T-Mobile And Yahoo! Sign Strategic Partnership

T-Mobile has signed a strategic partnership with Yahoo! to provide banner ads on its web’n’walk service.

The online giant will be the exclusive provider of interactive banner adverts that will roll out over the next six months on sites including T-Mobile’s TV and games channels.

T-Mobile will use data about the sites that each user visits to target adverts.

Phil Chapman, T-Mobile’s director of marketing, predicted that mobile advertising would accelerate hugely during 2008 as the mobile web experience improves.

“A couple of years ago the mobile web was very clunky, but now the handsets are better, the software is better and it is priced in a way that users aren’t scared of,” he said.

“Mobile advertising will be enormous for the industry. This will be a key year but there is more to come.”

Geraldine Wilson, the vice-president of Yahoo! Europe’s connected life division, said advertisers recognised the value of mobile as part of their digital campaigns.

She said: “This partnership with T-Mobile demonstrates Yahoo!’s continued focus on mobile and extending our leadership in graphical advertising across multiple platforms.”

Thomas Husson, senior analyst at JupiterResearch, added: “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’s most recent market figures show that it had 17 million customers and 500,000 subscribers to web’n’walk.

T-Mobile: www.t-mobile.co.uk Yahoo!: www.yahoo.co.uk