Millennial Media’s new monthly SMART is designed to provide brand advertisers data and insights to drive decisions on mobile advertising campaign spend. Secondarily, this Scorecard provides a more comprehensive picture of the U.S. mobile advertising market and device trends.

December 2009 SMART Highlights:

Special Section- Travel Knows Mobile. Millennial Media Knows Travel:

• Our featured ad vertical, Travel, moved up from the number 10 spot, which it held for two consecutive quarters, to number eight. In a November 2009 IAB report, 63% of respondents ranked Leisure and Travel as the second best category suited for mobile advertising, falling only behind Entertainment.
• For the first time since we first published S.M.A.R.T. in March ’09, the Portals and Directories advertising vertical took the number one spot from Entertainment. Consistently ranked in the Top 3 this year, these internet giants continuously increased their investment in their mobile ad plans in 2009. The number two ranked ad vertical, Telecommunications, was up from the number six spot in Q3 and the Finance vertical, which was not in Q2’s Top Ten, was the number three ad vertical in Q4’s Top Ten.

Engagement:

• Traffic to Site remained the primary destination advertisers directed consumers to take an action throughout Q4 – it represented a three-month average of 41%. A correlation can be drawn between this and the Top 10 Ad Verticals– the advertisers represented in the top three, Portals & Directories, Telecomm and Finance, developed persistent mobile sites and/or mobile applications. Custom Landing Page and Application Downloads battled it out for the second most popular campaign destination throughout Q4.

• Similar to the Retail & Restaurants vertical featured in Q3’s SMART, the Travel vertical leveraged various Campaign Targeting Methods to execute their goals. Whether it was age and gender for business travelers or a broad-sweeping promotion to attract vacationers – mobile was the way to reach the on-the-go consumer in Q4.

• Mobile consumer behavior trends in December reflected the use of mobile as part of the holiday shopping research and purchase process. Average monthly page views per user increased to 125 in December from 113 in November. The average user session time increased in December from 5:02 to 5:09 (min:sec). As stated in our Predictions for the Top 10 in ’10, we anticipate user session time increasing closer to 5:20 in 2010.

Device & Smartphone OS Highlights:

• Smartphones represented approximately 38% of our network’s U.S. impressions in December and Q4. On any given month, we identify approximately 4K devices on our network, allowing an incredibly broad reach of mobile users, no matter what device they prefer to access the mobile web.

• Media buyers planned for iPhone advertising in Q4, as the iPhone OS increased month over month and represented 47% of our network’s U.S. smartphone impressions in December.

• RIM also had a strong presence with a 27% Q4 average impressions and three devices in our Top Ten devices for the fourth consecutive month: Blackberry Curve, Pearl and Storm.

Click here to view the full SMART report.

This month’s SMART features the monthly staples, plus a special section on Thanksgiving weekend mobile behavior trends. We highlight significant mobile interaction lifts across selected advertising verticals; and call out potential trends as we head deeper into the holiday season and 2010.

Highlights from SMART:

Reach: According to Nielsen, the U.S. mobile internet grew 3.16% to 66.9M users in October 2009; Millennial Media’s reach increased to 53.1M unique users (79.5% of the mobile web).

Special Section- Thanksgiving Mobile Behavior Trends: Mobile interaction rate lifts were found in key verticals including entertainment, consumer packaged goods (CPG), restaurants—fast food, dating, etc. A 30% lift in interaction rates within the Entertainment – Movie vertical was observed on Thanksgiving Day as compared to previous days in the month. Interaction rates in the dating category spiked 19% over Thanksgiving weekend. Find out more on CPG and Restaurants in the SMART (see attached).

Engagement: The use of Custom Landing Pages increased 8%, indicating that advertisers leveraged campaign-specific microsites for holiday promotions on products and services. 35% of the post-click actions in November included a Subscribe/Purchase action – a consecutive increase month over month of 2%. The number of post-click actions directing users to a Retail Promotion made up 19% of the mix in November, an 8% increase month over month. This campaign action, along with Store Locator/View Map, continued to indicate the Q4 trend around bargain hunting and holiday shopping via mobile. Average monthly page views increased from 106 to 113 pages and user session times were up significantly from 4:46 (min:sec) to 5:02.

Device & Smartphone OS Highlights: Significant changes took place in the device highlights this month. Apple regained its lead as our top device manufacturer with an increase of 4.67% which represented the largest monthly increase among the Top 15 Manufacturers. Apple now holds 26.38% of the impression share on our network. Apple’s iPhone also took the number one device again this month with an increase of 5.76% to hold the largest share of impressions increase of any device since the first release of SMART in March this year. The iPhone now represents 17.62% of the impression share on our network.

RIM had three devices in our top ten for the third consecutive month, the BlackBerry Curve, Pearl and Storm, which represented 5.07%, 1.59% and 1.48% of impressions in our network respectively. Although the RIM’s OS experienced a 7% decrease month over month, it still represented a strong 25% of the U.S. smartphone impression share in November, second to the iPhone OS with a 44% share of U.S. smartphone impressions on our network.

T-Mobile’s HTC G1 Dream, the first phone with Google’s Android OS, was the only phone to have experienced a month over month increase outside of the iPhone. The Dream represented 2.01% share of impressions, a 0.47% increase, and jumped from the tenth to the fifth spot in our Top Twenty Mobile Phones in November.

Click here to view the full SMART report.

This month includes insights from Mobclix on Apple, RIM and Android app trends, and a view into the top operating systems on our network….

Highlights from SMART:

• The U.S. Mobile Web: Grew to 1.1% to 64.8M users, according to Nielsen.
• Special Mobile App Snapshot Section, Provided by Mobclix: Apple surpassed Android and RIM in the number of monthly downloads. Android apps out-performed both Apple and RIM in the Game category. RIM topped the average app time at eight minutes.
• Engagement: Average user session time was 4:46 (min:sec) and average page views were 106, down from 109.
• New OS Report: The iPhone operating system was the top OS on our ad network, followed closely by RIM. Apple; however, was bumped back into the second spot behind Samsung, as the top manufacturer on our network. Feature phones represented 64% of impressions versus smartphones, which accounted for 36% of impressions on our network.

Reach:
The U.S. Mobile Web grew to 64.8M users. Millennial Media’s unique audience reach increased to 51.7M users, an industry-leading reach of 79.88% of U.S. Mobile internet users.

Special Section - Mobile App Snapshot - provided by Mobclix:
Apple dominated the number of total apps year-to-date through November 1, for a total of 115,000 combined apps in the Games, Entertainment, Books and Utility categories, according to Mobclix. Apple also led Android and RIM with the number of monthly downloads, with 100M apps per month. Android and RIM followed with 20M and 300K respectively. Average in-app CTR’s varied by app category -- Android out-performed both Apple and RIM in the Game app category. RIM topped the average app time with eight minutes.

Engagement & Targeting:
Advertisers continued to see value in making their brand’s presence consistently available to their audience, with Traffic to Site representing 46% of our mobile campaign destinations. The two largest increases in the Campaign Targeting Mix were the Custom Subnet and Demographic targeting methods, indicating a potential trend towards refined targeting as an advertising goal in Q4. A new addition to our monthly SMART, the Application Download category, represented 29% of the Campaign Destination Mix in October.

Device & NEW Smartphone OS Highlights:
In October, we introduced a view into the U.S. Smartphone OS Mix. The iPhone OS was the largest OS in our network with a 33% share of impressions, followed closely by the number two, RIM OS, with 31%. These operating systems grant users access to custom branded applications. According to comScore’s U.S. Mobile Advisor report for September 2009, “The total number of app users in the U.S. has increased 42% year over year or has grown to 47M users from 33M users one year ago.” iPhone/iPod impressions alone increased in October by 4%, a consecutive monthly increase beginning in July.

The OS Mix contains a representative view of the device diversity available on Millennial Media’s network. Smartphones accounted for 36% of impressions on our network versus feature phones, which had 64% of impressions. Our network data is in line with Nielsen’s Q3 2009 report which indicated that smartphones will have “50% of the market by the middle of 2011.”

In the device lineup, Samsung regained its lead as the top device manufacturer, making up 23.48% of the impression share in October, moving Apple back to the number two spot with a slight decrease, representing 21.71% of impression share in October.

Click here to view the full SMART report.

Here’s a quick summary of the highlights from Q3/September SMART:

• The U.S. Mobile Web now reaches 64.1M users; Millennial Media reaches 51.2M or 78.9% of the U.S. Mobile Web users
• Entertainment, an early innovator in mobile, remained the top vertical in Q3
• The CPG vertical jumped from sixth in Q2 to the fourth spot in Q3
• User session times increased from 4:59 to 4:79 (minutes: seconds); however, average page views decreased from 111 to 109.
• Apple drove Samsung out of the top spot for device manufacturer

Reach: The U.S. Mobile Web now reaches 64.1M users, which offers an even greater opportunity for advertisers to reach and target mobile consumers as we enter Q4.

Special Q3 Section: Millennial Media’s Q3 Top 10 Mobile Advertising Verticals represented the same mix of verticals as in Q2 (see June SMART), with the exception of some small movements. The CPG vertical jumped to the fourth spot in Q3. The Consumer Electronics sub-vertical drove the majority of growth in Q3 for Retail.

Engagement: With no change into September, Traffic to Site was the primary destination for campaigns in Q3 and represented the destination for approximately 52% of campaigns. This data represents a growth in persistent mobile sites. Our largest month over month increase from the suite of Mydas Portfolio™ post-click actions was the AppStore/iTunes action. AppStore/iTunes made up 22% of post-click actions, a 6% increase. This is a true indicator of brands promoting their products and services via iPhone applications and including them as part of their overall mobile buys. The Subscribe/Purchase action had the largest percent of post-click actions, with 31% in September.

Targeting: Advertisers leveraged Millennial Media’s industry-leading reach, as indicated in Q3’s Campaign Targeting Mix. The broadest targeting methods, Run of Network (RON), Channel and Custom Subnet, dominated the mix in Q3. With an overall focus in volume-driven campaign goals, advertisers were interested in reaching a large audience. This was reflected in a 12% month over month increase in RON in Q3. Two highly targeted methods, Takeover and Audience, experienced the largest overall change and fluctuations in CPEU throughout Q3.

Device: Apple was the top device manufacturer for the first time this year, with 22.43% of the impression share in September. Apple had an impressive 2.65% increase month over month. Samsung moved to second place, with a 0.12% decrease in September; however, Samsung had six devices in the Top 20 Mobile Phones on our network and there were three BlackBerry devices in our Top 10—Curve, Pearl and Storm. Keypad overtook Touch Screen in the September Device Input Mix – Keypad represented 33.38% of the mix, while Touch Screen represented 31.82%.

Click here to view the full SMART report.

---




August 2009 SMART Highlights:

U.S. Mobile Internet Reach (Nielsen):

• The U.S. mobile Web grew 3.12% to 63M users.
• Millennial Media’s U.S. unique audience reach increased to 49.6M users, to an industry-leading reach of 79% of the U.S. mobile Web.

Engagement & Targeting:

• On 4 out of 5 activities, smartphones ranked anywhere from 4% to 9% higher than computers on engagement satisfaction (per Insight Express).
• Browsing the internet on a computer ranked 2% higher than on a smartphone.
• Summer trends continued as advertisers leveraged targeting methods with the broadest reach. Run of Network grew 18% and R.O.N., Channel, and Custom Subnet represented 82% of the campaign targeting mix.
• Established mobile advertisers dominated the landscape this month, as Trac to Site represented 57% of campaign destinations actions.
• Average session time dropped from 5 min 10 secs to 4 min 59 secs; average monthly page views increased to 111.
• 54% of campaigns utilized frequency capping.

Device Highlights:

• Apple’s iPhone continued its lead with 12.51% impression share, and Apple continued to pull closer to Samsung as the top device manufacturer.
• iPhone/iPod Touch impressions increased 15% (iPhone/iPod Touch impressions grew 68% in June and 29% in July).
• Blackberry and Samsung continued to compete for the top five mobile phone spots as Blackberry Curve and Pearl grabbed #2 and #4.
• Wi-Fi aided mobile content consumption, increasing 1.26% month over month, and dominating the U.S. Carrier Mix with 26.15% impression share.

Click here to view the full SMART report.

---




July 2009 SMART Highlights:

U.S. Mobile Internet Reach (Nielsen):

• The U.S. mobile Web grew 2.17% month over month to 61.1M users.
• Millennial Media’s U.S. unique audience reach increased to 45.6M users, to an industry-leading reach of ~75% of the U.S. mobile Web.

Engagement & Targeting:

• Campaigns sending traffic to their persistent mobile sites, as a campaign destination in July, increased 12.44%.
• During July, the only full month of summer, advertisers ran broader-targeted campaigns, which decreased Cost Per Engaged User (CPEU)™ rates.
• July’s broader reaching mobile ad strategies closed the gap between the top two targeting mixes (Channel up 6% and Custom Subnet down 11%).
• 57% of campaigns utilized Frequency Capping in July, 9% more campaigns than June. This dramatic increase showed that as advertisers opted for broader reach, they also wanted to avoid brand burn-out with their targeted consumers.
• Mobile users clicked through more pages (106 from 99) in shorter sessions (5 minutes: 10 seconds average user session versus 5 minutes: 38 seconds in June).

Device Highlights:

• iPhone continued to dominate the top devices category with a 12.21% share, a 3.62% increase over June.
• iPhone/iPod Touch impressions increased 29% across the network in July.
• Apple continued to close the gap; however, Samsung remained the top device manufacturer in July.
• Two new mobile devices entered the top 20 in July --the LG enV2 and the Samsung SCH-U410.

In July, some advertiser and network anomalies emerged that could signify a summer seasonal trend. In our May Smart (see www.millennialmedia.com/research), we reported a large lift in network traffic, a decline in WiFi traffic, and spikes in interaction rates across key verticals such as travel and auto. From our network analysis, it was clearly a Mobile Memorial Day, and advertisers that pre-planned and creatively targeted reaped the most rewards from this mobile weekend.

Traffic and interaction rates did not follow this trend throughout the July 4th weekend. We attribute the strong, consistent network traffic and interaction rates (no spikes) throughout July to the seasonality that online typically experiences during the summer. It was a heavy mobile search weekend, but outside of the portals, advertisers across the top verticals (see the June SMART) broadly targeted consumers likely to capitalize on branding opportunities prior to the Q3/Q4 heavy retail periods.

Reach:

Millennial Media reached an industry-leading 45.6M of the 61.1M, or 75% of U.S. mobile web users, during the month of June according to Nielsen. (Nielsen’s reporting is one month behind.)

Targeting:

Advertisers’ utilized more broadly-targeted campaign strategies during July, the first full month of summer. Although the more targeted Custom Subnet remained the largest campaign targeting method, it decreased 11% month over month, while broader reaching strategies such as Run of Network and Channel targeting grew 4% and 6% respectively. This drove the Cost Per Engaged User (CPEU)™ rates down across all targeting methods. As advertisers took advantage of these costs, they also capitalized on the benefits of efficient advertising to large, scalable mobile audiences.

Advertisers continued to grow their mobile presence in July, as campaigns directing traffic to advertisers’ persistent mobile sites increased by 12.44%. Broadly targeting consumers, and sending them to an evergreen mobile site allowed advertisers to build brand awareness and consumer engagement on a consistent basis in July.

Consumer Behavior:

The average session time per user decreased from 5:38 (five minutes and thirty eight seconds) to 5:10, while the average number of monthly page views increased from 99 to 106. This was a critical takeaway for advertisers, as mobile consumers engaged with more information, in less time. Broad-based targeting and consistent brand messages, coupled with frequency capping to prevent brand exhaustion was key for advertisers last month.

Device:

And finally, the iPhone remained the number one mobile device on our network with a 12.21% share; a 3.62% increase over June. This wasn’t surprising, as iPhone/iPod Touch impressions grew 29% on our network in July. Samsung, however, still ruled the chart when it comes to cumulative devices on the Millennial Media network, with a 22.42% share; but Apple continued to close the gap to within 4.4%.

Click here to view the full SMART report.

---




June 2009 SMART Highlights:


U.S. Mobile Internet Reach:

• U.S. Mobile Internet increased to 59.8M users; Millennial Media now reaches 74% of the mobile internet or 44.2M users, according to Nielsen.

June Special Features:

• Top 10 mobile ad verticals in Q2: #1 Entertainment, #2 Telecommunications, #3 Portals, etc.
• Entertainment Knows Mobile. Movie Studios, in particular, have:
  - Leveraged the mobile ad network model to reach, target and engage consumers.
  - Delivered rich brand experiences on their persistent mobile sites, yet creatively leverage custom landing pages and rich media at different stages of the campaign lifecycle.

Engagement & Targeting:

• Monthly CPEU rates remained consistent in Q2 across multiple Campaign Targeting Methods, as did percentage changes among the Campaign Targeting Mix.
• Advertisers continued to invest in their brand’s permanent mobile presence. In June campaigns sending traffic to site as a campaign destination increased 10.46%.
• 48% of campaigns utilized Frequency Capping in June; remained consistent in Q2.
• Average session time increased significantly from 4:28 to 5:38 in Q2.
• 98% of page views featured only one ad request in June.
• The average monthly page views per user was 99 page views in June.

Device Highlights:

• 68% increase in iPhone & iPod Touch impressions on Millennial Media’s network in June.
• Apple’s impression share increased 4.20% in June; however, Samsung remained in the #1 position with the largest impression share throughout Q2.
• The iPhone regained the #1 spot - this also contributed to the 1.4% month over month growth of Touch Screen device share versus other input mechanisms.
• The Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Pearl remained consistently in the #3 and #5 spots respectively month over month – while T-Mobile’s HTC G1 (Dream) took the #7 slot in June.

Download the June report.

---




May 2009 SMART Highlights:

U.S. Mobile Internet Reach:

• U.S. mobile Web overall reach increased to 59M, according to Nielsen’s April 2009 data.
• Millennial Media showed a dramatic increase in active reach to over 43M, and the company now reaches over 73 percent of the U.S. mobile Web, according to Nielsen.
• Millennial Media’s status as #1 in U.S. reach represents a competitive separation between the other mobile ad networks that is substantially greater on a percentage basis than exists between the leading online ad networks.

Engagement & Targeting:

• Stronger engagement in Demographictargeting resulted in an overall lower cost to engage mobile users (lower CPEUTM).
• More retailers leveraged mobile as an effective channel to deliver direct response tools.
• May Feature: Mobile Memorial DayTravelers who were on the road and away from their computers relied on the mobile Web for information and to make buying decisions over Memorial Day Weekend.
• Wi-Fi use over the holiday dropped 10% compared to other weekends in May, showing the “substitution effect.” Although travelers used Wi-Fi less, total network usage rose 11%.
• We saw a 12% lift in interaction rates over the holiday weekend (vs. May overall).
• The automotive (18% lift) and travel (19% lift) categories showed even greater interaction lift over the holiday weekend.

Device Highlights:

• The Instinct replaced the iPhone as #1 onour list of the Top 20 Mobile Phones in May.
• While the top two manufacturers (Samsung and Apple) remained at the #1 and #2 slots, Motorola edged out LG as the #3 device manufacturer on our network.
• As with the Palm Pre last month, initial impressions of pre-release iPhone3.0 software appeared on our network prior to mass market introduction in June.

Download the May report.

---




April 2009 SMART Highlights:

U.S. Mobile Internet Reach:

• US Mobile Internet reach increased to 57.3M according to Nielsen.

Engagement:

• 46% of post-click actions leveraged device application functionality (AppStore, Watch Video, Place call), while 56% utilized mobile web-based browser interaction.
• Stronger adoption of behavioral targeting contributed in a shift from Demographic toAudience Targeting (increased 4X month over month).
• Nearly half the campaign interactions were mobile-centric campaign actions.
• 18-24 year olds who were exposed to a mobile campaign actually had a 9X increase in purchase intent (InsightExpress’ InsightNormsTargeting results).
• 54% of campaigns utilized frequency capping and nearly 78% of requests provided some level of geo information.

Device Highlights:

• iPhone/iTouchimpressions grew 8% month over month, setting a new network-wide record.
• Apple edged out LG as the #2 device manufacturer.
• Initial Palm Pre impressions showed up on the network, as Palm apparently started to seed the market pre-consumer launch; and the Blackberry Storm entered our Top 20 Mobile Phone list at #15.
• QWERTY surpassed the traditional keypad as the top input mechanism for mobile.

Download the April report.

---




March 2009 SMART Highlights:

2009 Mobile Internet Highlights at a Glance:

• Mobile is the most effective channel for spend. Lift is 5x higher than Internet across several brand measurement criteria (source: InsightExpress®).
• By Evaluating Cost Per Engaged User (CPEU™) across numerous targeting methods, the most efficient spend is in mobile.
• Rich media has greater, earlier mobile penetration when compared with online adoption.
• The number of advertisers using third-party ad tracking tools continued to grow.
• Non-iPhone touch screen devices had five times the traffic than iPhone, while QWERTY devices had seven times the traffic. iPhone continued to have the largest single device representation.

Download the Marchreport.