3 Questions with Medialets' Eric Litman

I recently chatted with Medialets about the new platform and trends in the mobile space.

Kristina: How does the Medialets Private Marketplace platform work? And why is this important for mobile ad buyers?

Eric Litman, CEO, Medialets: While brands and agencies increasingly recognize smartphone and tablet advertising's ability to build deep connections with consumers, mobile has historically presented a challenge for buyers who want efficiency and scale without sacrificing granular control over placements, properties and pricing. Medialets Private Marketplace addresses this through a fully transparent buying platform that lets advertisers and agencies directly plan, buy, execute and measure brand advertising on the world's top publishers' mobile properties. By providing a centralized location for premium inventory availability data, ad specs and reporting, as well as a singular point of contact and insertion order throughout the campaign process, Medialets Private Marketplace eliminates the friction that has gotten in the way of mobile advertising ROI.

Kristina: Over the 2011 holidays we saw more people researching/shopping through mobile devices. Do you expect this trend to continue growing through 2012?

Eric: The proliferation of smartphone devices (now up at 44% of US mobile users, according to Nielsen data) combined with the holiday season's long lines and competitive sales made the convenience of on-the-fly price comparisons irresistible. We'll continue to see consumers turn to their devices for product and store information and, increasingly, to make purchases in the new year and beyond. For marketers, this behavior translates to a high-value opportunity to reach and influence consumers at critical moments. It's a new form of point of purchase advertising that can no longer be ignored.

Kristina: How can marketers better prepare their ads for the various mobile screens?

Eric: There's a lot of talk of fragmentation in mobile, and it's true that screens and resolutions vary across devices, but that doesn't have to translate to complexity. To effectively negotiate this landscape, marketers should identify a partner that is fluent in the variations across mobile devices. At Medialets, we have executed thousands of mobile ad campaigns - rich, interactive ad units - across iPhones, iPads, Android devices and beyond. We've made it a priority to deliver ad products that mitigate the differences for the various mobile screens in order to make creative development, testing and the overall management of campaigns more cost-effective and efficient for marketers.

Tags: Medialets, mobile ad trends, mobile advertising platform, mobile marketing