Millennial Media?s Smart report for the month of June shines a light on the tremendous growth and diversification of the entertainment vertical's use of mobile advertising. 

This is Millennial?s second time, in the past 16 consecutive issues of Smart, producing a special section on the entertainment vertical. The company chose entertainment not only because it was featured in the June 2009 issue of Smart, but due to the fact that this vertical continues to push the mobile envelope.

?In the last year, we have seen incredible growth in the entertainment sector,? said Mack McKelvey, senior vice president of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.

According to Ms. McKelvey, television campaigns grew 311 percent, DVD release campaigns were up 300 percent and Studio Motion Picture release campaigns increased 89 percent year over year.

?Entertainment is one of the top 10 verticals that makes mobile a specific component of every advertising campaign,? she said. ?Innovative studios use every available component of mobile reach and targeting.?

Best-practice tips
Here are some entertainment best practices that other verticals can leverage:

? Use every form of targeting (demographic, audience takeover, geo, behavioral audience)

? Strategically heavy up in key timeframes for campaigns (entertainment doubles-down to drive ticket sales on movie premiere weekends)

? Use numerous post-click actions (persistent mobile web sites to promote multiple offerings, application downloads, rich media with embedded video)

? Consistently integrate mobile as a key component of every single campaign to drive consumer engagement

?  Employ cutting-edge mobile creative ad formats (transparent overlays, tab units, click-to-calendar)

Audience reach grows
Meanwhile, Millennial's U.S. unique audience reach increased by 2 percent in May, from 61.5 million to 62.9 million unique users month-over-month.

June includes several locations with large multicultural populations. Brands interested in reaching multicultural audiences should make mobile an integral part of their marketing plans.

Portals and directories ranked No. 1 for the third consecutive quarter in Millennial?s "Top 10 Mobile Advertising Verticals, Ranked by Spend" category.

The company anticipates continued heavy investment in this vertical as top brands compete to become the ?go-to? portal with mobile consumers.

?Submit Form? and ?Retail Promotions? were among the top-performing post-click actions, according to Millennial.

Tourism, airline and hotel advertisers within the Travel vertical actively engaged consumers with free trip promotions and special offers that captured the attention of summer vacationers making their travel plans.

As an ever-increasing trend, advertisers are leveraging audience-targeted campaigns on Millennial?s network.

The unique attributes of mobile allow for this refined audience targeting. In June, 41 percent of campaigns leveraged this method.

?This month we provided a first ever view into the percentage of campaigns on our network that utilized our unique audience targeting capabilities versus broader based network reach targeting,? Ms. McKelvey said. ?As more advertisers become aware of sophisticated mobile targeting capabilities, we anticipate that audience targeted campaigns will continue to grow.

 ?We?ve seen a growing trend, particularly in the automotive and entertainment verticals,? she said.

Final Take
Giselle Tsirulnik, senior editor, Mobile Marketer
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