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Ad Infuse (a mobile advertising company) recently announced it has received $12m in funding, which came from a mixture of new and existing investors. The money will be used to further develop the adInMotion platform, which is capable of dynamically inserting (targeted) ads in to video content.
Ad Infuse is one of the newer mobile ad companies that is targeting “rich media” (which you could define as being more audio and video, than simple text and images) – as oppose to some of the ‘old guard’, that started with text/banner ads, predominantly on WAP portals.
Of course, and it’s a point I’ve raised before, will we the consumers mind having adverts in our videos? The ad-funded trend is something we’ve seen extensively on the internet, where an ad will be fixed to play before your main content, and cannot be circumvented – from that perspective it’s an advertisers dream. Now we are seeing the porting of this concept over to mobile – and even embraced by Operators – 3 in the UK notably utilised Rhythm New Media to dynamically insert ads in to ‘free’ content video streams – the kickback of not having to pay, being that you had to watch the ad.
Given that Mobile may previously have been an insignificant ’3rd/4th screen’, but also that viewing habits have changed widely in even the last 2 years, are we going to see a rapid rise in ad-supported/subsidised content – and we will have a choice? Time will tell, surely.
[Via: MobileCrunch]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
