• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 30, 2012

Entertainment businesses have been at the forefront of advertising in emerging media. Mobile is no exception. A new report by Millennial Media focused on entertainment-related mobile advertising underscores the prominent role of m-commerce in the category.

Digital purchases, excluding apps, such as movies, TV shows, music and ebooks are the most common types of consumer transactions on smartphones, with nearly half (47%) of users buying these goods.

The third-most-popular type of purchase (35%) involves buying tickets for movies, concerts and sporting events. (In between is buying clothing or accessories, at 37%.)

The smaller size of media-related purchases, and the convenience of mobile for buying things like movie tickets, lend themselves to m-commerce in the entertainment realm. Fandango, for instance, said nearly 30% of its ticket sales this summer came through mobile.

Advertisers have also embraced the medium as a way to market to fans while at concerts and other live events.

Moreover, the Millennial report says entertainment advertisers are more likely to include m-commerce features like the ability to purchase tickets directly in mobile ads. More than a quarter (27%) of mobile entertainment campaigns included m-commerce as a post-click option, twice the average for all advertisers. Ads were also more likely to include video and social elements.

Indeed, nearly three-quarters (71%) of mobile entertainment promotions incorporated video, driven by movie trailers and teasers for new TV shows. A third encouraged social sharing on Facebook on other sites. Millennial spotlighted a campaign for the third season of the Starz series “Spartacus,” as an example of advertising that combined these elements.

Running for a total of 13 days through the airing of the first episode, the ads had a click-through rate of 2.5 times the average, according to Millennial.

Promos for new movie releases account for the bulk of entertainment-oriented mobile ads (43%), followed by those for TV shows (30%) and DVD releases (19%). Ads for digital goods, showtimes and ticketing services, and console games made up the balance.

The way entertainment ads are targeted on Millennial's mobile ad network underscored the predominance of movie advertising within the category.

Given that entertainment advertisers were among early adopters in mobile, the vertical is far from the fastest-growing on the Millennial network. Categories like technology -- with spending up nearly 700% between 2010 and 2011 -- and finance, up 314%, now lead the way.

Still, entertainment is the third-highest spending category overall, behind finance and retail and restaurants, and spending has more than doubled (up 133%) in 2011. (No 2012 data was provided.)