Apple announced its widely anticipated iPad device yesterday.   I arrived in San Francisco yesterday just as Steve Jobs kicked off his presentation; so I wasn’t able to make it to the event.  But like most of you, I was excited to see this long rumored mobile device finally announced to the market.   As we have come to expect from Apple, the iPad is a beautiful device, well-designed and well thought out.   It is a logical extension of both the iPhone and iPod Touch.  As an iPhone user I can easily imagine all of the advantages of a more powerful, larger iPod Touch.

As the CEO of the leading independent mobile advertising network and technology provider, I am excited about the opportunity to extend our market-leading advertising solution to the new iPad ecosystem of application developers, publishers and advertisers.

I wanted to share a few of my initial thoughts on the iPad after yesterday’s announcement:

• The iPad is a big mobile device, not a stripped down PC.   This isn’t a surprise to us.   We have been predicting for years that tablet devices would ultimately be based on mobile platforms.   Why?  I see a couple of reasons for this.:
  • First, the mobile experience is inherently different from the desktop experience.  Devices and applications (and ad networks) built from the ground up to serve mobile users deliver a far superior experience.  Trying to cram the wired web into smaller, mobile devices just doesn’t work for mobile consumers.
  • The other primary reason is that mobile users are more willing to pay for content and are much more responsive to advertising (if done correctly) than web surfers on the wired web.   Publishers and application developers see the potential of extending the smart phone ecosystem of pay and advertising- supported applications and mobile web-based content to a new category of device that is from its inception, inherently mobile.

• The price is right.   I was excited and a little surprised to see an entry price point of $499 for the device.   I was even more excited to see $29.99 unlimited data plans, with no contract, and that it was only an additional $130 for 3G support.  Clearly, there are different levels of pricing to appeal to specific user demands for speed and storage capabilities.  This shows that, from the start, Apple sees the iPad as a mainstream, mass-market device.   The unlocked, non-contract 3G support (free use of AT&T’s hotspots is another great addition) is healthy for the industry and good for consumers.

• Applications are more important than ever. Millennial Media supports a large ecosystem of application developers across numerous mobile platforms.   Each application developer in our network that I have spoken with, from the largest media companies to the independent developer, has been incredibly excited about extending his or her applications to this new class of device.

• The palate for mobile advertisers has just been expanded. We have spent a good deal of time over the past year helping our advertising partners best use emerging mobile platforms, like the iPhone, Android and Blackberry platforms, to reach mobile consumers in new and exciting ways.   With the iPad and numerous other tablet devices poised to reach the market early in 2010, we are excited to work with advertisers to help them get the most out of this new class of mobile device.

• The monetization roadmap for developers increasingly needs to be a coordinated business strategy. New screens, new platforms and new opportunities mean complexity for developers.  Developers should partner with providers who give them broad device and opportunity coverage in a coordinated fashion, and that have direct relationships with the advertisers who seek these new and powerful audiences.  Mobile applications are a rich and growing market, and being tied to a single operating system or set of devices can have a limiting effect (reach and financial).  Feel free to check out the richest set of developer tools and revenue available today at http://developer.millennialmedia.com.

Those are my initial thoughts.   You will be hearing a lot more about the iPad from Millennial Media in the coming weeks.

Lexus ran a holiday-themed mobile campaign on CNN Mobile

Please click here to access the archived webinar, “Happy Holidays or Not: Mobile Lessons Learned, and Best Practice for 2010”

Lexus, Walmart, JCPenney, Best Buy and Vicks are examples of brands that used the mobile channel effectively during the holiday season to increase consumer engagement and drive sales.
During the hour-long webinar “Happy Holidays or Not: Mobile Lessons Learned, and Best Practice for 2010” hosted by Mobile Marketer and sponsored by mobile ad network Millennial Media, four panelists discussed mobile’s progress over the holidays, lessons learned and best practice for 2010. The webinar panel was moderated by Mobile Marketer’s Mickey Alam Khan.
Read the full article: http://bit.ly/cM82sq (the text above was taken directly from Mobile Marketer, with permission)

Speakers included R/GA, CNN Mobile, eMarketer, ESPN Mobile and Millennial Media

Sandwiched in between Apple & Verizon Wireless’ earnings and Apple’s “new product” announcement, comes December’s Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™, featuring December and Q4 data to provide advertisers insight into mobile trends from the Holidays.

Highlights from December’s S.M.A.R.T.:

• The U.S. Mobile Web: Decreased slightly to 66.6M users, according to Nielsen (Nov.)

• Special Section – Travel Knows Mobile.  Millennial Media Knows Travel: For the first time since S.M.A.R.T™ was first published in March ’09, Entertainment was not the top advertising vertical.  Portals and Directories took the top slot in Q4. Telecom, Finance, Entertainment and Dating round out the top 5.

• Engagement: Average monthly page views per user increased to 125 in December from 113 in November; and, average user session times increased from 5:02 to 5:09 (min:sec).
• Devices: Samsung represented approximately 23% of our network’s impression share in Q4. But the iPhone was the leading smart phone on our network with 41% of our network’s U.S. impressions.

Special Section- Travel Knows Mobile.  Millennial Media Knows Travel:

Our featured ad vertical, Travel, moved up from the number 10 spot, which it held for two consecutive quarters, to number eight.  In a November 2009 IAB report, 63% of respondents ranked Leisure and Travel as the second best category suited for mobile advertising, falling only behind Entertainment.

Speaking of Entertainment….our network’s Top Ten Advertising Verticals, ranked by spend, experienced several additional changes in Q4.  For the first time since we first published S.M.A.R.T. in March ’09, the Portals and Directories advertising vertical took the number one spot from Entertainment.  Consistently ranking in the Top 3 this year, internet giants continuously increased their investment in their mobile ad plans in 2009.  The number two ranked ad vertical, Telecommunications, was up from the number six spot in Q3 and the Finance vertical, which was not in Q2’s Top Ten, was the number three ad vertical in Q4’s Top Ten.

Engagement:

Traffic to Site remained the primary destination advertisers directed consumers to take an action throughout Q4 – it represented a three-month average of 41%. A correlation can be drawn between this and the Top 10 Ad Verticals– the advertisers represented in the top three, Portals & Directories, Telecomm and Finance, have developed persistent mobile sites and/or mobile applications. Custom Landing Page and Application Downloads battled it out for the second most popular campaign destination throughout Q4.

Mobile consumer behavior trends in December reflected the use of mobile as part of the holiday shopping research and purchase process. Average monthly page views per user increased to 125 in December from 113 in November.  The average user session time increased in December from 5:02 to 5:09. As stated in our Predictions for the Top 10 in ’10, we anticipate user session time increasing closer to 5:20 in 2010.

Device & Smartphone OS Highlights:

Smartphones represented approximately 38% of our network’s U.S. impressions in December and Q4. On any given month, we identify approximately 4K devices on our network, allowing an incredibly broad reach of mobile users, no matter what device they prefer to access the mobile web.

Media buyers planned for iPhone advertising in Q4, as the iPhone OS increased month over month and represented 47% of our network’s U.S. Smartphone impressions in December. RIM also had a strong presence with a 27% Q4 average impressions and three devices in our Top Ten devices for the fourth consecutive month: Blackberry Curve, Pearl and Storm.

Click here to view the full SMART http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/and feel free to sign up for auto delivery of these monthly Scorecards. If you have any questions or suggestions for future SMARTs, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

After coming off the fourth quarter, which is always hectic for a sales team, now is a great time to reflect on what we’ve done well, where we can improve, and what we plan for the year to come – especially in an industry growing as fast as ours.   Here at Millennial Media, we just completed a fantastic sales leadership summit, where we did just this.   As I sat in the conference room with our sales leadership team, it occurred to me the power of the world class team in front of me…

When we announced our latest round of funding in November, sales talent was a key element of our continued investment in growth.   Prior to the announcement, we had recently added senior sales leaders: for the mid-West, Betsy Flounders, the mid-Atlantic, Mike Anthony and, in the west, Mike Schlegel.   Michele Tobin had already been leading the entertainment vertical.  Then, to kick off the New Year, we added more trusted leaders with the addition of Carrie Seifer for the Northeast region and Alia Lamborghini in the Southeast.  My colleagues in Tech have brought in numerous new engineers in the past few weeks, and Operations continues to expand to keep up with the ever-increasing demand from advertisers.

On the face of these additions, we can see a raw increase in sales numbers, but what really excites me is the trust the market has in these leaders.  This team has spent the last decade guiding clients through a rapid pace of change.  Changes that have seen traditional media stumble and re-invent itself and forced rising companies to invent pricing metrics and creative units.  Each came recommended from various agencies, direct clients, and, together, they bring over 50 years of digital and mobile experience.  Millennial Media could not be more focused on the success of advertisers in mobile, and this group brings with them the trust of the market.

We are thrilled to have these seasoned leaders who bring extensive experience in advertising, mobile and digital to the Millennial Media community.  They join, what I believe, is the best sales force and account management team in the industry today.  In this very moment of rapid growth, a moment when the advertising community needs to look for a trusted leader, and trusted names and faces to help them chart the latest changes, the Millennial Media team will be there and ready to serve.

Be Mobile. Lead Mobile.  Deliver Mobile.

The year is off to a great start.  We are excited to be honored as this year’s “Overall Winner” for the AlwaysOn “OnMedia 100 List“, which recognizes the Top Private Companies in digital media.

Please support our president and CEO, Paul Palmieri, as he accepts this Award at the “OnMedia NYC” Opening Night presentation, Monday, February 1^st at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York, February 2^nd.  If you plan to attend the event, which we hope you do, Millennial Media will also be speaking on a panel – check out the full “OnMedia NYC” Agenda here, featuring the “Who’s Who” of today’s Advertising, Media, and Publishing communities.

The Millennial Media community receives a Special 50% Discount on a full Registration to “OnMedia NYC,” or by contacting Marc Sternberg at marc@alwayson-network.com or 310-403-3330.

Thank you for all your support and we hope to see you there!

November’s Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™ features a special section analyzing mobile behavior trends over the Thanksgiving holiday while also providing you the traditional monthly insights for brand advertisers.

Highlights from November’s SMART:

• The U.S. Mobile Web: Grew 3.16% to 66.9M users, according to Nielsen.
• Special Section – Thanksgiving Mobile Behavior Trends: Consumers sought Thanksgiving recipes – driving a 31% lift in interaction rates within the CPG – Food advertising vertical on 11/24.
• Engagement: The use of Custom Landing Pages increased 8% in November.
• Devices: T-Mobile’s HTC G1 Dream, the first phone with Google’s Android OS, was the only phone to have experienced a month over month increase outside of the iPhone.

Reach:

The U.S. mobile Web grew 3.16% to 66.9M users in October 2009, according to Nielsen (Nielsen reporting is one month behind SMART data).

Special Section – Thanksgiving Mobile Behavior Trends:

Unique mobile interaction lifts were found throughout key verticals, for instance, in the Entertainment ad vertical.   Consumers watched movie trailers leading into Thanksgiving Day, finding the information necessary to select a show time and theatre.   A 30% lift in interaction rates within the Entertainment – Movie vertical was observed on Thanksgiving Day as compared to previous days in the month.  To discover how additional advertising categories faired in Thanksgiving interactions, read the full report here.

Engagement:

The use of Custom Landing Pages increased 8% in November – a potential indicator that advertisers are focusing on campaign specific microsites to promote end of year specials and promotions on products and services.  Average monthly page views per user, as well as session times, increased– a potential behavioral trend indicating consumers are researching products and services as part of their holiday shopping process.

Device & Smartphone OS Highlights:

As smartphone numbers received a boost this Thanksgiving, they will continue to rise as carriers offer superior savings with smartphone holiday retail promotions.  Apple once again regained its lead as our top device manufacturer, with an increase of 4.67%, to place the largest month over month increase of among the Top 15 Manufacturers.  Apple now holds 26.38% of the impression share on our network.  RIM and Android were not without their own feats.  RIM had three devices in our top ten for the third consecutive month: the BlackBerry Curve, Pearl and Storm which represented: 5.07%, 1.59%, and 1.48%, of impressions in our network respectively. T-Mobile’s HTC G1 Dream, the first phone with Google’s Android OS, was the only phone to have experienced a month over month increase outside of the iPhone. The Dream represented 2.01% share of impressions and jumped from the tenth to the fifth spot in our Top Twenty Mobile Phones in November.

Click here to view the full SMART http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/and feel free to sign up for auto delivery of these monthly Scorecards. If you have any questions or suggestions for future SMARTs, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

2010 will not be the “Year of Mobile.” Why?  Well, we believe that the proverbial “Year of Mobile” came and went in 2009. While some were taking a wait-and-see approach, innovative advertisers were in market with creative, relevant and impactful mobile campaigns. They were building mobile sites and branded apps, and they were implementing mobile strategies.

Also, in 2009, a highly active developer community emerged, the penetration of disruptive smartphones continued and publishers quickly mobilized their sites.  If this isn’t enough evidence—Google doubled down in mobile advertising as well.

With all of this in mind, we’re excited to put the talk of the “Year of Mobile” behind us and instead, focus on continuing to grow the mobile ecosystem and deliver for advertisers.

Our Top 10 Mobile Predictions for 2010 provides a snapshot of some of the predictions we have for mobile advertising.  We’ve based these predictions on observed consumer behavior, industry data, technology and device trends, and campaign analysis pulled from our network this year.

Here’s a view of five of the ten–

1. The U.S. Mobile Web Will Reach Nearly 100M Unique Users Per Month

2. Advertisers Will Invest Significantly in Site and Application Mobile Destinations

3. New Entrants to the Mobile Market Will Emerge

4. Location x Relevancy x Immediacy= Mobile Triple Play in 2010

5. Advertisers Will Increasingly Buy Audiences over Buying Media Properties

Click here to see the complete list and details:  www.millennialmedia.com/research/top10. And, if you have additional thoughts, email us at marketing@millennialmedia.com.

As a Board Member within The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) both in the US and globally, I congratulate Mike Wehrs on a solid year.  I am as sad to see him go, as I was happy upon his arrival earlier this year.  His presence and direction will be missed; however, we have a highly diverse and active board who will ensure the organization continues to support industry education and best practices in mobile advertising and mobile marketing until his replacement is named.

Since March 2009, Millennial Media has provided monthly insights for brand advertisers in our Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™. This month our partner, Mobclix, provided a special apps section with trends across Apple, RIM and Android. We also included a first view into the top mobile operating systems on our network. 

Highlights from SMART:

• The U.S. Mobile Web: Grew to 1.1% to 64.8M users, according to Nielsen.
• Special Mobile App Snapshot Section, Provided by Mobclix: Apple surpassed Android and RIM in the number of monthly downloads. Android apps out-performed both Apple and RIM in the Game category. RIM topped the average app time at eight minutes.
• Engagement: Average user session time was 4:46 (min:sec) and average page views were 106, down from 109. 
• New OS Report: The iPhone operating system was the top OS on our ad network, followed closely by RIM. Apple; however, was bumped back into the second spot behind Samsung, as the top manufacturer on our network.  Feature phones represented 64% of impressions versus smartphones, which accounted for 36% of impressions on our network.

Reach:

The U.S. Mobile Web grew to 64.8M users. Millennial Media’s unique audience reach increased to 51.7M users, an industry-leading reach of 79.88% of U.S. Mobile internet users.

Special Section – Mobile App Snapshot – provided by Mobclix:

Apple dominated the number of total apps year-to-date through November 1, for a total of 115,000 combined apps in the Games, Entertainment, Books and Utility categories, according to Mobclix. Apple also led Android and RIM with the number of monthly downloads, with 100M apps per month. Android and RIM followed with 20M and 300K respectively. Average in-app CTR’s varied by app category — Android out-performed both Apple and RIM in the Game app category.  RIM topped the average app time with eight minutes.

Engagement & Targeting:

Advertisers continued to see value in making their brand’s presence consistently available to their audience, with Traffic to Site representing 46% of the mobile campaign destinations.  The two largest increases in the Campaign Targeting Mix were the Custom Subnet and Demographic targeting methods, indicating a potential trend towards refined targeting as an advertising goal in Q4. A new addition to our monthly SMART, the Application Download category, represented 29% of the Campaign Destination Mix in October.

Device & NEW Smartphone OS Highlights:

In October, we introduced a view into the U.S. Smartphone OS Mix.  The iPhone OS was the largest OS in our network with a 33% share of impressions, followed closely by the number two, RIM OS, with 31%. These operating systems grant users access to custom branded applications.  According to comScore’s U.S. Mobile Advisor report for September 2009, “The total number of app users in the U.S. has increased 42% year over year or has grown to 47M users from 33M users one year ago.” iPhone/iPod impressions alone increased in October by 4%, a consecutive monthly increase beginning in July.

The OS Mix contains a representative view of the device diversity available on Millennial Media’s network.  Smartphones accounted for 36% of impressions on our network versus feature phones, which had 64% of impressions. Our network data is in line with Nielsen’s Q3 2009 report which indicated that smartphones will have “50% of the market by the middle of 2011.”

In the device lineup, Samsung regained its lead as the top device manufacturer, making up 23.48% of the impression share in October, moving Apple back to the number two spot with a slight decrease, representing 21.71% of impression share in October.

Click here to view the full SMART http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/and feel free to sign up for auto delivery of these monthly Scorecards. If you have any questions or suggestions for future SMARTs, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

Marriott International’s upper moderate SpringHill Suites brand, an existing advertising partner with Millennial Media, is the first to leverage our first-to-market BlackBerry rich media ad.  Millennial Media is an important mobile advertising partner to OEMs and platform companies.  Given our in-depth knowledge of RIM’s devices and platforms, coupled with RIM’s increasingly advanced features, we are able to bring this capability to market on behalf of advertisers.

As a brand that places high values on design and technology, SpringHill Suites by Marriott has been on the forefront in utilizing Millennial Media’s broad reach to target all handsets including the iPhone, iTouch, and Palm Pre to show case Rich Media expandables.  With the introduction of the BlackBerry expandable ads, SpringHill Suites will be the first to expand their outreach with Rich Media to a range of RIM devices, reaching a wider target audience of business and leisure travelers who look for style and inspiration in their stay. With a focus on utility, the expandables offer easy access to brand essentials for busy professionals and travelers on-the-go.

Millennial Media has been a long-standing advocate of diversity in handset offerings, as demonstrated in our SMART report (http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/) which showcases our reach by both carrier and handset. Due to this philosophy, we are able to offer our network an industry-leading reach of nearly 80% of the mobile Internet according to Nielsen in September 2009. By continuing to offer new RIM solutions, such as BlackBerry rich media ads, Millennial Media is able to increase our reach and widen device targeting to a new base of professionals that were previously not available through the iPhone, iTouch, and Palm Pre.  As RIM continues to add additional touch screen devices to the market, this will be an increasingly valuable device to target audiences for advertisers.

SpringHill Suites by Marriott is an all-suite, select-service hotel brand that appeals to both business and leisure travelers.  Launched in November 1998, the brand currently has over 250 locations in the United States and Canada with more than 144 pipeline hotels. Take a tour of the new SpringHill Suites design at www.spacetoinspire.com

Today we announced the closing of our Series C round of financing.  The round was $16MM in growth capital, led by new investor, NEA.  Our existing investors, Columbia Capital, Charles River Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners also invested in the round of financing.  This capital is the second of two big deals in the industry in less than one week, and is a great indication of how vast the market for mobile media networks will be.

Millennial Media is proud to welcome Pat Kerins to our Board of Directors. NEA has a fantastic track record and is among the best firms in the business.  We have known Pat for some time and know he will add a lot of value to what we do every day.

Although we had a path to profitability without this funding, we decided to accelerate our growth and to widen the leadership gap between what we do and what others do.  As we have grown into the leading mobile media network, we have brought many products, solutions, and innovations to the market and we look to keep delivering for our customers.  Over the years our customers have rewarded us for our relentless focus on the advertiser, pursuing and sticking to one business, and for the high level of service we provide.   We now have the capital to drive our leadership independently for the long term.

As we look to the future, we are extremely focused on continuing to strive to be smart, client focused, and innovative.  More and more brands are moving dollars into the space and we continue to amass the largest audience to serve them with targeted audiences at scale.  Our publisher and developer network receives the benefit of strong monetization and the scale of campaigns as well.

Look for some great programs and more insightful research from Millennial Media as we take this journey together, and we will continue to strive to be the best in the industry.

In partnership – Paul

Hopenhagen is a global marketing and communications initiative created by Ogilvy & Mather on behalf of the International Advertising Association.  The mission is simple—drive support for climate change at December’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.   Through the support of the IAA and a coalition of the world’s leading advertising, marketing and media agencies, Hopenhagen will become an empowering platform, giving voice to global citizens in the climate change dialogue and helping voice their opinions to the leaders from 192 countries attending the conference.  The outcome of the new international global climate treaty has garnered public concern due to the U.S.’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 2005.

The Hopenhagen campaign urges citizens of the world to visit the Hopenhagen.org website, sign a petition demanding their leaders support climate change, and share their messages of hope through social media applications. As a campaign using social media to connect the people of the world with their leaders, mobile is an important element of this outreach.

“We chose Millennial Media for their unique ability to target both a wide ranging audience and to target young adults and healthy living specifically.  Their vast array of mobile tools and solutions, including their PSP inventory, attracted us to them.  We are certain Millennial Media will expand the Hopenhagen movement and empower grassroots movements,” said Seth Farbman, Managing Director of OgilvyEarth, Ogilvy & Mather’s global sustainability effort.

According to Nielsen, there are more than 63M mobile web users in the U.S.  These sixty-three million people use their mobile devices to find information, browse social media sites, download applications, play games, and more.  Advertisers who want to reach a consumer, in a personal and uncluttered environment, choose to reach out via mobile.  Ogilvy selected Millennial Media to deliver the mobile portion of their campaign, attracted to a mobile ad network that reaches about 80% of these 63M users.  Through December 7^th, Millennial Media will help Ogilvy drive awareness for the Hopenhagen petition.

“We are honored Ogilvy & Mather has chosen us to support the mobile component of the Hopenhagen campaign.  Both companies have a strong background in supporting their communities.  This project allows Ogilvy and Millennial Media to combine our strengths for a great cause,” said Erin (Mack) McKelvey, Vice President of Marketing, Millennial Media. “Cause-based mobile advertising is on the rise, similar to brand advertising, it drives significant campaign awareness and consumer engagement.”

What happened today is tremendous.  Google’s perspective has always been that mobile is just the internet.  Today Google validated what many companies to include Millennial have thought for years – that mobile is a different market with a huge potential for advertising; possibly a bigger opportunity than online media.

As the clear leader in mobile brand advertising, we are happy to see a player like Google bring economies of scale to the performance advertising space in mobile.

Millennial Media has generated our substantial lead in the market by focusing on the advertiser, delivering results, and has been rewarded with the largest reach of any media company large or small.  Reaching 80% of the US mobile audience, we look forward to working alongside the Google/AdMob pairing to fully realize the vast potential of the mobile advertising market. Congratulations to Google and to AdMob.