Nokia trains execs in mobile dark arts

Nokia is testing out a new way to get execs interested in mobile advertising: sit them down and show them how to do it. The handset maker will be opening “Ad Labs” in London and Boston, used to certify and “train traditional advertising agency staff in the “black art” of mobile advertising,” reports The Guardian.

According to Nokia, execs are not having trouble with mobile advertising technologies themselves, but instead with the planning and creative concepting, which is where they’re hoping the Ad Labs will be able to step in.

Nokia is giving advertising a real push at the moment: there was the enpocket acquisition last year and the Mobile Ad Alliance earlier this week. Mobile advertising has always been a nebulous practice at best, despite a lot of talk about industry standardisation and working together, that doesn’t appear to be changing very fast. Nokia looks like its going after the mobile advertising number one spot, with or without its partners.