Not another Tampax interstitial

While mobile operators may be eager to explore mobile advertising (and the revenue it might generate), mass acceptance and the nationwide spread of handheld-agnostic mobile campaigns is simply not around the corner. In truth, it remains years away.

That, at least, was the message conveyed by Publics' chairman Maurice Levy.

Levy made his remarks at the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecoms summit in Paris. He said mobile ads are still perceived as experimental by advertisers and carriers, and — despite encouraging research — there remain large swaths of customers who wouldn't be happy to have ads on their portable devices.

One issue holding advertisers back is lack of broad reach. In some cases, carriers might coordinate combined ad-buy opportunities in order to cull a profit from major brands.

Mobile ad spend currently sits at just $1 billion but is expected to hit $24 billion in the next four years.

The Mobile Marketing Association recently released global mobile ad guidelines for advertisers. These guidelines seek to expedite acceptance of mobile advertising by ensuring that mobile ads are agnostic across most handhelds, and that advertisers do not abuse users' trust — which is integral to the long-term success of the mobile ad market.