• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 9, 2011

The appetite for watching video on mobile devices continues to grow. New findings from Rhythm NewMedia out this week show views of full-length TV episodes on smartphones and tablets jumped 200% during the second quarter. The rise of video on mobile devices extends to advertising as well, according to the latest monthly SMART report from mobile ad network Millennial Media.

Ad campaigns on the network that allowed users to watch a video after clicking on an ad increased 69% in July, making up 31% of all campaigns on phones and tablets. (Think movie trailers.) Along with downloading an app and signing up for a subscription, watching a video is now the top post-click action that advertisers try to entice consumers with.

Ad efforts that feature some type of social media activity as a call-to-action are also rapidly growing, increasing 34% in July to comprise nearly a quarter (24%) of campaigns. Entertainment, telecom, and CPG advertisers employed social tools in ads to drum up fans and followers on sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as gather feedback on movie releases and new product launches.

In light of the summer vacation season, the Millennial report spotlighted travel advertising trends. App downloads were by far the most popular call to action, turning up in 86% of travel campaigns.

That's because travel brands promote their apps as tools for researching and booking trips, hotels and flights during the busy summer season. When it comes to creating utility and m-commerce applications, the travel industry outpaces all others, according to the ad network.

Travel booking sites accounted for nearly half (47%) of campaigns, hotels and resorts, 21%, and amusement parks, 20%. The mix also included tourism, transit and cruise advertisers.

Looking at the ad-targeting approach across all campaigns, 56% aimed for broach reach and 44% used some type of targeting. In the latter case, two-thirds (67%) were tailored to local audiences, 25% demographically, and 8% according to user behavior. Helping to boost the use of local targeting were finance, retail and restaurant advertisers appealed to customers with a variety of regional promotions to increase foot traffic into their brick-and-mortar locations.