On Mobile Advertising, Openwave and Nielsen Speak the Same Language

by John Giere, SVP Products and Marketing

Despite the hype, I think it's fair to say mobile advertising is still an experimental channel for brands with a few extra marketing dollars to spend. And yet experts can't help but be dazzled by the potential of a market so simultaneously massive and personal.

When it comes to the potential of mobile advertising, I count myself as an optimist. But I grow tired of discussing potential. Mobile advertising's failure to launch is not a technology problem. It is language problem. To date, mobile operators haven't learned the language of advertisers: a standardized way to measure consumer data so that "mobile metrics" will have value outside the mobile medium.

On one side we have mobile operators who have mountains of detailed information on their subscribers, but can't figure out how to leverage that data into a successful ad-driven business model. On the other side we have the media companies acutely aware of the mobile screen's real-time targeting potential but lacking access to the raw data for any real analysis.

This week, Openwave announced a collaboration with The Nielsen Company to address this language issue. Openwave has deep relationships at over 100 of the world's leading operators. Nielsen represents the industry standard when it comes to audience segmentation and targeting. The announcement of this partnership is the first step in bridging the gap between operators (with their core data assets) and brand advertisers.

The next step will come with the integration of Nielsen's Prizm consumer segmentation solution into Openwave's Analytics products. The combination will allow operators to assemble their data sets according to the richest, most comprehensive and precise consumer insights available in order to present meaningful offerings that are driven by an understanding of what their various customer segments are likely to want.

As mobile operators grapple with serious churn-inducing issues like bill shock and over-taxed networks, the clearest insights about their consumers and their behavior will allow them to stop flying blind in addressing the diverse needs of their various user segments.

We look forward to sharing more on this in the coming weeks and months. We hope that by working with other industry leaders to build best-of-breed solutions we can overcome the language barrier between the mobile and media industries to finally make mobile advertising a viable medium.