• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 10, 2009

Universal Studios Home Entertainment on Thursday will launch a mobile campaign that lets people purchase a movie directly from an ad.

Supported by Adgregate and Greystripe, the ads will allow consumers to start pre-ordering the movie 'Inglourious Basterds' today on Blu-ray and DVD, or purchase the movie on Dec. 15. The transactions are done through the "secure" rich media ad-unit via mobile phones.

The ads target ages 18 to 24. They will run across Greystripe's media mobile ad network, rather than search engines, including iPhone apps like Words with Friends, Sheep Launcher, and TowerMadness.

Created by marketing media agency Ignited, the ads will allow Universal to capitalize on growth in mobile commerce and in mobile advertising. Marriott International revealed in December 2008 that it generated $1.25 million in gross revenue in the first 100 days since introducing direct mobile Web bookings.

Mobile advertising revenue should jump 60% this year to $184 million and reach $566 million by 2013, according to Henry Wong, Adgregate CEO, citing stats from Yankee Group. "The game is all about capitalizing on impulse and convenience buys, and speed to purchase," he says. "It's not clear what the conversion and drop-off data will be."

Through ShopAds, Adgregate will manage the cataloging function and checkout when consumers click on the ad to buy the DVD. "It will launch as a pre-order ad for five days and then transition to get-it-now ad," Wong says.

Julie Ask, principal analyst at Forrester Research, says a better consumer experience on phones such as the Android, iPhone, Palm devices, and Nokia are contributing to the uptick and success of mobile advertising for brands.

It appears that more people have become comfortable shopping from their mobile phone. Deloitte's 24th Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends, published October 2009, suggests that one in five shoppers plan to use a mobile phone to assist with holiday purchases, from researching prices and other product information to actually buying presents.

An increase in smartphone shipments will also contribute to the success in mobile commerce. Research firm iSuppli expects 181 million smartphone units to ship worldwide in 2009, reaching 238.9 million units in 2010, according to analyst Tina Teng.

"Even before smartphones became well-known jargon in our daily vocabulary, people purchased ringtones directly from their wireless operators," she says. "If the ad is positioned correctly in the browser, and the ad is relevant to what users are searching for, or location-related, people will become curious and check out the advertisement."