People have been predicting an explosion in mobile advertising for years, but it has yet to happen. Here is the catalyst that will ultimately bring about the revolution.

Mobile advertising is undoubtedly one of the most talked about topics in the new media digital advertising industry. Due to the growth of mobile penetration and the new capabilities of devices, everyone is waiting for mobile to explode like online did 10 to 15 years ago. Mobile advertising, however, is a relatively new medium -- one that people are still trying to fully grasp before providing their full acceptance.

As many in the industry cautiously dip their toes into the waters of mobile advertising, those that have decided to take the plunge are realizing the full potential of where the online world ends and where the mobile one starts. Once people comprehend that the way to utilize this new advertising medium is the same way online advertisers have done it for years -- through an open third-party model -- the perceived complexity of mobile advertising fades away, enabling them to focus on the good stuff: successful advertising.

Evolution to the open model
Throughout the history of the digital environment, the most successful companies have been ones that are open and non-restrictive. Many media start out closed and contained, which makes sense as the majority of digital environments are fragile in their initial versions. However, the mobile arena is no longer in its primary stages. Today's networks are significantly faster and more intelligent, and devices are now considerably more advanced than their predecessors.

Perceived mobile ad complexity is generally industry-generated and unnecessary. In order for agencies to embrace the mobile medium, for brands to better understand the potential of it, and for companies to successfully build their position in the mobile advertising market, the wall must come down. Mobile ad platforms must uniformly move to an open third-party model by following those who have already learned to embrace it. This will enable industry players to integrate with online advertising platforms. Only then will the mobile media market explode as anticipated.

Benefits of an open third-party mobile ad model include the following.

Dynamic campaign management and common reporting. Arguably, one of the most critical necessities for any agency is useful reporting during and after a campaign run. This is the lifeblood of agencies, as it allows them to not only show value to their clients, but it also enables agencies to optimize their campaigns on the fly when certain ads are underperforming.

Atlas, DoubleClick, 24/7 and other major ad management systems deploy third-party ad serving architectures. Unfortunately, many mobile ad networks do not. This results in muddled reports that do not follow common templates, requiring man hours to decipher and integrate the feedback (usually post-campaign) into other digital advertising reports that can then show a campaign's overall success, including its online and mobile performance.

We're starting to see more ad networks tout the development of third-party architecture. This is a major boost to the industry, signifying that it's moving in the right direction. An open architecture allows for mobile reporting to work through dashboard tracking systems like Atlas DMT and DART for on-the-fly campaign management.

So what's the reason for the lack of integration capabilities when all third-party systems should interoperate with each other? Most mobile advertising platforms do not use a third-party ad serving model. Even if a mobile advertising platform claims to integrate, it can still only serve ads in network to its publishers. It cannot serve to any site in the market the way online solutions can and mobile networks should.

Open network equals open access. Much the way agencies can pick any and every publisher site that fits their demographic needs online, they should be able to do the same in mobile. Closed ad networks all too often limit access to specific publishers -- unnecessarily causing limited campaign reach that often serves as a deterrent to mobile advertising adoption.

Why does this happen? Because closed ad networks require proprietary server side include (SSI) software that is only deployed when publishers contract through those networks. The result is wasted money and time spent managing numerous relationships with numerous networks -- resources that could be better spent developing new and exciting interactive campaigns.

The open model eliminates the need for proprietary software integration. In turn, agencies can finally access any site necessary to reach their target audiences without headaches.

Lessons learned
The mobile advertising industry shares many similarities with the online digital advertising industry, thus dictating the need for a similar architecture. Yet mobile advertising can offer even more than online if executed correctly. Reluctant brands won't be able to afford to keep mobile advertising out of the mix much longer; industry reports and campaign results continue to show that the success rates achieved through properly executed mobile campaigns are often greater than those achieved through online advertising.

An open third-party mobile ad server is the key to expanding the reach of mobile. The benefits of mobile leveraging the same model as online advertising platforms far outweigh any benefits of a closed network model. In fact, mobile advertising has to integrate with online advertising to become a real, sustainable medium simply because using the popular dashboards is of critical importance to agencies.

Perceived complexity
Agencies continue to share their frustrations with mobile advertising networks and vendors in public forums. These are the most common complaints:

• Lack of useful, common reporting
• Required exclusive relationships with multiple closed mobile ad networks to reach the variety of content a single campaign often requires
• Frustrating campaign management limitations due to lack of dynamic management tools and the inability to integrate with common ad management dashboards
• Resource-draining need for creating, tracking and placing multiple creatives of the same ad to support various screen sizes and device requirements
• Minimal ability to hyper-target campaigns to relevant end users

These are all very valid concerns that at one time also existed in the online advertising world. So, why are we labeling these as "perceived complexities?" It's because, to date, lessons learned from the online world have largely been ignored by the majority -- but not all -- of the mobile advertising industry. The open third-party ad model has yet to become the standard. But as the mobile advertising industry continues to evolve, this is likely to change.

Maximizing creative development
As of today, no standards exist among mobile browsers, resulting in barriers for different ad display. Agencies don't have the bandwidth to manage multiple ad sizes and formats to meet the daunting number of mobile device screen demands that are flooding the market place.

These problems can be eased by employing a device library for ad servers to ensure that ads are served and properly displayed to devices that are managed freely through the open model. The publisher's site requirements are communicated to the device library (a dedicated server), at which time the device library provides the appropriate ad format necessary to meet the mobile site's requirements. Not only does this eliminate the need for hands-on management by the agency, it also offers faster ad serving, as well as deeper targeting capabilities to include device type, functionality or carrier.

The open model has redefined and revolutionized the online industry, and it will be the catalyst that will drive the mobile space to where it should and will be in the near future. As the industry starts to grasp the power behind mobile advertising and the allocation of ad spends begin to include mobile, the open third-party mobile ad model will naturally become established.

Bob Walczak is founder and CEO of Ringleader Digital.