Leading news video site MSNBC.com is teaming up with Mocean Mobile in a multi-year mobile ad serving deal.

The deal reflects the growing need for publishers to provide custom and targeted mobile experiences to viewers in an increasingly fragmented mobile space.

"This is a significant agreement because publishers of all types are recognizing that the consumption of their content in mobile environments is growing,? said Tony Nethercutt, general manager of North America at Mocean Mobile parent Mojiva, New York. "Monetizing this content through mobile ads is emerging quickly and many news sites are still exploring how to do this effectively with their current sales process.

?In the very near term, mobile impressions, and potentially mobile ad revenue, will pass desktop revenue," he said.  "Msnbc is getting ready for that, and Mocean Mobile is part of making that happen.?

The MSNBC Digital Network has a network of mobile sites, including Today.com and Dateline.msnbc.com, that feature a wide range of content, including original journalism as well as live and on-demand video.

In March, The MSNBC Digital Network set a new site record of 213.8 million total online video streams.

The publisher offers mobile offerings for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7 and tablet platforms.

Easier buy-in
The deal with Mocean Mobile will help the MSNBC Digital Network enhance mobile advertising opportunities across all of these platforms.

?This will set us up to manage our mobile advertising with one platform creating scale and unique targeting opportunities for advertisers,? said Chris Maly, senior director of ad product strategy at MSNBC Digital Network, Redmond, WA.

?The goal is to make it easy for advertisers to buy inventory on our mobile Web sites and across our mobile applications.?

The MSNBC Digital Network will leverage Mocean Mobile to provide mobile ads on multichannel offerings in display, rich media and video.

Mocean Mobile, New York, helps publishers, developers and app stores customize, serve and measuredisplay ads to all mobile devices.

Using the Mocean ad serving platform, the MSNBC Digital Network will be able to integrate rich media creative into ads as well as geo-target ads in both app and mobile Web environments. As a result, the MSNBC Digital Network expects to be able to maximize mobile ad revenue by creating custom ad solutions with the goal of reaching and engaging mobile audiences.

The Mocean ad serving platform will also provide campaign management support, helping the MSNBC Digital Network to manage, prioritize and traffic ads throughout each mobile campaign.

The audience for the MSNBC Digital Network?s sites will benefit from the deal, as well.

?Ultimately this will create a better advertising experience for users,? Mr. Maly said.  

?They should see more interesting advertising via rich media ads and more relevant ads via targeting.?

Final Take
Mojiva on mobile advertising

/>