CTIA IT & Entertainment is once again just around the corner.

This year I'll be participating on a panel discussion entitled, "Mobile Advertising Strategies & Potential". Other panelists include executives from Yahoo!, HipCricket, RingPlus, Zoove and others who are (re)defining the mobile advertising world.

Last week I received a few prep questions for the session, one of which I'll share in advance.

Q: How has the mobile advertising landscape changed in the past 12 months from your POV?

It's certainly been an interesting year in the industry, with a number of new entrants (and some consolidation), increased competition for mobile advertising dollars, and a particularly challenging economic environment. But there have also been some great successes: Agencies and brands increasingly begin to understand and embrace the potential of mobile advertising. Carriers are realizing the potential of mobile advertising and CRM to manage customer relations. There's a lot of change underway.

Following are just a few quick observations from the past 12 months:

Rather than being used to power a standalone campaign or added as an afterthought, mobile is increasingly being incorporated into larger multi-media campaigns. We have seen an uptick in RFPs which request multiple mobile advertising formats – mobile web site, SMS, idle screen, application - as specific campaign strategies. We see increased interest directly from brands – as opposed to just their agencies – in adding mobile to their advertising plans, which has definitely helped to drive recent advertising sales. As brands move beyond the initial experimental stage(s) of mobile advertising, we are also seeing increasingly sophisticated campaigns that move beyond branding into those areas where mobile really shines. For example, Mobile Posse sees more and more advertisers taking advantage of our on-device short-form survey capability to gain customer insights or to gauge the success of their idle screen advertising campaign. We also see an increase in campaigns which use more than one mobile advertising tactic to increase campaign impact; for example, an idle screen ad promoting (and directing users to) an SMS opt-in list or mobile web site.

It's sure to be an interesting discussion. If you're in San Diego next week for the show, definitely make the time to stop by.

Session: (SIS) Mobile Advertising Strategies & Potential
Session Code: Time/Date: 10/06/09, from 4:00 PM to 5:14 PM
Location: Room 29A

See you in San Diego!