Nokia adds Sprint, Bharti, others to ad network

By Tarmo Virki

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia has signed up carriers Sprint and Bharti Airtel and a number of European publishing houses as partners for a mobile advertising network it is building, it said on Tuesday.

The world's biggest cellphone maker entered the market when it bought U.S. mobile advertising firm Enpocket last year. It plans to use partnerships with carriers to push advertising to publishers' mobile websites, with Nokia acting as an ad agency.

New publishing members of the network include the International Herald Tribune Europe, Agence France-Presse France and RTL Mobile Germany, Nokia said. Existing members include Reuters and Cosmopolitan.

The mobile and advertising industries are currently working out how best to exploit a market that research firm Gartner estimates will be worth more than $12 billion by 2011.

Cellphone makers and carriers need new revenue streams to balance the constant pressure to cut prices for handsets and standard services like voice calls.

Nokia is creating mobile campaigns for brands that include banner ads, location finders and mobile coupons. It says its media network gives advertisers access to more than 100 million consumers through its partners.

"We will continue to fortify the Nokia Media Network with leading publishers like these so that we will continue to deliver the strongest response rates in the industry," said Tom Henriksson, head of interactive advertising at Nokia.

Nokia said click-through rates on its network -- the percentage of ads delivered that users click on -- average 10 percent, significantly higher than the industry average.