MSN Mobile, Microsoft's component of the MSN portal optimized for mobile devices, is no longer an advertising virgin. December 10 marks the introduction of mobile display advertising on the online service. This is the first time that the Redmond company has served ads via MSN Mobile. For now, the new initiative is reserved for the U.S. market, although mobile users in Belgium, France, Japan, Spain and the U.K are already familiar with ads delivered both as text and as banners. Microsoft underlined the fact that the integration of advertisements into MSN Mobile was a move necessary to continue sustaining the free mobile website.

"Microsoft is continuing to make significant investments in the MSN Mobile portal, adding new services and content that enhance the mobile experience and make it one of the best in the industry. By incorporating advertising on MSN Mobile, we are allowing advertisers to extend their existing campaigns from PCs to games and now to mobile phones, further delivering on our vision to extend advertising across multiple platforms and devices", revealed Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president and chief media officer of MSN.

The Redmond company has even managed to find some advertisers in order to break the ice on MSN Mobile. In this context, Microsoft announced partnerships with Paramount Pictures and Jaguar. The evolution of MSN Mobile is a direct consequence of the acquisition of ScreenTonic. However, not all the work can be credited to ScreenTonic. The advertising infrastructure of MSN Mobile also incorporates technology built by Microsoft's Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group.

"Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot are both innovation leaders in their own right, so when we partnered on the upcoming film 'Cloverfield,' we wanted to find cutting-edge ways to market the film. We released an exclusive film clip along with a contest whereby the person with the most clip views will be the first one to see the movie before its release on Jan. 18. We're very excited to partner with MSN Mobile on this promotion because it extends our reach and connects us with our audience on an additional digital touch point," added Amy Powell, senior vice president of Interactive Marketing at Paramount Pictures.