NEW YORK -- Brands and marketers are moving from experimental to full implementation of mobile programs and campaigns, according to a session at the MMA's MMF in the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The session's speaker attributed this maturation to the fact that mobile Internet usage and audiences have grown significantly in the last year due to the content, networks and devices that support the mobile world.

"There are two ways to make money: advertisements and content," said Neil Edwards, CEO at Cellufun.

He presented to individuals all across the spectrum of the mobile marketing world offering tips and some best practices on what makes an effective mobile advertising campaign.

He defined advertising as banners targeted towards users based on age, sex, geography or type of phone.

Mr. Edwards also said that Cellufun's fill-rates and best eCPM's for brands did not happen with one network alone, but that it built its own mediation technology in order to use as many networks.

"Look for places where you see consistent groups of users who keep coming back," Mr. Edwards said. "Understand the importance of engagement and a persistent community."

Mr. Edwards urged members of the audience to not settle for general click-through-rates, but to delve into the specific statistics of their campaigns.

He encouraged marketers to ask themselves these questions:
? Is my audience engaged?
? What type of person will see my advertisement?
? How consistent are my page views?

"If you're spending a lot of money on creative, you need to make sure the content will do something for the people it's being delivered to," Mr. Edwards said.

He also included other key questions for marketers to think about when they are strategizing in the mobile world.

He explained that it's important to know who the target audience is and where these people are located because most advertising networks have a global reach. In order to make sure content is relevant to the viewer, marketers must target within geography, and they must find out who the carrier is and fully understand the statistics of their network.

Mr. Edwards also made it clear that advertisers should be careful in terms of frequency caps.

"If you buy a million ad impressions, how fast and how furious are those impressions going to be delivered to make sure they count and aren't over-delivered," he said.

He cited three points of communication between client and advertiser that are vital to the success of a first-time mobile campaign.

First, marketers need to have a full understanding of the restrictions on mobile content and the advertising partner should make them aware of those restrictions in detail.

Second, the advertising network must brief the marketer on the level of device detection it is capable of in order to understand the types of phones advertisements are going to. He emphasized that mobile device-type tells a lot about the consumer.

Finally, Mr. Edwards said that marketers should be aware of the measurement capability provided by their chosen advertisers and know exactly what they want to measure before entering into the campaign.

He spent a little time discussing downloadable applications and admitted that there is a lot of hype surrounding downloadable content.

Downloadable applications have their place in the market, but they are expensive and have a short shelf-life.

While all these tips are important, Mr. Edwards stressed his final point.

"Don't assume one type of creative works," Mr. Edwards said. "Investing extra time up front is important. Since mobile has small screens, various screens and various resolution types, you need to make sure that you do some testing so that your creative will pull, display properly and generate a real call to action."