Nokia Mobile Ad Net Halves U.K. Operation

Nokia Interactive Advertising, the mobile manufacturer’s mobile ad network, plans to half its U.K. sales force, laying off up to 30 employees, the firm said today. The remaining staff will now focus on selling against Nokia’s owned and operated services, alongside selected third party publisher sites, including those of Reuters, News International and Trinity Mirror.

Despite the cutbacks, a Nokia spokesperson said the company “continues to believe that advertising will remain a key revenue generator for the future of Internet services.”

Last year, Nokia was aggressively growing its European network, and signed a host of premium publishers, including Telegraph Media Group, CNET, Agence France-Presse, and RTL Mobile of Germany.

Speaking with ClickZ News at the time, David Barker, director and head of publishers and partnerships, EMEA, was upbeat about the mobile ad market, and claimed that click-through rates across the network had been averaging around 10 percent.

As the economic climate continues to toughen however, advertisers appear reluctant to experiment with less established channels. In further attempts to kick-start the mobile ad market in the U.K., the Global System for Mobile Association announced this week that it would begin selling user behavior data on behalf of operators, in order to drive efficiency for advertisers and agencies.

As the market continues to deteriorate, however, it seems the “year of mobile,” if there ever is one, is unlikely to be 2009.