Microsoft to launch mobile ads

Microsoft plans to launch advertising on the mobile phone soon through its Windows Live properties, following an announcement Thursday that it will acquire ScreenTonic, a French company based in Paris.

ScreenTonic works to launch advertising campaigns in partnership with wireless carriers in Europe and Web-site publishers engineered specifically for mobile phones.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The expertise gained from ScreenTonic will help Microsoft commercially launch banner and text ads on Windows Live for mobile properties in the not-too-distant future, said Matt Champagne, Microsoft's director of mobile-product management for the online-services group.

Last year, he said, the group conducted trials in the U.S. and Japan for display advertising on Windows Live for mobile. Group members determined that taking knowledge they already had from advertising on the PC desktop and applying it to mobile didn't always work.

"There are unique things in selling it and unique things in fulfilling it on the mobile," he said. "These guys have a great sales force and ad expertise, and can accelerate us into the market."

ScreenTonic's 43 employees will continue to be based in Paris, he said, but with the acquisition, the company will enter the U.S. and other markets.

Mobile advertising is starting to gain attention as other companies in the U.S., including Boston-based ThirdScreenMedia and San Mateo, Calif.-based Admob, build mobile-advertising networks.

Although it's early, Champagne said mobile phones could have a more valuable audience than computers do because cellphones are more personal devices.

"The mobile advertising piece has been talked about for years, and now it's more mainstream and becoming part of media budgets. We want to be on the forefront of that," Champagne said.

Neil Strother, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said there are no leaders yet in mobile advertising as companies try to figure out the landscape.

"Microsoft doesn't want to get left out at this juncture," he said. "In fact, this might put them a little ahead in Europe."

Tricia Duryee: 206-464-3283 or tduryee@seattletimes.com