• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 13, 2009

With education still seen as a key step to expanding mobile marketing, the Interactive Advertising Bureau Monday released its first primer on mobile media buying for advertisers and agencies. The IAB's Mobile Buyer's Guide covers topics including an overview of the mobile ecosystem, key mobile ad terms, shortcode campaigns, and examples of various mobile ad executions.

"We designed this guide to provide everything an agency or marketer would need to create a mobile advertising campaign," said Jeremy Fain, vice president of industry services at IAB, in a statement. "Marketers and agencies are now creating multi-screen campaigns and mobile is playing an increasingly significant role as more advertisers use it to reach their customers."

The new mobile guide was released in conjunction with the IAB's Mobile Marketplace on Monday, which featured several sessions focused on basics like how to make mobile buys, how mobile fits in with overall media budgets and how to know if mobile campaigns are working.

The conference agenda also featured an emphasis on marketing on smartphones, underscoring the ad focus on more sophisticated devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry because they generate higher levels of mobile Web use than typical mobile phones. Smartphones have also become key platforms for hosting an ever-increasing array of mobile applications, including branded apps and free ad-supported ones.

A study released by mobile comparison site Wirefly Monday, however, indicated that mobile customers' behavior doesn't always match their preference for phones loaded with features. For example, 64% purchased a device with full Web browser and email, even though 46% don't use the mobile Web and only 15%
cite it as a necessary feature.

And more than half (51%) of those who bought a device with video streaming capability haven't used it to watch video.

Even so, mobile data usage, including things like video, music and Web surfing appears to be on the rise. During the first half of the year, the major U.S. wireless carriers have reported higher mobile data revenue. And telecom research firm Chetan Sharma reported http://www.chetansharma.com/usmarketupdateq109.htm that revenue from mobile data services during the first quarter had hit $10 billion in the U.S., first country to reach that level.

An interactive marketing forecast released by Forrester Research projects mobile advertising will increase 70% to $391 million this year and to $1.3 billion by 2014. The firm called mobile one of the "most anticipated, least adopted" interactive channels in the mix.