Europe UK : T-Mobile and Yahoo! today announce a strategic partnership which will see the first graphical advertising appear on T-Mobile’s pioneering Internet service. 

Inset shows how the mobile advertising could look on a Nokia handset.

Web’n’walk, which was the UK’s first service to offer people unlimited access to the whole internet on a mobile phone, is set to carry a variety of innovative graphical ads exclusively sold and  served by internet giant Yahoo!.

Mobile advertising is revolutionising the market by allowing advertisers to deliver more targeted messaging to consumers on their mobiles when on the move.  As pioneers of the Internet on your mobile, T-Mobile and Yahoo! will combine their expertise in the industry and knowledge of consumer habits, to enable advertisers to offer consumers targeted graphical ads when using the web’n’walk service.  Mobile advertising is unique in allowing consumers the ability to interact and respond directly to the messages that advertisers try to deliver to them, when they are out of the office or home.  T-Mobile and Yahoo! intend to roll out the first mobile advertisements on web’n’walk in the first half of 2008.

Phil Chapman, Director of Marketing at T-Mobile, said: Mobile advertising is a key area of development for T-Mobile in 2008 and this partnership with Yahoo! shows our commitment to making this strategy succeed.  With conventional mobile marketing tools limiting the levels of interaction, banner advertising through the Internet on your mobile creates many opportunities for potential advertisers to adopt innovative marketing campaigns.  We regard Yahoo! as a leader in display advertising, and with its deep understanding of the mobile space and the potential that mobile advertising can offer clients, we’re glad they are on board as our partners. 

"This partnership with T-Mobile demonstrates Yahoo!'s continued focus on mobile and extending our leadership in graphical advertising across multiple platforms," said Geraldine Wilson, VP of Connected Life, Yahoo! Europe.  "Advertisers are fast recognising the value of mobile advertising as a core part of their digital campaigns, and we are excited to work with T-Mobile to create superior experiences that deliver great value to advertisers and mobile users alike."

Thomas Husson, Senior Analyst at JupiterResearch, said in a recent report*:  "The mobile channel enables advertisers to interact with consumers at different and unique peak times when they are relatively more difficult to reach through other media.  More than any other medium, mobile can be leveraged to make the most of unique contextual, individual, and behavioural targeting.*

T-Mobile has been at the forefront of the mobile Internet since the launch of the web’n’walk Internet service in 2005.  Web’n’walk allows users access to the real internet, to surf the Internet when they want and how they want, T-Mobile have a number of price plans for Contract and Pay as you Go customers ranging from 50p per day with the 5 day pass for £2.50 to £7.50 per month for unlimited web browsing.  

Yahoo! is focused on creating the monetization engine for the mobile Internet: enabling publishers to monetize their services, and advertisers to reach their target audiences at large scale and with impact.