Portals and directories, travel, entertainment and telecommunications lead mobile advertising spend in quarter one of 2010, according to Millennial Media.

In the company?s one-year anniversary edition of its monthly Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting report, it focused on a number of trends observed from its ad servers and campaign data. In addition, the report showed that Blackberry smartphones dominate 12 of top 15 DMAs and the iPhone is tops in the Bay area.

?The key finding in our one-year-anniversary report is that mobile advertising is evolving at a pace I?ve never seen in any other industry,? said Mack McKelvey, senior vice president of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD. 

?That?s not hyperbole?we are seeing incredible growing in number of advertisers, verticals, types of campaigns and inventive targeting and creatives,? she said. ?That being said, advertisers aren?t in mobile because it?s a sexy space; they are planning mobile campaigns because they work.?

Leader of the pack
Los Angeles was the top United States mobile DMA by ad request, with the Southwestern U.S. region accounting for six of the top 15 DMAs.

Twelve of the top 15 DMAs featured BlackBerry devices as the lead smartphones, while the iPhone was the top smartphone in three markets: San Francisco, Fresno and Sacramento.

Apple?s iPod touch was the top mobile connected device in all 15 DMAs.

Additionally, the top 10 mobile advertising verticals included portals and directories, entertainment, telecommunications, travel, finance, education, dating, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals and retail and restaurants.

?Marketers should learn the capabilities of mobile, find a great partner and get in the game,? Ms. McKelvey said. ?Chances are that your competitors are in already, as evidenced by our first quarter top 10 mobile ad verticals.

?Compared to Q4 2009, portals and directories led the verticals again, and every other vertical moved up, down or out,? she said. ?Pharmaceuticals entered the top 10 for the first time, entertainment jumped into number two, telecommunications slid to third and travel moved up to the fourth slot from the eighth.?

Travel is on the rise
The report focused on the travel vertical and took a closer look at how some of the travel sub-verticals, such as hotels, tourism and transportation, are leveraging mobile-specific capabilities and engaging consumers at different stages of the campaign lifecycle.

The transportation, hotel and tourism sub-verticals all used an various targeting methods to reach potential consumers and all three categories used a submit form for retargeting and mcommerce and retail promotions to engage consumers post-click.

?There is so much discussion in the market around handsets,? Ms. McKelvey said. ?The bottom line is that mobile advertising is about reaching consumers in dynamic and engaging ways.

?BlackBerry led in smartphone ad requests in 12 of our top 15 DMAs, Samsung feature phones led in 12 of the top 15 and the iPod touch was the top connected device in all 15,? she said.

?Savvy advertisers and marketers won?t limit their campaign?s potential; they will continue to focus on reaching consumers wherever they are and on whatever device they choose.?