Nokia launches mobile ad network

Nokia has announced the launch of a new advertising platform that allows marketers to plan and manage ad campaigns across a wide number of mobile phone configurations.

The Nokia Ad Service aggregates several mobile web publishers, including nokia.mobi, that can be sold to advertisers as ad space in a single package.

The platform lets marketers initiate, monitor and report on campaigns that serve up text or pictorial banner ads tailored to mobile users' individual handset configurations.

A second service, Nokia Advertising Gateway, is a private facility for publishers looking to tailor their advertising for specific devices. Nokia said it was an "intelligent switch" that selects between text, pictorial, audio and video ads depending on circumstance.

Separately, mobile video service ZooVision said its trial of the platform, in which it took out banner ads to UK Nokia N73 users, resulted in a 400% increase in daily traffic and a 20% clickthrough rate.

Matthew Snyder, head of business development, said: "With Nokia Advertising Connector, we are partnering with newspaper publishers, other traditional media companies, aggregators, platform companies, operators and internet companies to help them serve their current advertisers by offering easy access to a mobile audience."

While forecasts for mobile advertising promise huge revenues from this year, delivery has so far stuttered - ad buyers may feel more comfortable going directly to source to purchase exposure from a handset maker like Nokia.