Mobclix has partnered with Nielsen to be able to deliver more targeted mobile ads, giving it some name-brand recognition to stick out from all the competition.
The deal allows the ad network aggregator to resell Nielsen’s research products, which categorize consumers into roughly 150 segments based on a user’s age and gender as well as location, or other more lifestyle-like qualities, such as spending power and tech awareness, reports GigaOm. The benefit of this partnership is that typically more relevant ads are more successful and therefore fetch a higher price. Mobclix says there’s also a benefit to developers: they’ll be able to tell what kinds of apps resonate with their audience, and how they can increase user engagement, downloads and better rankings.
The brand-name recognition that Nielsen gives to Mobclix is equally important, as the mobile advertising space heats up and there’s massive companies to compete against, like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). In addition, there’s not just competition from within mobile advertising. One of the biggest challenges is to convince brands and advertisers to leave other mediums for mobile. With more relevant data, that argument might be easier to win. For example, eMarketer said roughly $416 million was spent on mobile advertising in 2009, compared to the nearly $24 billion spent online, the $51 billion spent on TV ads, and the $38 billion spent on newspaper ads.
Mobclix did not address privacy concerns about targeting end users, but you can assume that the information that Nielsen is providing to Mobclix is in aggregate and would eliminate any personally identifiable information [Note: The company confirmed the information is in aggregate.]. Whether that’s good enough for Apple, it’s unclear. Last week, the company warned developers that if their app uses location-based information, the information must be put to “beneficial” use, or else “your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”