New ad formats drive growth in mobile marketing sector

Consumer awareness of mobile advertising is increasing due to the emergence of new ad formats, industry analysts have revealed.

According to a study by Brightkite, 38 per cent of mobile phone owners remembered seeing advertising on their handsets during the first quarter of the year.

This figure rose to 59 per cent among smartphone users, as many encountered promotional literature on the mobile internet, social networking sites and mobile TV outlets.

Jonathon Linner, chief executive of Brightkite, commented: "It's fascinating to see that iPhone users are almost as likely to see ads in a mobile social network as they are in a text message."

He added that the emergence of smartphones has led to consumers adopting a much broader set of mobile applications, which has in turn exposed them to new ad formats.

This follows a report by AdMob, which found that the iPhone is occupying a much greater share of the mobile phone market than its rivals, such as Android-based handsets.

By Steven Jones