Planet 3 relaunches to meet greater mobile ad demand

by Andrew McCormick Media Week 20-Nov-07, 10:00

LONDON - Mobile operator 3 is set to relaunch its portal Planet 3 to meet the increasing demand from brands for mobile advertising.

From next month, Planet 3 will have up to five times its current advertising inventory.

The relaunch signals that mobile advertising is moving into the next phase of its development, as advertisers increasingly channel their budgets into banner and video advertising on mobile.

Neil Andrews, head of advertising at 3, said: "We were the first operator to experiment with advertising on portal and we focused on banners and icons, but now we don't have enough inventory to satisfy advertisers."

He added: "The relaunch will create four or five times the inventory we currently offer and ads will be targeted according to the genres on the portal, which include music and sport."

Andrews said that interest from big brands had driven plans to increase inventory.

Lloyds TSB is set to become the next major firm to debut a mobile video advertising campaign, with a launch on Planet 3 due imminently.

"Our video ads launched in April and a lot of big TV advertisers have run video campaigns and come back for more," said Andrews.

"It's still slightly experimental, but we're starting to move out of that stage."

At the moment, Planet 3 users have the option to access Services (3's on-portal content) and Internet (the entire mobile web), but 3 is changing the way people access content by merging the two under a single access point called Explore.

The company hopes this will make it easier for its 3.9 million UK customers to see content beyond 3's portal, reflecting a growing trend for operators to lessen barriers to the wider web.

The mobile operator's portal also has an area offering free video wrapped in advertising, which it plans to expand.

"We are looking at ways to expand the free area and we're putting free content in each of the new product areas for the first time," Andrews explained