To help educate the mobile marketing industry about current rich media mobile ad units, the global Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has published a new whitepaper.

The paper, Rich Media Mobile Advertising, now available for download, includes definitions, attributes and examples of rich media advertising that are currently being used in the marketplace.  

The MMA has created a definition for rich media mobile ad units – interactive or non-interactive ad units displayed on a mobile web page or in a mobile application that offer one or more of the following:

• Inclusion of streaming video content or animated GIF within the ad unit
• Inclusion of sound
• A richer interactive feature set than basic mobile click-through (such as user interaction that occurs through input other than a ‘click’ or ‘tap’)

The whitepaper has been written to address the growing market for rich media mobile ad units. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2009, an average of 19 per cent of US mobile advertisers used them, according to MMA member company Millennial Media.  

The whitepaper encourages experimentation with the ad units and invites companies to share best practices with the MMA Mobile Advertising Committee, in order to influence future guidelines.

MMA Mobile Advertising Committee member companies contributing to the report include: Crisp Wireless, Eyewonder, GOGII, Greystripe, JumpTap, Medialets, Millenial Media, Quattro Wireless, Rhythm NewMedia and The Weather Channel.