Third Screen to Unveil '@plan For Mobile'

Mobile technology and media company Third Screen Media is taking the wraps off its mobile ad management tool for agencies, which works with a similar module for publishers that launched in January.

MADX Agency is designed to allow agencies to research, plan and buy mobile media from participating publishers across carriers. It also lets users upload and test creative, in addition to delivering ads and managing campaigns on WAP, SMS, MMS, mobile video and in downloadable applications, according to the company.

“It literally takes them through the campaign lifecycle,” Tom Burgess, CEO of Third Screen Media, told ClickZ News. “It takes the agency from research all the way through to postmortem reporting, all in one interface.”

Burgess says agencies are just beginning to trial MADX Agency, and he declined to name any specific players that were participating in the test phase.

Agencies using the system will be able to target ads by time of day, type of content, handset, carrier type, browser type, video player type and geographic data. Third Screen is working with publishers to try to get other demographic data, and hopes also to begin building behavioral profiles on consumers.

Third Screen is working on a third MADX module to be used by carriers and says it’s currently trialing the system with seven different companies. Though Burgess wouldn’t name names, he said tier one, tier two and several mobile virtual network operators are trying it out. That system is set to be launched in the third quarter.

The publisher tool is already in use by the Weather Channel and Gannett’s USA Today. Agencies can also tap into Third Screen’s own TSM network, which sells inventory from publishers such as MSN Mobile, CBS SportsLine, TV Guide and Hollywood.com. That network now makes available 70 million monthly impressions and 5 million unique users.