We’re ramping our mobile efforts @ Intel with some interesting programs launching this quarter (stay tuned iPhone users) and a significantly greater presence in 2010.  We’ve planned carefully and are committed to presenting our customers with the best mobile platform experience possible.  Why are we so careful in our approach?  Simple – mobile users are not widely accepting of mobile advertising, per a recent report released by Parks, via MediaPost, as the chart indicates below.  My takeaway?  If you’re going to advertise or market to a mobile user – make it relevant, useful and give them an easy path to make an action.

GigaOm released an interesting article about 6 weeks back regarding the most important metrics to track in Mobile Advertising efforts.  Considering that Gartner has forecasted that Mobile Advertising will grow a staggering 74% in 2009 – measurement of that activity is paramount.  The industry is moving away from CPC and CPM as the standard measure of media effectiveness - while they are still somewhat relevant, it doesn’t accurately represent how ‘engaged’ a user is on the mobile platform.  The important metrics are:

• Reach
• Targeting
• Engagement
• Viral
• Transactions

For the full explanation on why those are the metrics to focus on, I encourage you to read the full article.  What struck me as a key statement was the following quote:

“We don’t want to just capture the “moment of first sight” but the “duration of sight” and how the user interacts within that duration with both the individual ad and the overall campaign. In order to differentiate and be effective, mobile has to measure and report on how users are engaging with the campaign, from first impression to the last so-called “moment of sight.” It should take into account the time spent during the visit as well as the actions and reactions.“

From my perspective this holds true not just for mobile, but for every advertising effort in your media mix.