JumpTap adds ads to its portfolio of mobile advertising formats as content providers look to monetize the growth

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

June 9, 2010

3 Min Read
Ads Follow Mobile Video Explosion

Now that mobile video has taken carrier networks by storm, the ads are starting to follow. JumpTap Inc. is amongst the first mobile ad networks looking to monetize the growing trend, adding mobile video ads to its portfolio of options today.

The mobile ad market has gotten a lot more attention following Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)'s recently closed acquisition of AdMob Inc. , and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s acquisition of Quattro Wireless , but Jumptap CMO Paran Johar says that neither can claim dominance in the mobile video ad market. (See Quattro Confirms Apple Acquisition, Apple: Ads Get the i Treatment, Google Buys AdMob for $750M, and Mobile Marketers: Just Do Something.)

"It's great the amount of noise they are making in the marketplace," Johar says. "I believe in a lot that Jobs has to say about mobile ads. They are taking a similar stance in terms of relevancy and rich media, but their pricing and strategy is a walled-garden approach."

Johar says that Jumptap benefits from having an ad network like Google's AdWords, but also the ability to charge a premium for it. The company is now billing itself as the only ad network to include all mobile ad options under one roof. This portfolio includes banner ads, search, display and now, using Limelight Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW) streaming technology, click-to-video and pre-, post-, and mid-roll video ads within mobile apps or on the Web. Jumptap also provides its own analytics service to advertisers.

The company cited stats that consumers spend an average of three hours and 37 minutes viewing mobile videos, and Johar noted that these consumers are already used to seeing ads as part of their TV experience and are likely to accept it on the smaller screen as well. Likewise, advertisers are comfortable with the format and ready to break new ground, he says.

"Video is incredibly easy for an advertiser," Johar says. "The concept of sight, sound, and motion has been around since the early TV days, so the evolution from PC Internet to mobile Internet is very easy for them."

iVdopia is another company innovating on mobile ads with video as part of its arsenal. It recently introduced what it's calling a new format of mobile ad, Viper Ads, which draws on the device's capabilities for a more tightly integrated, interactive mobile video ad experience.

For example, in a Prince of Persia ad for the iPhone, a user has to push away the "sands of time" on their touchscreen to reveal a menu of interactive options related to the movie. Chief operating officer Chhavi Upadhyay says that for a recent campaign, 89 percent of people who watched a Viper ad, which was 27 percent of the total, actually took action on it too.

"Early TV commercials had to be funny or something for you to remember, and this is a whole new level in that," Upadhyay says. "This is having the users interact with it and remember it, tell their friends and bring up a lot of engagements."

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile

About the Author(s)

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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