Still remember the famous quote, “Mobile Ads Suck”?

Not anymore thanks to Steve Jobs, but also some other ordinary people who have been innovating in the mobile advertising industry during the last year. Our industry has evolved faster during this period than any of the previous claiming to be, “The Year of Mobile.”

Rich media mobile advertising has been around for a while, but it has been relatively limited in its reach and platform/device support. New developments in this area have enabled advertisers to run campaigns across a large number of publishers, ad networks, mediation platforms and even real time bidding platforms seamlessly. In addition,, the new technologies have also enabled simple and cost effective production of rich media ads that are platform agnostic and run on mobile Web as well as within Applications.  All this means mobile rich media advertising is ready for a wide adoption.

But, what does rich media really mean in the mobile space? Is it defined by the format, features, content or technology? First and foremost it is defined by a format (expandable banner, interstitial, auto-expand, etc.), which is a closed experience and happens within a mobile Application or a mobile Web page. When users engage with such ads, it means they are not re-directed to an advertiser’s website, but get the full experience right where they are. They can continue their browsing after they have engaged with an ad.

Main advantages of rich media ad formats include better user experience for consumers, better performance for advertisers, improved monetization potential for publishers and eventually also less traffic loss for publishers since users are not re-directed to other properties. Almost equally important are the ad features, which are the core of mobile rich media experience (image coverflow, video carousel, puzzle game, dynamic sign up form, Facebook like button, etc.). They enable highly interactive and engaging advertising.

Smartphones offer the great advantages of user interface and powerful features such as GPS.  These dwarf PC capabilities and allow much more engaging and advanced ad formats. Content is king, and it is absolutely necessary for great rich media campaigns. The advancement of technologies across the entire mobile ecosystem drives the increased content consumption on mobile devices, benefitting mobile advertising as a whole.

Adding to this, technologies such HTML5 have become a synonym for mobile rich media advertising. With mobile platforms adopting HTML5 and adding support for features like video, animation and geo-location, web apps (which are what most rich media ads nowadays) can rival native apps in terms of functionality and experience.

Advertisers who are looking for reach beyond a handful of premium publishers, require precise audience targeting and are optimizing their buys can now include rich media ad formats on their plan.