Mojiva Debuts Tablet Ad Network, Targets Affluent

The-New-Ipad

With tablet adoption growing rapidly and the format showing promise as an advertising platform, mobile ad network Mojiva on Monday announced it is launching what it calls the first tablet-focused ad network.

Dubbed Mojiva Tab, the network will reach more than 40 million tablets worldwide and allow marketers to target the affluent audience associated with the devices.

“With the accelerated growth and sophistication of tablets -- not only with personal business-to-consumer but across corporate IT departments for companywide distribution -- there’s a real need to develop a specific ad network with dedicated resources and dedicated packaging,” said Mojiva CEO David Gwozdz.

Bolstered by the latest iPad model, tablet shipments globally surged 62.2% from a year ago to 25 million units in the second quarter, according to IDC. The field will grow wider on Oct. 26 when Microsoft rolls out its Windows 8 and Windows RT-based tablets.

There’s also the rumored debut of the 7-inch iPad Mini as soon as later this month. Given the growing demand, IDC in September raised its forecast for the tablet market to 117 million units this year, up from 107 million.

In the U.S., comScore estimates there are 45 million tablet owners, or 19.4% of all mobile users. While still a relatively small audience, tablet owners have proven to be an attractive audience for marketers. They tend to be more affluent than overall mobile users (55% with income of $75,000 or higher) and are highly engaged. For example, 39% have purchased physical goods, half listen to music, and 44% access bank accounts via their devices.

When it comes to advertising, tablet screens naturally provide a larger canvas for brand messages than smartphones. Gwozdz said a tablet-only network is “especially necessary given the unique rich media ad units and unique inventory placements” for the format. At the same time, the newness of the tablet market also means that ad standards for the category are still emerging, making it more difficult to run campaigns at scale.

To assist clients, Mojiva has named mobile rich media provider Celtra as a preferred partner for the tablet network, supplying an expandable banner unit. The company did not name any initial publishers for Mojiva Tab, but said “many premium partners” are already monetizing tablet inventory through the network. Overall, the company says it reaches 1.1 billion devices globally and represents 8,000 tablet publishers and apps.

Highlighting the growth of tablet traffic, the Mojiva network has expanded from supporting 3 million tablets in January 2011 to 40 million as of June. Similarly, the number of tablet ad requests has ramped from 119 million at the start of 2011 to 2.1 billion as of August, a nearly 20-fold increase over 20 months.

Mojiva said CPMs and interaction rates have been higher on tablets than smartphones, but declined to provide figures. A recent InsightExpress study showed tablet campaigns have outperformed those on mobile devices generally in metrics like unaided awareness, online ad awareness, brand favorability and purchase intent. But the firm noted that it’s common to see large increases on new platforms because of minimal clutter.

On Mojiva Tab, marketers will be able to buy rich media ads across categories, including luxury goods, entertainment, news, parenting and content catering to tech and sports enthusiasts.

 

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