Nokia to merge Enpocket into mobile ad division

by Media Week, Media Week 25-Sep-07

Nokia will drop the Enpocket brand and roll it into a new division dedicated to mobile advertising, following its purchase of the mobile advertising agency.

Nokia bought Enpocket last week in a deal understood to be worth $150m (£75m).

The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer plans to merge its ad service
department and ad connector section with Enpocket to bulk up its

dedication to mobile advertising.

Tom Henriksson, director of Nokia Ad Service, said: "It will be called
Nokia Ad Business, but we'll look to move towards a more interesting
name in the future. It will take up to a year to integrate the
businesses, and the takeover should be completed in October.

"Nokia is regarded as the fifth strongest brand in the world, so it
makes sense to change to that."

Henriksson said that Nokia plans to invest in new ad formats. Along with
regular banner ads and search, Henriksson predicted the rise of screen
advertising when the screen is idle and localised advertising leading to
people using shops and services in the vicinity.

"We want to innovate and have the competence in-house to do so," he
said. "For the first time, we're seeing brands include mobile in their
budgets. Many have recently set their budgets for 2008 and mobile is
very much part of their plans."

He added: "We want to build the kind of scale of services to make it
easy for advertisers on mobile. We won't be doing this alone, and there
is a need for standards to be introduced to mobile advertising."

Analysis, page 16.