• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 6, 2007

Preparing its publishers for an expected wave in mobile adoption, ad network 24/7 Real Media is adding mobile ad serving and reporting to its Open AdStream ad management platform.

About a dozen publisher clients have begun implementing the Open AdStream Mobile Edition at an incremental cost, according to Ali Mirian, product manager of publisher solutions at 24/7 Real Media. A key selling point is that Open AdStream negates the need to purchase, install, learn and maintain a stand-alone technology for mobile ads, he added.

"There's no learning curve with the implementation so publishers can concentrate on more pressing issues like adoption," said Mirian, who describes consumer adoption as the greatest challenge facing publishers today.

Indeed, consumers are not taking to the mobile world as quickly as some marketers would like. Just 28% of teens, for example, said they wanted MySpace access on their mobile devices, according to a recent survey conducted by Jupiter Research. Even worse, just 12% of respondents said they wanted access to YouTube on their cell phones.

Despite slow adoption, technology companies and advertisers are still jockeying for position. Mobile advertising, for one, is expected to double this year to more than $878 million, according to market research firm eMarketer. Worldwide, Piper Jaffray recently projected that mobile search revenues will generate $11 billion by 2008.

For that reason, mobile deals are occurring almost weekly. Last week, search-centric digital agency iCrossing tapped JumpTap to give its clients a mobile edge. Under the partnership, iCrossing will provide its clients with ad placement on the mobile Web sites of U.S. wireless carriers through JumpTap's white-labeled mobile search and advertising system.

And last month, Medio--which competes directly with JumpTap in providing white-label mobile search--launched its performance-based Medio MobileNow Ad Network, helping advertisers to target mobile consumers with pay-per-click ads.