Ford and the Museum of Natural History are running rich-media mobile ad campaigns to drive awareness for their specific offerings.

Ford is promoting its new 2011 Super Duty trucks and the Museum of Natural History is advertising its newest exhibit. The ads are running in the AccuWeather application and were created by Crisp Wireless.

?We?re really excited about the progress we?re making in mobile,? said Tom Foran, chief revenue officer of Crisp Wireless, New York. ?Brands are taking a really active role in mobile and there is a big increase in number of brands, size of the buys and the uniqueness of the creative they?re using.

?It is an exciting time for mobile right now,? she said. ?This is the year of brand advertising on mobile and it is amazing to see it happen.?

Ford
Consumers that click on the Ford banner are served an expandable, full-page advertisement for the Ford Super Duty truck.

Here is a screen grab of the banner collapsed:

Here is the ad expanded:

Consumers then have the option of visiting the mobile site via the ?Learn More? tab, locating a dealer near them or viewing Ford?s Hunting and Fishing report.

Ford is no newbie to mobile.

The company has one the most developed mobile strategies industry-wide.

In February, Ford?s mobile idle-screen advertising campaign to drive consumer interest in the 2010 Ford Taurus achieved an average click-through rate of 20 percent (see story).

In January, Ford took third place for the 2009 Mobile Marketer of the Year award (see story).

Ford tapped Microsoft Advertising to build awareness for the Ford Sync product via branded experiences for MSN, XBox Live and mobile.

To promote its new WAP site, Ford?s Lincoln brand launched a multichannel mobile campaign that included mobile Web banners, SMS and bar codes.

Additionally, Ford's new 2010 Taurus had a multifaceted advertising campaign that included a mobile bar code initiative meant to enable other media that was being used in the promotion.

Museum of Natural History
The Museum?s banner ad advertises more than 60 live lizards and snakes on exhibit, and asks consumers to view a trailer.

Here is a screen grab of the banner ad collapsed:

Here is a screen grab of the expanded ad:

Consumers that click on the ad are routed to a YouTube video that talks about all the different animals on exhibit.

The video stresses that the real monsters, dragons and basilisks are back.

More than 60 live lizards and snakes from five continents are now displayed in exquisitely prepared habitats. In addition to the live animals, the exhibit uses interactive stations, significant fossils, and an award-winning video to acquaint visitors with the world of the Squamata, the group that includes lizards and snakes.

Here is the video:

Rich-media
AccuWeather.com, A&E, Cars.com and The Wall Street Journal Digital Network have tapped Crisp Wireless to certify and offer its rich-media mobile advertising services to their brand advertisers.

Participating publishers can now deliver Crisp Wireless rich media ads and Adhesion ad placement technology on their mobile sites, including integration with Crisp?s reporting and analytics tools.

The recently announced Adhesion is a high-visibility ad placement technology that empowers publishers to deliver more valuable inventory to their advertisers.

Rich-media mobile ad formats offered by Crisp Wireless include full screen ads, location-based ads, lead generation input ads, tap-to-video, tap-to-call and tap-to-social network ad formats.

?AccuWeather.com?s goal is to provide our clients with optimum impact from their ad spend through new and innovative executions that are exciting for advertisers and engaging for users of our mobile platforms,? said Bill Stephen, vice president of global advertising sales at AccuWeather.com, State College, PA.

?AccuWeather.com is dedicated to providing leading-edge mobile user experiences,? he said. ?Working with Crisp helps keep stay ahead of the curve in providing truly innovative mobile advertising executions that actually enhance user experience and provide more value to the advertiser.

 ?The size and dedication of our audience, many of whom user AccuWeather.com mobile every day to check their local weather, makes us an ideal fit for advertisers like Ford and American Museum of Natural History."

Dan Butcher contributed reporting to this story.