I read with great interest that the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in conjunction with the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has created the IAB Mobile Council, “a collective of mobile operators, portals, creative, media and mobile agencies, to help establish mobile as an advertising outlet on a par with online”.
The IAB’s involvement just underlines how seriously mobile is now being taken by the major media players. The IAB is funded by digital media owners and has 375 members. IAB’s mobile expansion starts this week with its first conference dedicated to mobile. The trade body holds annual IAB Engage conferences for those organisations involved in digital media and from now on will include Engage for Mobile. The alliance with the MMA would suggest that the IAB has gained the blessing of companies in the sector to push forward mobile advertising, rather than becoming a rival player in the space. All very interesting.