The Sun newspaper has agreed a deal with mobile agency Enpocket for the provision of mobile display advertising on its off-portal WAP site, Sun Mobile, which receives hundreds of thousands of visits each month. Sun Mobile joins other off-portal media owners and mobile operators that have chosen Enpocket to manage their mobile advertising initiatives, including ad technology, trafficking and sales
The mobile ads will appear as text links and graphical banners that users can click on. Calls to action will include: Click to call; Click to download content (video, music, games etc.); and Click to receive an SMS or MMS.
The Sun will serve mobile advertising using the Enpocket Marketing Engine, which Enpocket says is the worlds most widely-used mobile marketing software. The Engine is used by operators including Spring, Airtel and Softbank Mobile (formerly Vodafone Japan) to deliver targeted mobile advertising.
Now that we are seeing very healthy traffic going into Sun Mobile, we are looking at monetising the site through supporting advertising, says News Group Digital  Commercial manager, Simon Ashley. Enpocket brings unrivalled experience in delivering consumer-friendly mobile marketing, and is now enabling us to lead the way with the exciting opportunities in mobile advertising.
For Enpocket, Managing Director Europe, David Barker, adds:
With analysts predicting revenues of $10 billion by 2010, mobile advertising is poised to become a major part of the interactive advertising landscape. Mobile marketing is entering a phase where interactions beyond simple text messaging will become the norm. Were now seeing demand from our brand clients to extend the reach of their media plans into mobile through targeted mobile ads.