Today Microsoft Advertising is launching third-party ad serving for mobile in the U.S.  Our solution enables agencies and advertisers to use trusted third party ad servers such as Microsoft Atlas and Google’s DART to serve mobile display ads on all of our premium Microsoft Mobile Media properties including MSN Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger, MSNBC, FOX Sports, CNBC and Wonderwall. Advertisers and agencies will now be able to centrally manage their ad campaigns and reporting using trusted and proven third-party systems.

Agencies and advertisers have told us they view third-party ad serving as a reliable way to improve campaign management, optimization and accountability for mobile ads. The lack of broadly supported third party ad serving is among the biggest challenges facing the mobile advertising ecosystem today,” said Jeremy Lockhorn, VP Emerging Media at Razorfish. “Advertisers and agencies want transparency and consistency. Microsoft Advertising’s launch of third party ad serving for mobile is a clear step in the right direction from a significant player in the space.”

By enabling third-party ad serving for both online and mobile together, Microsoft Advertising provides advertisers and agencies greater transparency and a more holistic, scalable view of digital campaigns for both online and mobile.

While today’s announcement is focused on third-party ad serving in the U.S., we will be rolling out third-party mobile ad serving for mobile in markets outside the U.S. in the future.

Thanks,

Raj Kapoor, Microsoft Mobile Advertising team

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