• by Shankar Gupta , January 23, 2006

Mobile marketing firm Third Screen Media is expected today to release a new technology platform that makes it easier for mobile companies and marketers to connect with each other. The company also plans to issue another upgrade in March that will allow marketers to search for audiences based on demographics, device type, and geography, and create segments for targeting.

Heidi Lehmann, Third Screen's vice president of content acquisition and strategy, said the portion of the platform that the company is releasing today, MADX|Publisher, will manage ad serving, ad creation, inventory forecasting, and management, as well as campaign creation, trafficking, targeting, reporting, and accounting. The platform allows for the serving of all different types of ads, from simple text or display to streaming video pre-rolls. "In our platform, it's going to be all-encompassing. All media types will be able to be targeted and managed," she said.

Lehmann said that the company released the platform in response to growing demand from blue-chip advertisers for mobile-focused campaigns. "The average budget we were seeing when we started in 2004 was $6,000 to $25,000. Now, what we're seeing is the average budget between $100,000 to $200,000," she said. "A lot of brands are now getting into the space and now buying exclusive mobile campaigns. The WB, Nike, McDonald's, Kellogg's, as well as some that have bought in our network--Dunkin' Donuts, UPN."

Third Screen's publisher clients, including the Weather Channel, USA Today, and MSN mobile, have committed to use the platform, Lehmann said.