Medialets Breaks into Mobile Web

Famously derided by Steve Jobs as “sucking,” mobile advertising could get a shot of creative juice.

Medialets, the well-regarded platform for ad creative on applications, is taking its network onto the mobile Web, bringing its rich media ads to both Android and iOS tablets and smartphones. The effect would be to alleviate a common complaint about its ads: there isn’t enough scale. The addition of the mobile Web will lead to an increase in the potential reach of campaigns by at least 50 percent within a year, according to Medialets.

The mobile tech company claims the quality of its mobile Web ads will be on par with what it has done for in-app ads. If so, that would be a great step in making mobile campaigns better, according to Angela Steele, CEO of mobile shop Ansible.

Agencies and brands love the in-app product because it allows for a lot more creative freedom for richer custom experiences,” she said. “Medialets’ challenge in the past has been reach. This new web offering should help address that.”

Mobile advertising has been beset by a bit of a blah factor, with large scale networks, for the most part, running drab creative. That’s left few options for brands looking for higher quality. Apple has struggled to gain much of a foothold for iAds, which were priced extremely high and suffered from low reach. Likewise, Medialets placements were available only on its network of app publishers.

While apps get much of the buzz, the mobile Web attracts a huge chunk of consumer time spent on mobile destinations, about equal to that spent on apps, according to a study by Flurry.

Medialets is in the process of certifying mobile sites that can carry the placements, according to the company. It will begin to roll out campaigns shortly. It puts its platform’s reach at 50 million unique users per month and a publisher network equal to 20 billion impressions.

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