NEW YORK - Four mobile ad network executives attempted to best each other with verbal jabs and tout their respected company's services during the Mobile Ad Summit.

A panel featuring executives from AdMob, Jumptap, Quattro Wireless and Mojiva spoke about the differences between their networks. The group also talked about mobile advertising best practices.

?We can?t continue to measure only click-through rates,? Evan Krauss, senior vice president of global sales at Jumptap, New York. ?We have to look what happens beyond the click.

?We?ve seen more post-click engagement in things like forms, where users enter their mobile numbers or email, post-click,? he said. ?As we move forward this will be a medium that does not measure success by numbers of clicks.?

One panelist predicted that mobile Web users will surpass newspaper circulation by the end of the year.

Steven Rosenblatt, senior vice president of ad sales at Quattro Wireless, New York, said that to get a brand and agency to move from the testing phase to using mobile regularly, there must be trust.

Agencies and brands want somebody who really understands the mobile space and all the variables involved with it. It is a different creative experience and it is necessary to integrate it into different platforms.

?What we encourage to get brands from testing to scaling is making sure that the first experience is a good experience and making sure what you buy is truly what you get," Mr. Rosenblatt said. "It's important to focus on a number of different areas like consistent branding quality of content and knwoing what the audience reads and buys."

Mobile is still a new channel for most brands but will continue to grow and be a core component of media plans going forward.

Tim Cronin, vice president of business development at Mojiva, New York, said that his ad network can provide contextual targeting to truly leverage the mobile platform for the brand or agency to get ads where its target audience is browsing.

Mojiva tracks given keywords associated with each advertisement, for example a campaign for Delta Airlines. Then, Mojiva searches its network for sites that correspond with the keywords, such as airfare or travel.

The ads are then served on the targeted Web site.

Mr. Cronin said that the level of targeting Mojiva offers can yield excellent results. One campaign saw a 108 percent click-through rate increase from a previous campaign.

Tony Nethercutt, senior vice president of sales of AdMob, San Mateo, CA, cited the popular Sherwin-Williams iPhone application as a good example of what AdMob can provide advertisers (see story).

As the applications in the Apple App Store continue to multiply, Mr. Nethercutt said discoverabilitiy will become difficult for advertisers to reach the 7 million iPhone and 4 million iPod touch users.

Mr. Nethercutt said advertisers can use AdMob to drive users to the App Store or iTunes to directly download a brand's application and track how many downloads the advertiser gets from the AdMob campaign.

Alternate reality
As the moderator, Brand In Hand?s CEO, John Hadl threw away the canned questions and asked the panel unorthodox questions in an effort to throw them off.

When asked what company they would pick to work at if their company did not exist, Mr. Rosenblatt said he would start a new company with Mr. Nethercutt.

Mr. Nethercutt said he would consider Mojiva because of his preexisting relationship with the ad network?s CEO, David Gwozdz.

AdMob was the choice for Mr. Cronin, who cited the company as being the leading ad network.

Mr. Krauss said he would buy Brand In Hand.

Each panelist was assigned a rival company to pitch as if they were emplyed by that competition. For example, Jumptap's Mr. Krauss pitched a hypothetical brand as if he was from Quattro Wireless.

The panelists were supposed to be pitching to a cough and cold remedy brand to convince the advertiser to use the ad network.

Mr. Krauss said the advertiser should leverage Quattro?s 100 exclusive premium sites and other nonexclusive sites on the network in bundles to reach the key demographic.

He said that the advertiser should use the mobile space to feature its entertaining commercials for users to watch in their downtime. Other faux features included a symptom checker, location-based services for the closest pharmacy, and text messages reminding the user to take medicine.

Mojiva's Mr. Cronin pitched as Jumptap and suggested the advertiser leverage a flu tracker map. Furthermore, he suggested a pairing with Jumptap?s client, NBC, as a means of distraction from a sickness.

AdMob was pitched by Quattro's Mr. Rosenblatt, who suggested running different advertisements during different points of the day to promote both the day and night medicines offered by the advertiser.

AdMob's Mr. Nethercutt pitched as Mojiva. He said the company would serve rich media and optimize ad units and click for video assests.

Mr. Krauss won the competition by a show of audience hands.

Cashing in
In terms of planning, the executives were asked how advertisers' budgets should be divided up.

Mr. Krauss and Mr. Nethercutt agreed that it is important for brands to plan for mobile in their digital budget.

Funds for mobile marketing should be diverted from other channels like radio and television, Mr. Rosenblatt said.

?We know one in seven media minutes are being spent on mobile devices, 18-49 year olds are the key to sell products and we know that mobile makes sense for brands' media mix,? he said.