As mobile advertising becomes the flavor of the month, Yankee Group assesses the strategies of four major carries: 3, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. All are actively exploring the opportunities presented by mobile advertising. There is even some consensus on the best strategy; from this, Yankee Group can discern the following best practices:

• Drive inventory. One of the biggest barriers to mobile advertising is a lack of places to put advertising. More mobile internet usage and increasing adoption of other value-added services will help.
• Prove the appeal of mobile to advertisers. This is best done by creating an attractive ecosystem, including standardization and reliable reporting. Mobile is an immature medium for supporting advertising. It must grow up.
• Test, test, test—there’s not that much of a hurry. Mobile advertising will be modest in 2007 and 2008, so MNOs have some time to check which formats work and test user acceptance.
• Collaborate across the value chain. This is a nascent market, so there’s not much revenue to be lost initially from partnering with experts in the field and co-opetition with other mobile operators.