• by Michael Chang , February 24, 2009

In many media outlets and in most circles around the mobile marketing industry, 2008 was "the year of mobile advertising."

"It's the re-creation of the Internet, it's the re-creation of the PC story, and it is before us -- and it is very likely it will happen in the next year," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the World Economic Forum in June 2008.

Additionally, several case studies were offered as proof points of the relatively new advertising medium's successes. Despite the high expectations, mobile advertising has yet to expand beyond the experimental budgets of many marketers, particularly now that the recession has tightened the purse strings of even the most extravagant ad budgets. So in this environment, what is the next step for mobile advertising?

The smartest progression for digital advertising in 2009 is a move towards a unified advertising platform. Mobile needs to plug in seamlessly with online ad buys. It's that simple...or that complex, depending on how you look at it.

It's a Numbers Game

Plain and simple, online advertising budgets are 10 times bigger than pure mobile ad budgets. And in an economy where experimental ad budgets are no more, mobile advertising needs to seek out its own piece of the online ad budget pie. Not only are RFPs larger, but the overall ad spend is projected to see an 8.9% total growth from 2008 to 2009, based on projections from eMarketer.

Additionally, according to a June 2008 Yankee Group report, since advertisers are familiar with advertising buys from the online environment, this comfort will extend to mobile, and display advertising is where the market will start. For that reason, Yankee Group ventured that, by 2012, mobile-specific Web sites will generate more than $1.1 billion in display advertising revenue, up from $54 million in 2007.

By offering brands and agencies the option to combine the processes for creating and delivering mobile and online advertising through a single ad network, mobile advertising will operate seamlessly off of the already established digital ad budget.

Third-Party's the Charm

Third-party auditing is a necessity for every advertising medium--including online and mobile. In the online world this is accomplished using ad tags, which allows a third party to track and control the trafficking of digital campaigns. With ad tags, advertisers have complete control over their message and complete confidence in the accuracy of their reporting.

In May 2008, even Google realized that this was how brand advertisers got comfortable with spending millions of dollars on an ad buy, and they began accepting ad tags from third parties. By offering a unified advertising platform, advertisers can continue to use the standard serving tools that they trust (e.g. DoubleClick, Zedo, Atlas), while simultaneously using the same ad creatives, across both mediums.

The benefits of this combination are threefold:

1. Familiarity breeds repeat buys: Advertisers already work with these third-party ad servers, so there's no additional setup, signup or account management friction.

2. Ties in seamlessly with other forms of media: Advertisers need only "check the box" to add mobile to the buy.

3. Gives the creative agencies what they want: A big mobile canvas on which to convey a unified brand message, with more reach and more impressions.

Online is Really One Line

In comparison to their much younger mobile counterparts, online ad servers are far more sophisticated in terms of trafficking tools, optimization and reporting. The mobile Web is shaping up to look more like the PC Web, especially with new browsers, like Safari on the iPhone. This means that mobile ads can extend logically into brand campaigns when agencies consider media buys.

If you run an ad on an online publisher, it makes sense to consider mobile. Why not make it easier by considering an online purchase that extends a brand's Web experience to mobile--essentially making online, ONE line, across platforms?

Mobile still has some catching up to do in regards to the third-party ad reporting, familiar tools and formats that are currently available. 2008 may have been the year mobile advertising proved its worth; 2009 should be the year the medium proves it can compete in the mass media market and scale. With a unified ad platform this increasingly popular ad medium will compete in engagement, format and location, offering the best out-of-home advertising experience.