Mobile advertising and marketing hot news: low standards and high stakes

Welcome to the mobile marketing and advertising round-up of the hottest stories, from GoMo News! Operators around the world are having to pull their socks up when it comes to advertising standards; more companies expand into mobile territory; and much, much more…

ADVERTISING STANDARDS – it’s looking like a bad week for operators who are advertising mobile broadband speeds “up to” a certain amount, and “limitless” usage deals. In the UK, Ofcom advised the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to stamp down on both those practices, while the ASA in South Africa has ordered MTN to stop referring to it’s network as “World Class Internet”. Harsh!

UK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband/8279529/Broadband-advertising-shake-up-could-end-up-to-packages.html
Africa: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/18031-MTN-World-Class-Internet-Not-says-ASA.html

INDIA – Indigo Consulting is a broad spectrum digital agency based in Mumbai. It has just launched a brand new independent mobile marketing unit called ThmbStrk (whether that’s Thumbstrike, Thumbstruck or Thumbstroke is up to you, I guess). The new agency will be offering a variety of mobile marketing features to brands, retailers and institutions, including SMS, display, HTML5, apps, Augmented Reality and mobile barcodes: http://www.afaqs.com/media/story.html?sid=29523_Indigo+Consulting+launches+mobile+marketing+agency+ThmbStrk

MOBILE VIDEO – Auditude is an internet video advertising firm. It has just announced the closing of an $11 million funding round. This money, along with a newly acquired CEO, will be pushing towards expansion into the mobile video advertising industry: http://business-video.tmcnet.com/news/2011/01/27/5270367.htm

LOCAL – Greystripe is a rich-media mobile advertiser that caters for both in-app and mobile internet advertisers. It’s main selling point is the ability to put full-screen Flash creatives on any device, including those it has to transcode for beforehand. Now it has signed a deal with Media Networks Inc., which has a sales force of 60 people working in regions across the States. The plan is to make Greystripe more appealing to local and regional brands and advertisers: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=143631

MOBILE BARCODES – JAGTAG is a mobile barcode advertiser that specializes in getting large brands on board. It’s most recent conquest is beer brand Amstel Light, which will place JagTags around the Amstel Light Burger Bash at the Food Network South beach Wine & Food Festival. The tags will allow scanners to enter a sweepstakes competition: http://consumergoods.edgl.com/news/Amstel-Light-Launches-Mobile-Marketing-Campaign66271