Pepsi and carmaker Lincoln are running in-video mobile advertising to reach iPhone users.

The ads will run via Rhythm NewMedia's iPhone video ad unit, which provides in-video interactivity. The iPhone's unique touch characteristics allowed Rhythm to overlay TV style ads with touchable buttons that activate a call, SMS, a Web site, a map of local dealers, or another video.

"Historically traditional media was either branding or a call to action," said Ujjal Kohli, CEO of Rhythm. "The two were separate and it was hard to do both in the same ad.

"Companies would have two separate ad units, one dedicated to call to action and the other was for branding," he said. "The only problem with that is the same user may not see both ads in a relevant time frame.

"Our ad units combine branding with call to action."

The Lincoln ad promotes the car maker's new model MKS.

Consumers who watch the video ad have the option of tapping their iPhone screen. A button then pops up asking the user if he or she wants to learn more about Lincoln.

The users can be rerouted to Lincoln's iPhone-optimized site where they can look at pictures of the MKX, click to call a dealer and get information about the model.

Rhythm worked closely with Lincoln to create iPhone optimized touchable interactive video ads and a supporting mobile site.

This iPhone optimized Web site also allows interested consumers to watch more videos and find out more about the car's features. The ads are frequency capped, so that a user will only see an ad a certain number of times.

The Pepsi ad promotes the soft drink maker's new energy drink AMP.

The ads work much like the Lincoln's ads: 15 second branding spots are showed and the user has the option of tapping on the screen.

A button pops up that asks users if they are interested in learning more about the drink. They are then rerouted to the Pepsi iPhone-optimized mobile site.

The iPhone application to run these new ads is vSNAX Videos. vSNAX features free high quality videos from more than 25 premium media partners.

"One of the issues with just text banner ads is they are good for call to action, but don't do well for branding," Mr. Kohli said. "Here can in fact you can get someone to like your brand and then make an offer and get them to buy something.

"The concept of combining branding with call to action has become affective online," he said. "But it has been hard to bring this same concept to the mobile screen because screen interactions are limited and the screen itself is small."