Mobile advertising can be flat, dull and uninspired. If you want consumers to pay attention, you've got to custom tailor the content to them.

Most of us have been exposed to mobile advertising, but how many have had a desirable experience? Sadly, mobile advertising is a fairly static realm, predominantly populated with text and banners disseminated indiscriminately, which, as a result, gives the 3.3 billion mobile users an undesirable experience.

But the technical capabilities -- not to mention the creative juices -- exist for change. We've seen dynamic advertising campaigns explode across the TV and PC, and there's no doubt that ad agencies can tap into the growth and talent in the mobile industry to create innovative, eye-catching and revenue-generating ad inventory on the third screen.

So what's the hold-up? A lack of compelling mobile content, for starters. Indeed, the sparse selection of high-quality, rich media content is not enough to consistently engage today's tech-savvy mobile web users. In addition, discovering mobile content is hindered by large gaps between carrier-provided catalogues and the content consumers actually desire.

Of course, compelling content begets compelling ads. And as content publishers and operators increasingly rely on cloud services to simplify the ecosystem for mobile content and service creation, strides are being made to make web, premium and user-generated content available to smart- and feature phone users alike.

The four tips below zero in on ways in which ad agencies, ad networks, content publishers and mobile operators can all achieve the ultimate goal of service monetization. In doing so, they will bolster brand stickiness while improving ad effectiveness and the overall consumer experience.

1.  Chew on this!
As companies wish to engage consumers across multiple screens, a prime consideration becomes the "snackable" mobile user paradigm, which is vastly distinct from that of the TV or PC. Accordingly, content should be bite-sized and tailored to the on-the-go mobile user whose limited time, attention span, battery life and screen size preclude the steady presentation of monolithic video segments. In addition to being bite-sized, snackable media also implies a mechanism for breaking up content along points of high relevancy through the application of metadata. With a higher degree of relevancy, information overload decreases, while mobile consumption skyrockets.

In addition, by employing technology that decomposes media into more relevant, snackable bites, advertisers also have a more granular way to generate inventory while noting, for example, the perfect spot to insert a targeted ad. As a result, it becomes far easier to monetize and track media streams.

2.  Personalization, personalization, personalization
Mobile phones are undoubtedly a consumer's most personal device. They are ubiquitous, glued to the hip and often encased, multicolored or even bejeweled. What's more, their relatively low prices, coupled with the rapid pace of technological innovation, are poised to morph mobile handsets into the truly universal personal computing device. Yet, the concept of personalization needs to extend beyond a favorite ringtone or wallpaper and leverage capabilities that are unique to the mobile experience by applying user, device, location or sensor-derived context to mobile content in real time, yielding attention-grabbing media and advertisements. What's more, offering this degree of customization and immediacy clearly differentiates the mobile experience and makes mobile personalization a unique and coveted concept.

Inherent and burgeoning device intelligence enables the delivery of this highly targeted content, with user preferences easily captured through metadata, exponentially increasing the likelihood that users will grow their affinity to do business with a brand. This personalization also ensures that consumers are not inundated with extraneous content, thereby avoiding clutter and frustration.

3.  Pair content with context
Ad targeting can be a granular art. Because mobile devices are inherently "context-rich," they have the ability to pair customized content with user context in real time. In addition to preferred viewing habits, contextual information -- including demographics, location, presence and additional preferences -- can be captured, categorized and leveraged by both content publishers and advertisers to deliver media of the highest degree of relevancy and with the highest likelihood of service monetization.

Let's take a look at a situation employing some of the aforementioned tips. For example, let's say an automotive enthusiast is prone to checking out the latest Audi clips on the mobile web. Leveraging a solution that communicates intelligently with ad networks, sites can employ targeting to the degree that they avoid delivering generic blanket ads for unrelated products (i.e., ringtones, games, dating services) and instead offer up higher-quality contextual ads based on the media viewed. In this case, the user might see a campaign offering a promotion on Michelin tires (standard issue on Audis) or a pre-roll for dealers within a 15-mile radius. Michelin and Audi benefit from the qualified leads, and the user benefits from the helpful, contextual information.

4.  Let's get social
As the mobile ecosystem continues to evolve, mobile social networking will become increasingly popular. Desktop functionality will seamlessly extend to and from the mobile device, in such a way that disparate social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) are bridged together as part of a growing social grid, and more ad-hoc associations among friends are formed for the purpose of viral mobile media sharing.

Content -- premium, syndicated and/or user-generated -- then becomes interactive, with users able to easily rate, comment on and share items of interest. Meanwhile, content publishers will be able to easily monetize media as it extends beyond simple, one-time viewing. Therefore, the mobile ecosystem should not offer a separate universe of socialized content, but rather span the interaction among desktop-oriented social networks and the native social interaction contained on content publishers' own web properties.

Still, the mobile social networking experience does differ from that of the PC, which predominantly involves static communities and one-way information sharing patterns. In the mobile social networking paradigm, group members are constantly shifting based on the relevancy of shared media. These users who display the same degree of interest in a given item are forming, at least momentarily, a virtual group that circulates relevant content, continually commenting on and even adding to it.

For example, a dubious sports call or side-splitting blooper might be continually shared among sports fans, with users commenting back and forth on peak points of interest. 

Of course, the implications are important for advertisers. This form of interactivity enables content to have the broadest reach possible, and the viral distribution ensures that advertising inventory is continually created.

Conclusion
By applying the tips above and giving high priority to the development and delivery of snackable, contextual and personalized media, content publishers and advertisers can successfully engage mobile users across multiple mediums. Bolstered by technical innovation and improvements, a heretofore insipid mobile advertising experience will no doubt be invigorated and able to both capture and captivate the mobile audience

Cheng Wu is the co-founder and chairman of Azuki Systems.