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Jumptap Jumpstarts Mobile Video Advertising
Mobile advertising is still in its infancy, but with smartphones and tablets on the upswing, the market is destined for rapid growth. Which is why Jumptap, a Limelight Networks partner, is bulking up on new ad services now. This week, the company announced the addition of video to the Jumptap Premium Ad Network. Limelight Networks will deliver that video for in-stream, pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads.
There are numerous stats illustrating the benefits of rich media advertising online, but publishers are only beginning to investigate how video can impact mobile advertising efforts. On the one hand, publishers want to monetize their content in every way possible. On the other hand, the technical and integration challenges are not insignificant. If big guys like MTV Networks have taken a careful and measured approach to mobile video, it suggests the industry as a whole is still trying to figure out a workable strategy for mobile delivery. The process isn’t getting any easier either. With a new handset launch or mobile OS update virtually every week, publishers have an exploding list of mobile platforms to contend with.
There is good news, however. Mobile video quality is improving by leaps and bounds, and the early pool of companies taking advantage of the new channel for advertising are getting access to consumers that their competitors are missing out on. As an example, if you’ve seen the app for The New York Times on the iPad, you know that one particular watch manufacturer has rich media ads plastered across every section of the online newspaper. No doubt the company’s competitors have not yet figured out how to integrate iPad advertising into their ad strategies. Score one for first-mover advantage.
For the partnership with Jumptap, Limelight Networks is pushing out mobile video that is automatically formatted for whatever device a consumer may be using. That doesn’t take away the challenge of managing complex advertising buys across multiple channels, but it does significantly reduce the technical headaches for companies ready to move forward with mobile video advertising. Since the mobile channel is only going to expand, that’s no small consideration. It may also be a good catalyst for more companies to jump in to the mobile fray.
