IM-Mobile

Harald Neidthardt

If you’re passionate about mobile and mobile advertising, talk with Harald Neidhardt, CMO of Smaato, a mobile advertising company. Before the iPhone was released, Harald and other entrepreneurs at Smaato were talking about smartphones, mobile applications and the growth of worldwide mobile computing.

Smaato is a pioneering mobile advertising company that operates the mobile ad optimization platform called SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising). The company partners with mobile advertisers, publishers, developers, ad networks and carriers to increase advertiser average revenue per user within mobile applications or on mobile websites. Harald Neidhardt is one of the Co-Founders of Smaato Inc. and was instrumental in conceiving the mobile advertising platform SOMA™.

He has over 20 years of experience in marketing and business development, having led interactive agencies and marketing consulting firms in both the US and Europe, among them Pixelpark (US), the North American arm of Bertelsmann’s multimedia subsidiary and one of Europe’s largest Internet solution providers. Harald Neidhardt has a BA in Marketing Communications from Communications Academy, Hamburg.

Podcast Topics

In this podcast interview with Brian Prows, Neidhardt’s passion for mobile, innovative ideas and collaboration with others of like-mind clearly comes through.  When he’s not arranging mobile forums for creative people to exchange ideas and innovate their businesses, NeidHardt, appearing on bnetTV, spreads the gospel of mobile wherever he goes.

Meanwhile, he has Smaato to run. Smaato, in partnership with twenty mobile advertising networks, including Quattro Wireless, advertisers, publishers, handset manufacturers and mobile application developers, built an aggregated mobile ad network serving over 200 countries.

Coordinating the complexities of mobile ad delivery is challenging, according to Neidhardt, whose SOMA mobile ad delivery system, delivers demographically-targeted mobile ads to smartphone handsets. SOMA automates the process of finding the “best fit” ads for mobile users, filling publisher ad inventories with tailored content and standalone “widgets” within smartphone applications. This reduces the need for publishers to coordinate with multiple mobile ad networks throughout the world.

Smaato’s servers pull by market which networks to use, type of ad to deliver to handsets (banner, text or widgets for mobile apps) and reporting, automatically handling the complexities of mobile ad delivery and measurement.

According to Neidhardt, advertisers need to do a re-take on their perceptions about mobile vs. traditional advertising. Consumers place great personal value on their cell phones, carry them in  pockets and purses and increasingly rely on them for personal communications and as a source of information.

Due to the nature of mobile, this presents opportunities for advertisers to reach targeted audienceas with advertising messages leading to increased and immediate sales.

While overall ad spend is down due to the inclement economy, Smaato is experiencing growth none-the-less, while advertisers, in general, have reduced budgets for online and off-line placements. Creative directors and others at advertising agencies now know the impact of Apple’s iPhone and other smartphones on consumer spending. Yet some advertisers still hold back on mobile ad spend, relying on traditional approaches.

Harald Neidhardt, however, isn’t worried. He believes, given a year or so, those who hold the advertising purse strings will “take the camera off the tripod” and invest in innovative mobile campaigns, reaping the benefits of a mobile, wireless world.