The entertainment industry, an early innovator in mobile, remained the top vertical in terms of mobile advertising spend in the third quarter, according to Millennial Media?s U.S. Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART) report.

The consumer packaged goods (CPG) vertical jumped from sixth in mobile marketing spend in the second quarter to the fourth spot in the third quarter. In addition, Apple drove Samsung out of the top spot for number of ad impressions among device manufacturers.

?According to Nielsen, the U.S. mobile Web now reaches 64.1 million users, which offers an even greater opportunity for advertisers to reach and target mobile consumers as we enter the fourth quarter,? said Mack McKelvey, vice president of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore. ?Millennial Media reaches 51.2 million, or 78.9 percent of the U.S. mobile Web users.?

Millennial Media?s third-quarter Top 10 Mobile Advertising Verticals represented the same mix as in the second quarter, with the exception of some small movements such as CPG?s upward climb.

The retail and CPG verticals were two of the top five mobile advertising verticals in the third quarter, indicating a potential trend in planning for holiday spending.

The consumer electronics subvertical drove the majority of growth in the third quarter for retail, representing 51 percent of that vertical. Ecommerce was the next largest subvertical at 19 percent.

The entire list of verticals, in descending order: entertainment (motion picture, music, games), portals and directories, dating, CPG, retail and restaurants, telecommunications, armed forces, finance, education and travel.

Device
Apple was the top device manufacturer for the first time this year, with 22.43 percent of the impression share in September.

Apple had a 2.65 percent increase month-over-month, while Samsung moved to second place, with a 0.12 percent decrease in September.

However, Samsung had six devices in the Top 20 Mobile Phones on Millennial Media?s network and there were three BlackBerry devices in the Top 10?Curve, Pearl and Storm.

After Apple and Samsung, Motorola,  LG, Research In Motion, Sony, Danger, HTC, Nokia and Kyocera rounded out that top 10 in that order.

Keypad overtook touchscreen in Millennial Media?s September device input mix. Keypad represented 33.38 percent of the mix, while touchscreen represented 31.82 percent.

The retail and CPG verticals continued to take advantage of device targeting in the third quarter with a mix of smartphone- and iPhone-targeted campaigns.

Engagement
With no change into September, driving traffic to a mobile Web site was the primary function for mobile ad campaigns in the third quarter.

A mobile Web site represented the destination for approximately 52 percent of campaigns, taking over the top spot from custom landing pages.

Expandable rich-media ads are growing in popularity, but represented less than 10 percent of campaign destinations on Millennial?s network.

This data represents a growth in persistent mobile sites, Ms. McKelvey said.

?Our largest month-over-month increase from the suite of Mydas Portfolio post-click actions was the AppStore/iTunes action,? Ms. McKelvey said. "App Store/iTunes made up 22 percent of post-click actions, a 6 percent 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,? she said.

The subscribe/purchase action had the largest percent of post-click actions, with 31 percent in September. Submit form and watch video placed second and third, respectively.

The largest decrease in the blend of post-click actions was store locator/view map. That action made up 7 percent of post-click actions in September, a 14 percent decrease month-over-month.

Targeting
The broadest targeting methods, run of network (RON), channel and custom subnet, dominated Millennial Media?s campaign targeting mix in the third quarter.

?With an overall focus in volume-driven campaign goals, advertisers were interested in reaching a large audience,? Ms. McKelvey said. ?This was reflected in a 12 percent 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,? she said.