I am excited to announce the new look and feel of our mmDev developer portal. Designed to serve our extensive developer community, we have updated the content and simplified the overall design of the site to make it easier for developers to quickly get up and running on our network. Additional tools have also been added to help existing developer partners optimize their experience.

The updated portal has a new feature that allows developers utilizing our SDKs to include different ad sizes and functionality in their applications. While we have had this ability in our SDKs for some time, it is now much easier for our developer partners to configure these ad types and quickly test them out. These include our standard banners, as well as our interstitial units that usually garner higher CPMs.

Furthermore, we added a new section called “How to Make Money”, which offers insights on what advertisers desire from application developers, descriptions of our creative units so that you can see examples before you embed them in your application, and best practices for mobile display advertising. We hope this section will offer some help to those that are new to the mobile advertising game.

Finally, we heard our partners asking for an easier allocation mechanism for their inventory. As a result, we have simplified our allocation tool so that developers can easily configure multiple ad networks inside of their application. We continue to look to the future on our mmDev developer portal, so stay tuned for more added features in the coming months. Visit http://developer.millennialmedia.com/ to check out the new and improved mmDev portal today!

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Today we released our July 2010 S.M.A.R.T. ™ Report.  Each month we add a special section into our report that profiles something specific—user behavior, mobile ad verticals by spend, etc.  This month, we partnered with InsightExpress to showcase some of the results from their recent Q2 2010 Digital Consumer Portrait survey.  The focus on mobile shopping behaviors was incredibly timely to include this month as it showcased the power of mobile technology and trends that can be leveraged by nearly every vertical as we head into the holiday shopping season.

Here are some other highlights from the report.

• Millennial Media’s U.S. unique audience reach increased by 2% in June, from 62.9M to 64M unique users month-over-month to a continued industry-leading 81% reach of the mobile Web.
• Advertisers are continuing to engage in a deeper mobile experience with consumers; over 13% incorporated rich media elements in their campaigns.

• The InsightExpress study on Mobile Shopping Behaviors found that nearly 20% of Smartphone owners made a special trip to the store after receiving a mobile coupon; further validating that mobile is not just another customer communications channel it is rapidly evolving into an effective commerce channel on its own.
• Expand Rich Media as a mobile destination was on the rise in July.  This increase was due to advertising verticals such as CPG, Travel, and Retail & Restaurants incorporating rich media elements in their summer campaigns to attract highly engaged mobile users.
• Advertisers in the Telecom, Automotive and Retail & Restaurants verticals leveraged the Store Locator/View Map post-click action to drive foot traffic to their bricks-and-mortar locations.  Travel and Finance verticals should utilize this tactic to increase traffic to hotels and banking institutions.

Click here to download the free full report including:

• Millennial Media’s Reach & Quick Stats
• Special Section: Mobile Shopping Behaviors featuring a study by InsightExpress
• U.S. Mobile Advertising Engagement Data
• U.S. Mobile Campaign Targeting Methods

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Today we launched our July 2010 Mobile Mix™, which reports the latest mobile device trends for connected devices, mobile manufacturers, operating systems, etc. and includes a special section on apps.  This is certainly an exciting time for mobile application and web developers.  As we continue to roll out the Mobile Mix™ month after month, it never ceases to amaze me all of the great things that developers are bringing to the mobile community.

In particular, the section on Multi-Platform Developer Break-out on page four has an interesting chart.  The fact that more devices are being launched by the different handset manufacturers and the fact that developers are choosing to develop on multiple platforms, continues to show that where there is money to be made, developers will go there.  In addition, it shows that the larger the reach for any one particular application, the higher monetization growth opportunities that affords them.  Obviously, this excites me as this has always been a focus for Millennial Media–to aid in the monetization of the development community.

Here are some highlights from the report:

• Android’s OS became the second largest OS on our platform for the first time since we began reporting the OS mix in August 2009.
• RIM apps, representing 11% of the U.S. Developer Platform Usage Mix in July, experienced the largest growth month-over-month.
• The Motorola Droid moved into the top three in July’s Top 20 Mobile Phones with 5% impression share.  The Motorola Cliq Android device also entered into the Top 20 for the first time.
• Nintendo made its entrance into the Top 15 Manufacturers at number fifteen.
• Apple ad requests increased 36% and iPad ad requests grew 327% month-over-month.
• Shopping & Retail-focused apps jumped into the Top Ten Mobile App Categories for July at number eight, reflecting a potential back-to-school trend.

Click here to download the free full report including the Top 15 Manufacturers & Top 20 Mobile Phones and more.

Mobile Mix™ complements Millennial Media’s monthly mobile advertiser-focused Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™ report.  To access the full Mobile Mix™ report or any of the past SMART™ reports, click here.  If you have any questions or suggestions for future reports, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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Today we launched the June 2010 Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting, S.M.A.R.T.™  which includes a spotlight on the Entertainment Ad Vertical. This spotlight showcases the tremendous growth and diversification of this ad vertical as brands have embraced mobile to successfully promote a variety of entertainment products including CDs, Theatrical Movie Releases, DVDs, Television and Cable Programs and Games.

June S.M.A.R.T.™ Highlights:

• Millennial Media’s U.S. unique audience reach increased by 2% in May, from 61.5M to 62.9M unique users month-over-month.

• Millennial Media’s Top U.S. Mobile DMA’s – June 2010 includes several locations with large multi-cultural populations.  Brands interested in reaching multi-cultural audiences should make mobile an integral part of their marketing plans.

• June’s special section Spotlight on the Entertainment Vertical highlights campaign best practices and year-over-year growth including:

 

-Studio Motion Picture Release campaigns grew 89%

-DVD Release campaigns grew 300%

-TV (Cable & Network Program) campaigns grew 311%

• Portals & Directories ranked number one for the third consecutive quarter in our Top 10 Mobile Advertising Verticals, Ranked by Spend – Q2 2010. We anticipate continued heavy investment in this vertical as top brands compete to become the “go-to” portal with mobile consumers.
• Submit Form and Retail Promotions were among the top-performing post-click actions in the MYDAS™ Portfolio Mix in June. Tourism, airline and hotel advertisers within the Travel vertical actively engaged consumers with free trip promotions and special offers that captured the attention of summer vacationers making their travel plans.
• As an ever-increasing trend, advertisers are leveraging Audience-Targeted campaigns on Millennial Media’s network. The unique attributes of Mobile allow for this refined Audience Targeting. In June, 41% of campaigns leveraged this method.

Click here to download Millennial Media’s free full June S.M.A.R.T.™ report covering:

• Millennial Media’s U.S. Mobile Landscape
• Spotlight on the Entertainment Ad Vertical
• Q2 2010 Vertical Snapshot
• U.S. Mobile Advertising Engagement Data
• U.S. Mobile Campaign Targeting Methods
• Summary and Reporting Methodology

Click here to view the full S.M.A.R.T.™ 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 reports, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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content printed (but edited down for space) on 7/28/10 in Mobile Marketer, by Giselle Tsirulnik

Brands finally realize the importance of including mobile in holiday marketing plans, since not doing so means missing out on a core demographic of their audience who are often key influencers for products and services.

The 2009 winter holiday season was the largest single mobile ad season seen to date. However, early indicators show that the 2010 holiday season will dwarf last year’s. Industry experts predict that mobile marketing budgets will reach their peaks this holiday season.

“The holiday campaigns that were the highest performing on our network [last year] spent a good portion of the late summer and early fall on brand awareness and some promotional efforts, leading into larger promotional campaigns in the fourth quarter and throughout the holidays,” said Mack McKelvey, senior vice president of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD. “We have numerous advertisers already deploying the same methodology this year,” she said.

Marketers will focus their mobile programs to address consumers’ holiday needs through emphasis on the mobile wish list or shopping list access, product locators and gift suggestions.

Mobile coupon campaigns are going to be very prominent this holiday season as will loyalty campaigns that increase consumer retention and spend. Additionally, campaigns that focus on customer interaction and growth are going to be big as well.

Millennial Media’s Ms. McKelvey said that her company has seen an uptick over the past few weeks in new retail, travel, auto and CPG holiday budgets. Marketers in these sectors understand that premium inventory will go fast in the fourth quarter, and that a creative mobile consumer engagement strategy can be reached with pre-planning.

Best practices

• Keep it simple and relevant
• Ensure the consumer can understand what to do and how to do it
• Engage the consumer with a call to action that resonates
• Do what you promise you are going to do
• Monetize the program to provide positive ROI for the brand/client
• Try a viral marketing component with social media baked in (i.e. “Like” button on Facebook, invite friends to watch trailer, post to Facebook/Twitter account)
• Utilize mobile as a lower funnel marketing strategy to get people in-store or remind them about last minute deals/offers
• Give consumers an incentive to engage – offer has to be meaningful
• Include a call-to-action (go to Web site, go in-store, watch a video) on all mobile engagements

“Those that are planning now will reap the benefits,” Ms. McKelvey said. “Those that do not embark on holiday planning soon, may be relegated to inventory and targeting that does not necessarily meet their expectations.”

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Mobile Advertising Trends Discussion

Last week I participated on a panel discussing current trends in mobile advertising led by J.P. Morgan’s Entertainment and Internet Analyst, Imran Khan.  Joining me on the panel were Naveen Tewari, CEO of InMobi, and Krishna Subramanian, Co-Founder of Mobclix.

During an hour-long discussion touching on a wide range of issues in the mobile advertising market, we each provided our own opinions and analysis on numerous topics ranging from which mobile platforms are the most attractive for mobile advertisers, to challenges facing the mobile industry, to some of the growth metrics we are each seeing in this fast-growing industry.

In my remarks, I focused on the importance of open mobile platforms and on the value of offering advertisers the ability to reach and target consumers on all types of devices (including smartphones, tablets, gaming devices and feature phones) across all of those platforms.  I also discussed some of our thoughts on the best metrics to measure advertiser performance and engagement in mobile advertising.  In addition, I talked about some of the major differences between mobile and online advertising and how those differences are driving the growth and value of today’s mobile advertising leaders, like Millennial Media.

If you have any questions about different trends taking place within the mobile advertising industry, email us at marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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Today we launched our June 2010 Mobile Mix™, which reports the latest mobile device trends  for connected devices, mobile manufacturers, operating systems, etc. and includes a special section on apps.

Highlights:

• Apple remained the leading Smartphone OS on our network in June with 56% share of impressions and 8% growth month-over-month.
• Motorola moved into the number four position of the Top 15 Manufacturers in June bumping the HTC & LG.
• Apple ad requests increased 36% and iPad ad requests grew 206% month-over-month.
• Gaming apps placed in the number one spot on our Top Mobile App Channels, ranked by revenue, for the second month and accounted for 41% of apps on our network in June.
• Touch Screen increased 6% month-over-month with approximately 54% share of impressions in the June’s Device Input Mix.

Click here to download the free full report including the Top 15 Manufacturers & Top 20 Mobile Phones and more:

• Device Input Mix
• U.S. Carrier Mix
• U.S. Smartphone, Feature Phone & Connected Device Share
• U.S. Smartphone OS Mix
• U.S. Mobile Developer Trends
• Global Device & OS Quick Stats
• Top Mobile App Channels

Mobile Mix™ complements Millennial Media’s monthly mobile advertiser-focused Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™ report.  To access the full Mobile Mix™  report, any of the past SMART™ reports <click here>.  If you have any questions or suggestions for future reports, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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The May 2010 Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting, S.M.A.R.T.™ includes a spotlight on the Telecom Ad Vertical. This section showcases insights on how Telecom has aggressively utilized the mobile channel to engage current subscribers and prospects through strategic targeting methods and campaign best practices that can be leveraged across numerous verticals.

May S.M.A.R.T.™ Highlights:

• U.S. Mobile Unique Audience Reach: Millennial Media’s U.S. unique audience reach increased by 2.5% to 61.5M unique users to 82% reach of the Mobile Web.
• Spotlight on the Telecom Ad Vertical: May’s special section on advertisers within the Telecom vertical includes campaign best practices that can be leveraged across numerous verticals. While Telecom advertisers are incredibly savvy in the mobile channel, they too can leverage best practices from other key verticals to achieve even stronger consumer engagement.
• Engagement & Targeting: The three campaign actions that dominated the MYDAS™ Portfolio Mix were Place Call, Join/Subscribe, and Submit Form. This signaled that brands were focused on lead gen and creating databases for remarketing.
• Quick Stats: Rich Media proved to be an attractive ad unit as advertisers increased their spend 85% in May. The advertisers that used Rich Media doubled down, making sure it was a key component of their May campaigns.

Click here to download Millennial Media’s free full May S.M.A.R.T.™ report covering:

U.S. Mobile Internet Reach

• Spotlight on the Telecom Ad Vertical
• U.S. Mobile Advertising Engagement Data
• U.S. Mobile Campaign Targeting Methods
• Mobile Campaign and Developer Quick Stats

Click here to view the full S.M.A.R.T.™ 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 reports, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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Millennial Media’s May 2010 Mobile Mix™ includes a new section on Mobile Developer Trends, featuring a snapshot of U.S. developer platform usage and the top mobile app channels.

Highlights from May’s Mobile Mix™:

• Gaming, Social Networking, and Weather apps placed in the top three positions on our Top Mobile App Channels, ranked by revenue in May.

• RIM remained the second largest OS on our network for the tenth consecutive month.
• Android ad requests grew 15% month-over-month. Since January, Android has grown 338%.
• iPad ad requests grew 160% month-over-month.
• Feature Phones increased 4%, taking some of the impression share from Connected Devices.

The full Mobile Mix™ report continues to track and report monthly mobile device trends for connected devices, mobile manufacturers and operating systems.

Click here to download Millennial Media’s free full Mobile Mix™ report highlighting:

• Top 15 Manufacturers
• Top 20 Mobile Phones
• Device Input Mix
• U.S. Carrier Mix
• U.S. Smartphone, Feature Phone & Connected Device Share
• U.S. Smartphone OS Mix
• Device & OS Quick Stats

Mobile Mix™ complements Millennial Media’s monthly mobile advertiser-focused Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™ report.  To access the full Mobile Mix™ report, any of the past SMART™ reports, or a Millennial Media research report, click here.  If you have any questions or suggestions for future reports, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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Harbor Hospital (a proud member of MedStar Health) is partnering with Millennial Media to reach a targeted Baltimore City audience.  Announced today, the mobile display advertising campaign will target 20 Baltimore City zip codes to increase awareness of the close proximity of Harbor Hospital’s Emergency Department to downtown Baltimore and surrounding neighborhoods.

“Time is of the essence when finding emergency care and we want to educate Baltimore area residents and business professionals in a compelling and innovative way that quality emergency care is only minutes away at Harbor Hospital,” said Jean F. Bunker, AVP, Marketing, Community Relations & Philanthropy of Harbor Hospital.

One of the first of its kind for a hospital in the Baltimore region, the campaign will combine mobile web advertising with the geolocation of smartphone users — such as BlackBerry®, iPhone, Palm, Windows® and Android™ users.

The mobile advertising campaign is one of several components in Harbor Hospital’s new comprehensive Emergency Department marketing campaign. From May through July, anyone in or around the downtown Baltimore area linking to specific websites via their smartphones may be greeted with a Harbor Hospital mobile web banner that will give them access to detailed emergency care information. By clicking on the banner, users will be directed to Harbor Hospital’s mobile-specific landing page where they can enter their address via a Google™ Maps application that provides door-to-door directions to the hospital’s Emergency Department. Users can contact the Emergency Department by utilizing the “click to call” feature also located on the landing page.

For the full press release, please click here.

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Today, we released our new Software Developer Kits (SDKs) for Android OS & iPhone OS, (Android SDK 3.5.0 and iPhone SDK 3.5.5, respectively). These releases mark our third SDK release on each operating system in less than six months. With comparable velocity, our developer community has grown 138% since January 2010. This is mainly due to our platform-agnostic position and unparalleled mobile ad demand.

Our new Android SDK provides developers parity with iPhone advertising functionality, for the first time, including:
• Static & Video Interstitials
• Expanding Banner
• Transparent Overlay
• Companion Ads

These capabilities are not new to iPhone developers; but they were previously unavailable for Android developers. Speed to market is critical for developers, as advertisers’ mobile ad demands are continuously evolving. While other mobile advertising companies focus only on developers that produce content, we strive to deliver a development platform upon which agencies and advertiser-side developers can deliver consistent, innovative creative, while reaching the broadest audience. The new Android SDK allows developers the ability to garner higher monetization opportunities by partnering with Millennial Media.

On April 9, 2010, we released our iPad SDK and PadMedia Creative Suite™ for developers. The PadMedia creative provides increased user engagement opportunities for advertisers; and therefore, increased monetization opportunities for developers. Our new SDK release includes deeper developer tools to integrate this SDK into iPhone or iPad applications.

The updated Android and Apple SDKs are live and ready for download, via our developer portal, mmDev, at http://developer.millennialmedia.com.

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April’s 2010 Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting, S.M.A.R.T.™ includes a special section on Retail & Restaurants Mobile Targeting Strategies.  A leading example of improved multi-channel campaigns, this vertical has continued to promote timely, personalized offers to a targeted mobile audience.

Highlights from April’s S.M.A.R.T.:

• U.S. Mobile Internet Reach (Nielsen data from March 2010): The U.S. mobile Web increased 2% month over month to 73.3M users, according to Nielsen.
• Special Section – Retail & Restaurants Mobile Targeting Strategies: Over 10% of Retail & Restaurant campaigns on our network directed users to a mobile coupon offer in April.
• Engagement & Targeting: Social Media, highly leveraged across a broad range of verticals, represented 11% of all campaign actions on our network in April.
• Quick Stats: The average user session time decreased to 4:43 for April while average monthly page views per user decreased to 122.  As reported in March’s Mobile Mix, Android ad requests grew 77% month-over-month. Since January, Android has grown 282%.

U.S. Mobile Internet Reach (Nielsen data from March 2010):

The U.S. mobile Web increased by approximately 2%, from 72M to 73.3M users in March 2010, according to Nielsen and has increased 5% since January according to Nielsen (Nielsen reporting is one month behind S.M.A.R.T.™ data).  Millennial Media’s U.S. unique audience reach increased slightly in March, from 59.6M to 60M unique users according to Nielsen.

Special Section – Retail & Restaurants Mobile Targeting Strategies:

As highlighted in March, Retail & Restaurants placed in the number ten spot on our network’s Q1 Top Ten Mobile Advertising Verticals. This key vertical strategically utilizes mobile ad strategies to boost traffic to stores and restaurant locations, increase revenues through an additional point-of-sale, and promote timely, personalized offers to a highly targeted audience.

Year over year seasonality trends indicate that Retail & Restaurants will  continue to invest in mobile both for the ramp up back to school in Q3 and to pave the way for holiday planning and spend in Q4.

Engagement & Targeting:

Social Media, highly leveraged across a broad range of verticals, represented 11% of all campaign actions on our network in April – continuing a three month trend since the call to action was added to the mix in January 2010.  GEO, the newest targeting category introduced in March 2010, is defined as a campaign targeting method which includes geographic location, DMA, state, international country, etc. GEO accounted for 16% of the campaigns on our network in April.  Advertisers leveraged highly-targeted reach methods, including Takeover, Demographic, GEO and Behavioral Audience, which represented 42% of all campaign targeting methods in April.

Quick Stats:

The average user session time decreased to 4:43 for April. We predict this to increase closer to 2009’s average user session time of 5:02 (min:seconds).  Average monthly page views per user were 122 in April, a decrease from approximately 130 average monthly page views per user in March.

Click here to view the full S.M.A.R.T.™ 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 reports, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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“As one of the very few key market makers in the mobile advertising space, we applaud the FTC’s decision today to approve the Google/AdMob deal.  Although Millennial Media didn’t have a direct dog in this fight, we were a willing participant in industry data and information sharing with the FTC.  And, one of the largest outcomes of this deal is that the FTC recognized how competitive this market is and can be-provided it remains an open ecosystem. The burden is now on regulators, and Apple in particular, to preserve an open and competitive market that will provide the most choice and value for developers and consumers, no matter how tempting it is to do otherwise.”

-Paul Palmieri, president and CEO, Millennial Media

IDC’s first estimate on market share for the mobile ad networks (Nov ’09):
• Google &AdMob: 21%
• Millennial Media: 12%
• Yahoo!: 10%
• Google: 10%
• Microsoft: 8%
• Quattro Wireless: 7%
• Jumptap: 6%
• AOL: 2%
• Nokia: 2%
• Other: 31%

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Today we launched our second monthly Mobile Mix: the Device Index for April, which includes the following highlights:

• RIM remained the second largest OS on our network for the ninth consecutive month with a 3% increase month-over-month and a 17% share of impressions.
• Although the Apple OS had a month-over-month decrease of 8% it still remained the leading OS on our network in April with 62% share of Smartphone impressions.
• Android Smartphone manufacturer HTC entered the top five this month for the first time, and represented the largest increase within the Top 15 Manufacturers in April with a 2.5% impression share increase month-over-month.
• Connected devices remained steady with a 20% share of network impressions.
• The Touch & QWERTY category experienced the largest amount of growth within the Device Input Mix and represented approximately 8% of our network’s impressions in April.

Movement in Top 20 Mobile Phones:

• The Nexus One entered into the Top 20 Mobile Phones for the first time at number four in April. Also entering the Top 20 list were the G2 Touch Hero and the Motorola Cliq.
• The BlackBerry Bold 2 represented the fifth RIM device to enter the Top 20.
• The Palm Pixi moved into the 12 spot, from the 19 rank; the MyTouch (Magic) increased to the 9^th spot from the 16^th, and the BlackBerry Tour moved to the 17^th from the 20^th spot.

Our Mobile Mix now complements our monthly mobile advertiser-focused Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™ report.  To access the full Mobile Mix report or any of the past 12 SMARTs, click here.

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The March 2010 issue marks our twelfth consecutive Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (S.M.A.R.T.)™ report–13 if you include our 2009 Year in Review. Over the past year, the mobile advertising industry has evolved considerably. Developed to fill the need for a recurrent brand advertiser-focused, data-driven report in the industry; our customers were seeking the mobile data, campaign insights and mobile ad trends now found monthly in S.M.A.R.T.™

With the input of numerous brands and agencies, we have now delivered a full year of S.M.A.R.T.™ reports, all with different special sections and interesting data/insights we observed on or from our network.

Valued senior client feedback like this has fueled S.M.A.R.T.™:

“S.M.A.R.T. is essential material for anyone who wants a quick and concise snapshot on mobile opportunities. It is required reading for my team,” said Maria Mandel, Senior Partner – Executive Director Digital Innovation/Digital Lab NA, Ogilvy; NA Chair Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

Now onto the March 2010 S.M.A.R.T.™ Here are some highlights from the one-year anniversary edition:

• U.S. Mobile Internet Reach: The U.S. mobile Web has grown from 57M (Feb 2009) users to 72M (Feb 2010) users in one year, for a year-over-year growth of 26%, according to Nielsen data.

• Top Verticals Snapshot: In Q1 Portals & Directories kept the lead, followed by Entertainment, Telecom, and Travel (which moved to number four in Q1 from number four in Q4). Education jumped three spots from number nine to the number six position.

• Special Section – Travel Goes Mobile: The Transportation, Hotel and Tourism sub-verticals all used an array of targeting methods to reach potential consumers. And, all three utilized Submit Form (for retargeting), M-Commerce and Retail Promotions to engage consumers post-click.

• Top U.S. Mobile DMAs by Ad Requests: LA was the top DMA in the country. Twelve of the top 15 DMAs featured Blackberry devices as the top smartphones; Samsung devices dominated 12 of the top 15 in the feature phone category; and all 15 DMAs observed the iPod Touch as the top connected device.

• Engagement & Targeting Highlights: The GEO targeting category was added into S.M.A.R.T.™ this month; as 16% of the campaigns on our network utilized GEO targeting in Q1.

Visit the Millennial Media research page to download the full anniversary S.M.A.R.T.™ and to sign up to receive our reports, including our new monthly device index, the Mobile Mix.

Our S.M.A.R.T.™ subscribers make up an array of mobile backgrounds, namely Agencies & Brands (40%), Mobile Developers/Tech Community (18%), and Mobile Publishers (13%), etc. They have downloaded the various S.M.A.R.T.s™ more than 5,000 times over the past year. And, we are counting on their feedback to help us shape the next 12 S.M.A.R.T.s™.

While S.M.A.R.T.™ has provided a comprehensive view of the key data, insights, and trends driving the innovations in mobile advertising ROI, as observed from our network, we felt the anniversary edition was a great chance to hear your thoughts on the report.

Please post your thoughts on Twitter using #HAPPYBDAYSMART and/or email us at marketing@millennialmedia.com.

Thank you again to all that have contributed to S.M.A.R.T.™ directly or indirectly; and thank you to our 3,200+ regular readers who are as passionate about mobile advertising as we are.

Happy Birthday S.M.A.R.T.™!

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In response to feedback from clients and analysts, a new report, Millennial Media’s Mobile Mix™, launched today.  Now decoupled from the Millennial Media’s monthly S.M.A.R.T.™ (Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting), the Mobile Mix™ provides a monthly snapshot of the top mobile manufacturers, devices, operating systems, etc.  Millennial Media’s one year Anniversary S.M.A.R.T.™ will launch later this month, with a continued monthly focus on key mobile advertising trends and insights.

Highlights from March’s Mobile Mix™:

U.S. Device & Carrier Data:

• While Apple represented 40% of impressions in March (top slot for the 6^th consecutive month), Android Smartphones were on the move – manufacturers supporting Android enabled devices represented over 50% of the Top 15 Manufacturers.
• Four RIM devices were in the Top 20, and RIM edged out LG for the 3^rd slot on the top manufacturer’s list—just behind Samsung which has firmly held the 2^nd slot.
• Also new to the Top 20 Mobile device list, Palm appeared for the first time since May 2009’s S.M.A.R.T. with the Pixi, to comprise 0.7% of our network’s U.S. impressions in March.

U.S. Device OS Mix:

• NEW! This month we added a new category to the U.S. Smartphone & Feature Phone Impression Share – Connected Devices. Connected devices encompass handheld devices that are enabled to access the mobile web, not including mobile phones, such as: the Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, Sony PSP and iPad, to name a few.
• Monthly device data now includes U.S. Smartphone (45%), Feature Phone (34%), and Connected Device*(21%) impressions.

*Millennial Media defines a Connected Device to be a handheld device which can access the mobile web but is not a mobile phone includes iPod touch, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, iPad, etc.

Device & OS Quick Statistics:

• Android ad requests increased 75% & RIM ad requests increased 25% month over month
• iPad impressions increased 713% during the first full week that the device was in-market (4/5-4/12/10).

Click here to view the full Mobile Mix™ and additional mobile advertising research reports are available at http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/. Feel free to sign up for auto delivery of these monthly. If you have any questions or suggestions for future research, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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Congratulations to Apple for entering the mobile media market; we welcome them to the advertising industry as an innovative company who has done a lot for the mobile industry. Apple announced yesterday their intent to streamline in-app advertising and that they would continue to drive innovation in creative formats.  What was really exciting about Apple’s announcement was that they appeared to embrace an open mobile ecosystem, which will continue to propel the industry forward and secondly, they created even more attention for the mobile ad space which will drive increased investment in R&D.  What everyone read or heard was yet another step in the mobile ad industry evolution.

So let’s break each piece down to talk about what we were the most excited about:

1)      Integrating a mobile ad platform: Apple bought Quattro because building a mobile ad business and technology platform themselves would have taken years.  And speed to market in this industry is critical.  Few reporters picked up on this—mobile ad networks and mobile ad platforms are one and the same, and the innovators in this industry.  Only a very small number, to include Millennial Media are truly driving the industry’s thought leadership, capabilities and astonishing growth.  In Q1 2010 we delivered over 5X the revenue of the same period in 2009 (a huge growth year).  Apple couldn’t build a mobile ad business and technology platform themselves in time to be involved in the sweet spot of the opportunity.  We applaud their move.

2)      Creative ad formats: Steve Jobs referenced rich media and other interactive ad formats (not all that dissimilar from what we announced on Wednesday).  While some take his ‘mobile ads suck’ to be more than just the marketing method by which Apple generally enters markets, we don’t.  Apple generally is the enemy of complacency and the status quo, and Steve in particular is an inspiration in this way, and has been heroic in transforming the music industry to name just one.  Mobile advertising is a fast growing and innovative market without a broken leg.  The fact is that sentiment on the speed this market’s innovation is already high among advertisers and agencies alike.  Rich and engaging creatives became the norm in mobile over the past 12-18 months, and have exceeded the impact of online ads.  Millennial Media has been singled out and rewarded with a strong lead in this area with our award-winning creative solutions.  On Wednesday, we were the first company to announce a specific set of creative executions for the iPad, through our new PadMedia Creative Suite, which included our “return to play” advertisement that builds on our long history of allowing users to stay in the app once they click – whether on an iPhone, Android or a Blackberry.

3)      Developers: Apple should be applauded for their desire to assist developers in monetizing their applications.  We have led in this area by supplying premium demand to applications across numerous mobile platforms, and we look forward to working in an open advertising ecosystem alongside Apple and Google to deliver value to developers.

4)      Search: We agree with Apple’s assertion that mobile is not like on-line – search is not nearly as prevalent.  As a matter of fact, display technology will not only deliver rich display ads but will also carry search demand to users who want to be presented contextual information on mobile devices.  Millennial Media continues to lead in this area across all mobile platforms by being able to deliver highly relevant display and contextual ads.  This “display –carries-search-to-mobile” phenomenon has been a primary driver of M&A in the market (Google/AdMob), and will continue to be an area of strategic importance for companies in the search and local digital advertising markets.

Apple has a compelling OS and highly-engaged user base.  But when you think about Apple running its own ad network to reach its own users, you can see how the value proposition of reaching audiences at scale, no matter the device or operating system has more of a natural alignment with advertiser buying patterns.  Millennial Media, as the largest independent (measured by number of campaigns and raw unique users) is in a great position to deliver for advertisers while being a great partner for Apple and developers alike.

Apple’s continued innovation in the device and OS market is truly remarkable.  They are evolving from a truly PC-based technology, to a mobile-focused company.  They bought an ad network industry participant, that is clearly helping them understand how mobile advertising is bought and sold, and Apple’s creative teams have shown the market that mobile has been here, is staying, and growing/innovating daily.

Was Apple’s iAds announcement a game-changer?  No. What Apple did yesterday, more than anything, was something our industry needed—add even more validity that mobile media is no longer “emerging”.

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Today, we announced that we intend to release our iPad SDK (available for private beta testing immediately) and the PadMedia Creative Suite™ at the end of this week.  In addition to numerous standard mobile ad units, Millennial Media’s PadMedia Creative Suite introduces unique ad formats that brands and advertisers will be able to leverage on applications on the unique iPad canvas.  These formats include:

• Floating Canvas:  Advertiser chooses where a rich media ad will expand upon click, leveraging the great canvas of the iPad.
• RTP (Return-to-Play): Specifically geared towards entertainment developers, these ad units allow consumers to respond to an ad, pausing their application experience and resuming when they are ready.
• Motion Creative: Utilizing the iPad’s accelerometer capability; all ad units, including the Floating Canvas unit, can become interactive when the user turns or rotates the iPad in different ways (e.g., these ad units will allow the consumer to pour a beverage into a glass, when the devices is physically rotated from portrait to landscape).
• Full-page Interstitials: These full-page ads appear upon application launch or during transition in game play.  Advertisers can use the creatives to brand or promote in-ad interaction and post-click actions.

Available through Millennial Media’s developer portal, mmDev™, the PadMedia Creative Suite™ will be included in the iPad SDK to be released on Friday.

The press release has the full details on the iPad SDK and for PadMedia ad formats and availability.  For Millennial’s initial thoughts on the iPad, published by our CEO, Paul Palmieri, in January read on here.

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February’s Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART)™

February’s 2010 Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting, S.M.A.R.T.™ highlights Mobile Cause Marketing, with a special section featuring Early Signals on Mobile Philanthropy, a joint study by Convio, Edge Research and Sea Change Strategies.  Also in February, we identified and reviewed mobile-specific calls to action in the U.S. Mobile Engagement Data section.

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

• The U.S. Mobile Web: The U.S. mobile Web increased by approximately 4%, to 69.6M users in January according to Nielsen (Nielsen’s reach reporting is one month behind S.M.A.R.T.™ data).
• Special Section – Mobile Cause Marketing: We featured a third-party study focusing on the growth of mobile fundraising and its audience’s demographics.
• Engagement & Targeting: Advertisers continued to heavily leverage mobile-specific campaign actions.  Mobile behavior trends saw an uptick in February: February’s average user session time of 5:14 increased from 4:57 in January, the longest session time we have seen since June’s S.M.A.R.T.™ in 2009.
• Devices: Two new Quick Stats were added to our February S.M.A.R.T.™ – RIM and Android network impressions. Android impressions experienced the largest month over month increase.

Special Section- Mobile Cause Marketing:

A joint study by Convio, Edge Research and Sea Change Strategies analyzed findings from a national survey of US charitable donors that was conducted the week after the earthquake in Haiti occurred. We found this study timely to include in February’s S.M.A.R.T.™ as it showcased the power of mobile technology and trends among different age demographics in a new-found advertising vertical, Mobile Cause Marketing.

Millennial Media took part in the charitable global relief effort for those impacted by the earthquake in Haiti – top weather and social media publishers donated tens of millions of impressions for a month to promote the Red Cross, Yele and the MTV telethon. Learn more about our mobile philanthropic work in this month’s S.M.A.R.T.™, including our work with Ogilvy for climate change in support of the Hopenhagen campaign and with Estee Lauder in support of Breast Cancer awareness.

Engagement:

This month, we identified campaign actions that offer mobile specific benefits to advertisers, such as Location Based Advertising (LBA) to drive consumers to local stores, these are: Application Download, Place Call, Subscribe Purchase, M-Commerce, and Store Locator.  Application Download and Place Call represented the top two in February with 31% and 29% of calls to action respectively.

Also in February, Application Download demonstrated its third consecutive month of  growth, to represent 19% of campaign destinations. Together, Traffic to Site and Application Download represented 65% of all campaign destinations on our network, further validation that advertisers continue to develop a persistent mobile presence.  For more on mobile engagement and targeting, read February’s S.M.A.R.T.™.

Device & Smartphone OS Highlights:

Android impressions experienced the largest month over month increase, with 25.3% change. Apple increased once again and remained the number one device manufacturer with approximately 39% share of impressions . Following Apple’s impression share lead, the Touch Screen category increased 17% month over month within the Device Input Method mix and led with a 54% share of impressions.Wi-Fi also retained the largest impression share of the U.S. Carrier Mix in February and held 26% share of impressions.  For the remaining Device & Smartphone OS Highlights, view February’s S.M.A.R.T.™.

Click here to view the full S.M.A.R.T.™ 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 S.M.A.R.T.™ s, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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Reach measurement needs to evolve in mobile. We were out in the industry loudly touting Reach as the premier metric for mobile ad network measurement in 2009. On the wired web, measuring, scoring and ranking the advertising networks by a third party is a multi-million dollar business for some of the key analyst firms. Advertisers understand potential reach, and for mobile, shifting the conversation from impressions to reach was key in 2009.

So where do we stand on reach in 2010? Reach is still a critical metric in mobile. No doubt. But who’s numbers do you believe?

To date, we have stood behind Nielsen’s Reach calculation which proclaimed us as the largest mobile ad network, by a considerable margin in 2009. Nielsen did not stand behind their own numbers and they continue to back away from supporting their own survey-based data. Their reasoning is that the inputs from the mobile networks is voluntary and self-reported. So, it’s the honor system. Interestingly, for the past six plus months, the mobile networks have only fluctuated slightly, likely due to adding or subtracting sites from their network. But since there haven’t been radical fluctuations, and Nielsen is the only third party source that consistently reports a metric, we’ll hold Nielsen data to be the most reliable we have at this point.

But is it? Our own internal server log files show our unique user reach slightly exceeds Nielsen’s account of our reach.

Due to our belief that a third party must verify our reach for the advertising community to take it seriously, at the beginning of this year, we re-engaged with some other great industry partners.

We engaged with comScore to see if they could determine the reach of all the mobile networks. Keeping in mind it was just an initial test, with limited sites, comScore has us tied for the lead with another mobile ad network. This seemed to contradict the Nielsen data, but then it became clear that in the initial test, the sites were skewed towards one of the mobile networks who aggressively pursues exclusive contracts. But, the other mobile networks were otherwise in the same “ranking” order that Nielsen showed.

comScore also tracks the number of advertising campaigns that each network runs in a given month. In their most recent report, we co-led the mobile advertising industry with the most campaigns served.

So is it reach, plus campaigns served? Is that the right measure of a mobile network’s strength? It’s important to note that our work on reach with comScore continues. They are eager to get to the right answer and we are cooperating fully with them on this endeavor. Perhaps they can own the reach number for online AND for mobile.

Perhaps it’s just impressions? We would strongly disagree. Impressions are far from an important metric in measuring size (although for argument’s sake, we’ve won this stat in the U.S. for 10 out of the last 11 months) or strength of a mobile network. We saw this play out in the on-line world and hits / impressions were quickly replaced by reach – and the actual consumers that you are able to touch.

Another mobile measurement firm, Ground Truth, which uses actual carrier log file data, is working to understand the reach of the mobile networks. They recently determined that we are the largest mobile network in terms of reach, but we aren’t privy to the actual carriers they track. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the Ground Truth to see if perhaps they are the company best positioned to see across all the mobile networks. Interestingly, they see a similar ranking that Nielsen does, but the numbers are quite different.

At this point, you have to ask why are we blogging about this in the first place? We think this strikes at the heart of the advertiser confusion with measurement surrounding the mobile networks in the U.S. In fact, Millennial Media isn’t just a mobile ad network at all….we are truly a mobile platform. Our network is a part of what we do, but it is far from all that we do. We mediate, monetize sites and applications, and provide data, tools and insights into mobile advertising, publishing and development.

But short of that distinction, one thing is clear. Reach will be an important metric when comparing mobile networks. In addition, it is critical for the industry that we all agree on a third party methodology to measure us.

At the end of the day, companies like Millennial Media and AdMob release a ton of monthly data to give industry watchers insight into our respective businesses and our growth, and particularly, the growth of our industry. We’ve held it out there—the good, the bad, and luckily, very little ugly. Perhaps if all mobile networks did the same, it would be easier for advertisers to focus on more important issues such as whether a network can satisfy their marketing needs; rather than having lengthy discussions on who is the biggest network.

Today, if we had to suggest the best measure of a network’s effectiveness, we would say that it is revenue. Given that it’s doubtful that any mobile network will release revenue figures this year, the best estimate of network size / effectiveness would be Reach, plus Campaigns served, plus Targeting capabilities. R + C + T would answer 1) can you get to my consumer 2) do you have the experience to know how to get to my consumer and 3) are you in the best position to target them correctly.

We are welcoming thoughts…  marketing@millennialmedia.com

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The first 2010 Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting, S.M.A.R.T.™ S.M.A.R.T.™  features new advertisers insight into breakout mobile trends including m-Commerce, Social Media and Site Search.

Highlights from January’s S.M.A.R.T.:

• The U.S. Mobile Web: Increased to 67M users, according to Nielsen (Dec.)
• Special Section – InsightExpress’ Mobile Consumer Research: InsightExpress conducted a study comparing the performance of advertising on mobile devices using norms developed in online ad testing. This research is a valuable add-on to December’s S.M.A.R.T.™, which featured Q4’s Top 10 Mobile Ad Verticals ranked by spend.

• Engagement & Targeting: Three new campaign actions were added to January’s MYDAS™ Portfolio Mix: m-Commerce, Social Media and Site Search. Over the last several months we observed an increase in the number of advertisers directing users to take these actions from either ad creatives, custom landing pages or mobile sites and each represented 20%, 6% and 2% of all campaign actions in January respectively.
• Devices: Apple remained the number one device manufacturer with a 36.22% share of impressions in January – the largest percentage share since we starting publishing  S.M.A.R.T.™ in March 2009.

Special Section- InsightExpress’ Mobile Consumer Research:

Mobile campaigns in the Retail Vertical showed the largest differences between online norms in three of the five categories, Aided Awareness, Purchase Intent, and Unaided Awareness. The Travel, Automotive and Technology campaigns had similar increases above online norms in the Mobile Ad Awareness category. For advertisers, this is a potential positive indicator that consumers are more aware of advertising in these verticals. CPG campaigns indexed high in the Brand Favorability category , followed by Automotive campaigns.

Engagement:

Three new campaign actions were added to January’s MYDAS™ Portfolio Mix: m-Commerce, Social Media and Site Search. Over the last several months we observed an increase in the number of advertisers directing users to take these actions from either ad creatives, custom landing pages or mobile sites and each represented 20%, 6% and 2% of all campaign actions in January respectively.

Advertisers directed consumers to Place a Call more in January than over the last five months. Place a Call experienced the largest month over month change with a 16% increase, followed by Application Download with 7%. Each of the two campaign actions represented 30% of all campaigns actions in January.

Channel targeting experienced the largest month over month increase, jumping from 10%, in December, to 22% of the mix, in January.

Device & Smartphone OS Highlights:

Apple remained the number one device manufacturer with a 36.22% share of impressions; increasing approximately 12% month over month.

Three new devices entered our Top Ten in January: the Motorola Clutch, Samsung Freeform and the Samsung Messager II. Two LG devices also entered the Top Fifteen: the LG VX5500 and the LG enV Touch.  As three of the five new devices to enter our Top 20 had QWERTY keyboards, it is interesting to note, the QWERTY category, within the Device Input Mix, experienced the largest increase, or 16.59%, and represented 37.56% of impressions in January. A very close second within the Device Input Mix was the Touch Screen category with a 36.32% share of impressions.

In the U.S. Smartphone OS Mix, Smartphones represented 58% of our network’s U.S. Smartphone impressions in January – a 20% increase month over month.  Over 77% of our network’s U.S. Smartphone impressions were among the iPhone and RIM OS’s.

Click here to view the full S.M.A.R.T.™ 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 S.M.A.R.T.™ s, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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Today, we are pleased to announce that Millennial Media has agreed to acquire TapMetrics, a real-time, mobile analytics company focused on application usage and behavior.    We have known TapMetrics for some time and believe that the company’s rich analytics capabilities will be a great complement to Millennial Media’s own rapidly growing application developer program.  TapMetrics shares our intense focus on delivering actionable analytics to application developers and mobile web publishers so that they can better manage and monetize their inventory.

Through this new partnership, Millennial Media and TapMetrics will offer developers increased capabilities to optimize revenue across diverse mobile platforms, including iPhone , Android, Blackberry, Windows and Palm.   These capabilities include:

• Real-Time, Highly Detailed Analytics
• User Interaction Information
• Feature and Version Adoption
• Device Types
• Crash Reporting
• Buzz Tracker & Reviews
• Competitive Ratings System

Publisher and developer partners of Millennial Media and TapMetrics will be able to take advantage of these additional functionalities on top of Millennial Media’s existing open ad serving mediation technology, UMPIRE™.  For our advertiser partners, our emerging relationship with TapMetrics with further extend our industry-leading reach (over 80% of U.S. Mobile Internet users according to recent Nielsen data) by helping us continue to grow our base of mobile applications and websites.   As we continue down the path of accelerated growth, Millennial Media remains actively focused on its brands and advertisers while furthering revenue opportunities for the mobile advertising community.

Welcome TapMetrics.

For more information, please read here.

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Throughout 2009, we produced monthly S.M.A.R.T.™ reports, and each quarter we summarized relevant trends we observed on our network. Given the tremendous growth of the mobile ad industry overall in 2009, we produced an industry-first quick glance, the 2009 Year-in-Review Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (S.M.A.R.T.)™.

Highlights:

Sales Quick Stats
•    Brand business grew 756%
•    Average deal size increased 353% year-over-year
•    Top Ten 2009 Advertising Verticals by Spend
•    Non-U.S. impressions increased 117% year over year
Device Quick Stats
•    357% increase in Apple OS impressions
•    90% increase in RIM OS impressions
•    Top 5 devices on the network

This year-end summary is based on observed traffic, server log reports, etc on our network.  Since Millennial Media is the largest mobile ad platform, we anticipate much of this data is fairly representative of the industry as a whole.

Click here to view the full 2009 End-of-Year S.M.A.R.T.™ 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 S.M.A.R.T.™s, please send them our way: marketing@millennialmedia.com.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.”

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