Jason Spero, Google’s head of mobile for the Americas, said that the company is making large investments in mobile for the future. He notes that support for ads in lower-end phones represents less than 5 percent of their budget, but that mobile websites built with HTML5 technology are “going to be the foundation of the visually pleasing ads that we serve.”
He noted that there will also support ad technology for tablets. Spero added, though, that the definition of mobile is evolving and that it has more to do with context that specific devices, and he urged advertisers to not think in terms of tablets or smartphones and more consider the “lean back entertainment experience.”
Spero added that improving quality of advertising is one of Google’s biggest focuses, and they are now moving to the “execution phase” of the mobile ads business. He said that mobile acquisitions will continue at a steady pace. “If a media company hasn’t addressed mobile, they’re late now,” he said.
Apple’s iAd was characterized by Spero as important “because it made a lot of agency people sit up and take notice.” While there wasn’t much direct competition at first with Google because of Apple’s higher pricing, Spero says that has changed. “We do see them closer to our pricing now,” Spero said. “There are some benefits to that and there are some competitions.”
Source: AdWeek.com
