaigns, they will have to compete with other networks charging $0.15 to $0.30 per click.

Right now, Apple is proposing $2 per click. This is well above industry standard and may not be sustainable. Apple will need to convince advertisers that their click is worth ten times competitor clicks.

4.   Apple?s iAds will need to generate higher click-through-rates than the competition given the higher price point.

This average must be evaluated over the long term as CTRs are typically high on new ad units and then normalize.

Mr. Chang cites comScore studies, which he claims show that Greystripe achieves 2-5 percent click-through-rates on average for its custom iFlash mobile campaigns at a fraction of the price.
 
5. In order for iAds to scale, Apple will need to provide brands the ability to own the development of advertising creatives.

Currently, Apple mandates that they do the ad development since there are no viable development tools for HTML5 and there are few HTML5 developers who are creating ads.

Greystripe overcomes this issue by allowing advertisers to create ads using Flash tools, which are the industry standard, and delivers them as HTML5 so they can run on the iPhone and iPad.

Mr. Chang said that after the hype dies down, scalable tools are a must.

"Greystripe welcomes Apple into the mobile brand advertising space," Mr. Chang said. "Their vision of engaging rich media brand advertising is the same that we have been communicating for years. 

"Apple?s presence is already playing an important role in speeding up growth of the space," he said.

"We believe there is a huge opportunity for independent ad networks like Greystripe that have a long history of success and a commitment to cross-platform solutions that leverage existing ad-creation tools and workflows.?