Mobile operator 3 UK has opened up its mobile broadband dashboard as advertising real-estate. The dashboard, which launches every time a user connects to the Internet via their 3 dongle, will be visible to more than 1 million mobile broadband users, and receives more than 30 million impressions every month.
The network is currently looking for the initial set of advertising partners to sign up until the end of 2009. Launch brands will have the option to receive in the region of 1-3 million impressions each month. 3 will sell the inventory direct, or through advertising agencies.
3 says that customer experience of the advertising will be simple and unobtrusive, in line with its ongoing mobile broadband proposition. Once the mobile broadband dongle is plugged into the USB port of a computer, the dashboard will automatically appear with the connection manager and advertising pane alongside. 3 claims to have the UKs largest high speed mobile Internet infrastructure, and offers a range of mobile broadband packages.
Mobile broadband dashboard advertising has already been used with great success by 3 UKs sister network in Austria, which is already running campaigns with brands such as VW, Suzuki, Kia, Peugeot, Mazda, Honda and Land Rover. 3 says that companies advertising in this way are seeing a clickthrough rate of up to 6%.
 3 UK has always led the market when it comes to providing innovative advertising space on mobile, because we have a uniquely powerful network, says 3 UK Head of Advertising, Neil Andrews. This has allowed us to do some very interesting things with mobile content and the advertising surrounding this. Our mobile broadband offering is seeing a huge amount of uptake. This new opportunity presents brands with the opportunity of getting in front of a large target audience in a bold and visible manner.