Third Screen Bolsters Data Offering with Telephia
As the mobile ad firm boosts planning, targeting and reporting capabilities through the deal, competition is growing.
As the mobile ad firm boosts planning, targeting and reporting capabilities through the deal, competition is growing.
Third Screen Media (TSM) has spent the better part of the past year building its publisher network and agency platform. Now it’s looking to firm up its platforms with third-party data, which will be made available through a partnership with Telephia.
The relationship will serve both agencies and advertisers using TSM’s MADX Agency platform and publishers on the MADX Publisher ad network. Agencies can view demographic data to plan and better target buys on the network. Publishers are able to use the data to gain insight into their audiences, the mobile advertising landscape, and how to position their mobile inventory to appeal to advertisers. TSM previously provided self-reported data detailing historical performance and activity.
“But what the agencies are looking for, and not just of mobile but any emerging media, is independent third-party research that looks across the category of sites, and reports on audience and reach,” said Jeff Janer, CMO at Third Screen Media.
Mobile advertising is gaining momentum; early estimates from a recent Jack Myers report peg the channel at $360 million in revenues for 2006, 80 percent growth over 2005. The report forecasts 100 percent growth in 2007 mobile ad spending, reaching $720 million.
Telephia’s data are collected through a panel of mobile subscribers and mobile Internet users. Through surveys, the firm is able to report demographic and psychographic data, as well as information on the carriers. “What we are providing to the ad agencies is how many people are visiting these sites on a monthly basis,” said Kanishka Agarwal, VP of new products at Telephia.
Agarwal mentioned Telephia is working on having chips embedded in phones to automate measurement of mobile and mobile Web usage through an opt-in program.
While Third Screen Media takes its next step toward building a viable solution for mobile advertising, other companies are entering the space. Millennial Media, which offers a mobile publisher network and ad platform, recently came out of a soft launch with a round of funding. Another mobile services firm, the Hyperfactory, will launch a platform for contextual media planning for cross-media ad planning, buying, integration and execution across various mobile platforms and standards.