Mobile operator 3 UK and Yahoo! have announced a deal which will see Yahoo! exclusively sell 3 UK banners and sponsored links inventory. Yahoo! will sell the inventory for the 3 UK portal, with ads sold by Yahoo! going live later this month.
The Yahoo! sold adverts will be seen by visitors to Planet 3, which reaches a group of customers who have already demonstrated interest in mobile Internet services. For example, 3 UKs ad-funded music video service offers subscribers free music videos in return for watching a short, targeted video ad, and already has more than 1.4 million registered users.
“With the ever-increasing popularity of the mobile Internet, more and more people are coming to the 3 portal,” says 3 UK Head of On-portal Advertising, Neil Andrews. “Were in a great position to help brands reach our subscribers with a targeted and relevant advertising message. We believe Yahoo! has the experience to help us take full advantage of our advanced portal and unique all 3G subscriber-base.” 
3 UK was one of the first entrants into the mobile advertising space and says it has the highest percentage of subscribers accessing mobile Internet services of any operator. In a recent survey by M:Metrics, 3 was ranked second only to Facebook for the amount of time users spent browsing. 3 was the only network ranked in the top five. The portal is prime advertising real-estate which 3 says has already been successfully used by leading brands to reach key audiences as part of integrated digital advertising campaigns.
Geraldine Wilson, VP of Connected Life, Yahoo! Europe, says 3 UK is a great new addition to the Yahoo! portfolio of mobile advertising partners. She says: “Their commitment to bring the best of the mobile Internet to their customers, coupled with the high volume of traffic the portal gets, presents our portfolio of advertisers with a very attractive opportunity.”
Yahoo! currently offers mobile display advertising in 23 territories across Europe, Asia and the Americas. The company is focused on creating the monetization engine for the mobile Internet, enabling publishers to monetize their services and advertisers to reach their target audiences at large scale.
