Voda,T-Mo, O2, 3 and Orange club together on mobile ads

Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 – anyone who’s anyone, then – have announced they’ve formed a working group to define common metrics and measurement processes for advertising on mobiles.
The group will have a UK focus, producing a feasibility study to work out the best way to audit the performance of mobile ads across operators, including measuring audience and advertising effectiveness. The scheme is backed by the GSMA and if all goes well, the fivesome will have a proof of concept for a cross-operator media planning system this year.

It’s a testament to how important operators believe mobile advertising will be that all five are getting together to work on this project, in an effort to please the advertisers – or is it an effort to sideline the likes of Google?