• by Tameka Kee , June 8, 2007

As the Mobile Marketing Forum wrapped up in New York, Sony BMG and ContextWeb announced deals with MobiTV and MoPhap that could shape the way marketers and content providers alike target their audiences.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment inked a content distribution deal with MobiTV, adding more than 2500 music videos to the mobile content provider's library. MobiTV already had partnerships with Universal and Warner that allowed its 2 million subscribers unlimited access to videos and long-form concerts across seven branded music channels.

Media partners like Sony BMG can also create customized video channels loaded with original content; in cases like Sony's newly launched Avril TV, the programming can even be conceived and created by the artists themselves. This branded channel gives fans personal insight into recording artist Avril Lavigne, with access to her entire video library, a photo gallery, and links to her MySpace page.

While MobiTV hosts content, MoPhap serves banner, streaming video and other ads to mobile service providers across the U.S. The company's new partnership with ContextWeb will expose the mobile publishers in its network to a host of new advertisers through ContextWeb's ADSDAQ online advertising exchange.

"ContextWeb's exchange model will allow more advertisers to take advantage of mobile's strong value proposition as an ad platform," said Bob Walczak, CEO, MoPhap.

MoPhap will also integrate ContextWeb's contextual targeting capabilities into its ad-serving platform, which, according to Walczak, "allows us to deliver contextual and behavioral targeting in a way that's never been available in mobile before."

With its SparkMobile technology, MoPhap aggregates a user's mobile browser cookies; when combined with the contextual data, these histories will create comprehensive user profiles. Advertisers can then target the most relevant messages based on specific attributes.