MMA to test mobile ad effectiveness

The Mobile Marketing Association is teaming with ioglobal Inc. to measure the effectiveness of mobile ads.
The Denver-based industry association said it is backing ioglobal’s ” Three Screen Trial,” which will study the impact of marketing messages on mobile phones, PCs and television. The trial will be conducted in partnership with major media companies and advertisers and will examine marketing efforts such as banner ads, pre- and post-roll video and text-message ads.
“The Three Screen Trial will provide a ‘live lab’ to evaluate mobile’s impact on both sales and brand health,” said Bob DeSena, ioglobal’s general manager for North America. “Because of the unique characteristics of iolglobal ‘s platform, we are able to respond to the industry’s need for greater knowledge of integrated communications and the impact of different strategies on campaign outcomes.”
Ioglobal, a spinoff of British Telecommunications’ ventures program, hopes to give advertisers some insight as to which types of ads sway mobile users – and which types are ineffective or, worse, intrusive. While a host of startups offer their own analytics, analysts say a lack of universal measurement tools continue to shackle the mobile-ad space.