New ad tracking tool

I found this story on the Mobile Europe website. Interesting stuff.

M:Metrics launches 'first' mobile advertising tracking services in the UK
M: Metrics has unveiled M:Ad, its competitive tracking service for mobile advertising, in the United Kingdom, claiming to reveal the first definitive metrics for measuring mobile advertising inventory. The measurement firm reports that online retail companies such as Electronic Arts, Glu and Ebay are placing the bulk of mobile ads, with the category comprising of 39 percent of all mobile ads tracked by M:Metrics.

"Early findings are encouraging, as they indicate that mobile is increasingly being incorporated into mainstream media buys," said Paul Goode, senior analyst, M:Metrics. "In January, M:Ad has tracked major brands across a range of industries, including Avis, BMW, Cadbury's, Citroen, EMAP and IBM, using mobile advertising."

The expansion to the M: Metrics product portfolio is said to come after the success of M:Ad in the United States, launched in November 2007. In January, M:Ad tracked 403 unique creative advertisements in the United Kingdom, in 91 campaigns representing 48 different companies. The ads were from a variety of different industries such as; advertising, automobile manufacturers, broadcasting and cable TV, Internet retail, movies and entertainment, casinos and gaming, food retail, home furnishings and computer hardware.

"Advertisers, media agency and media owners in the UK are calling out for greater clarity on who is advertising what, where and when. Today, M:Metrics can deliver this critical data to the market," said Goode. "In the United States, M:Ad has been warmly welcomed, and we are excited to bring our tracking expertise into the UK market to help grow mobile advertising expenditure."

With 16 percent of U.K. mobile subscribers accessing news and information via the mobile browser in December, advertisers' attention is turning towards banner advertising. M:Ad classifies mobile ads by company, division and product/service as well as by industry/sector. It also reveals when ads are being served to help identify seasonality and campaign rotation. There is no other method of monitoring the breadth of current inventory of mobile ads to inform advertising campaign strategies.

Using M:Metrics' proprietary data collection technologies and measurement science expertise, M:Ad provides a much-anticipated glimpse into the mobile advertising landscape. M:Ad continuously monitors clickable display advertising from a broad representative set of mobile Web destinations and classifies the data by industry, company and by product/service to reveal leading advertisers in and across market segments.

M:Ad is available today in the United Kingdom and will be rolled out to the major European markets throughout the year.