GSMA launches Mobile Advertizing Programme to optimize advertizing on the "fourth screen"

The GSM Association (GSMA), which represents more than 700 mobile operators serving 2.4 billion users, has launched a Mobile Advertising Programme to drive the development and success of advertising on the medium of the ‘fourth screen’ - mobile phones. The Programme will be directed by the GSMA’s Mobile Media and Entertainment Group, which includes leading operators from around the globe.

“The mobile phone can offer advertisers a level of immediacy, intimacy and personalisation that cannot be matched by other mediums,” said Bill Gajda, Chief Commercial Officer for the GSMA. “To realise this potential, the mobile industry, the advertising industry and the content industry need to come together to better define what advertising should look like on a mobile phone and how its effectiveness should be measured.”

With the leadership of the Mobile Media and Entertainment Group, the Programme will seek consultation with players from across the marketing, advertising and mobile industry value chains to promote a consistent approach to the delivery and measurement of mobile advertising. Through collective action, the mobile industry has the opportunity to enhance the mobile user experience while building mobile into a valued marketing medium for advertisers.

The GSMA intends to ensure that standards established include metrics for measuring the effectiveness of mobile adverts and for optimising the commercial models and formats of adverts for different kinds of mobile content. The Programme will also promote codes of conduct to facilitate the development of marketing techniques that will enhance, rather than diminish, the mobile user’s experience. The opportunity for advertisers to communicate with their customers in innovative and targeted ways will be balanced with safeguards to properly protect personal privacy.

The founding members of the GSMA’s Media & Entertainment Group include: AT&T (Formerly Cingular Wireless), 3, KTF, Orange, Smart Communications, T-Mobile and Telefonica O2 Europe.

“The opportunities of the mobile entertainment and advertising market are both vast and challenging,” said Ben Hirsch, Director - Market Development, Group Customer Marketing at Orange. “By working together to define a common approach to formats, delivery, inventory management and measurement, the operator community can ensure that it serves both advertisers and customers in the most effective ways possible.”

“This is an important year in the development of mobile as an advertising medium, we’ve been very pleased with feedback from the service we launched earlier this year” said John Penberthy-Smith, Marketing Director of 3 UK. “Mobile offers advertisers a new opportunity, the chance to deliver personalised advertising over the mobile to a hard-to-reach audience. We support this initiative as it will help ensure that mobile networks offer a consistent inventory.”