Mobile media measurement company M:Metrics has unveiled what it describes as the first competitive tracking service for mobile advertising, M:AdTracker, at the Mobile Marketing Forum in Los Angeles.
M:AdTracker will provide advertisers with tracking of who is advertising on the mobile web. The launch follows M:Metrics introduction of MobiLens in 2005, which provides media consumption metrics, using the largest monthly global survey of mobile subscribers; and of MeterDirect in April 2007, which the company says is the only syndicated research service to provide consumption metrics using on-device metering technology on Smartphones. 
With 15% of US mobile subscribers accessing news and information via the mobile browser, advertisers attention is turning toward banner advertising, says M:Metrics. However, it notes, before today, there was no way of monitoring the current inventory of mobile ads to inform advertising campaign strategies.
Using M:Metrics proprietary data collection technologies and measurement science expertise, M:AdTracker provides a glimpse into the mobile advertising landscape. M:AdTracker continuously monitors clickable display advertising from a broad representative set of mobile web destinations, and classifies the data by industry, company and product or service to reveal leading advertisers in and across market segments.
The data collected by M:Ad Tracker reveals some fascinating findings about the state of the mobile advertising marketplace, says M:Metrics, President and CEO, Will Hodgman. For example, more than a dozen Fortune 100 companies are advertising on mobile, with the heaviest representation being among media companies advertising websites, TV shows, movies and books. The automotive, travel and leisure and financial services industries are also making investments into the mobile medium. Its not just games and ringtones its everything from iced coffee to auto insurance. Mobile is showing a speed of adoption that we are only now seeing in the Internet.
The service is available today in the US, and will be rolled out to the major European markets in 2008.