A recent UPS Store ad campaign on CNN.com Mobile is said to have generated significant lift in brand awareness, ad recall and intent to recommend and to use.

Aided brand awareness among people exposed to The UPS Store mobile ads was 75 percent higher than it was among people not exposed to the ads. That finding was one among from a custom research study that CNN Digital conducted in partnership with UPS Store agency Doner, Southfield, MI.

"It was really a matter of trying to gauge the level of awareness and providing the value of mobile as an advertising medium," said Joseph Dugan, senior vice president of CNN Digital Sales.

"The purpose was to illustrate how CNN.com Mobile is effective as an advertising medium," he said.

The UPS Store campaign ran Oct. 10-18, targeting the on-the-go news consumers.

The banner ads featured tag lines such as "Solutions for small business" or "The place for mailbox services, document services and packaging services."

As is common with such advertising, the banners were adjusted from mobile phone to mobile phone to accommodate the different screen sizes.

To gauge the effectiveness of these ads, 201 people in an exposed group and 172 people in a control group viewed the same CNN content. The only difference was the presence of test -- i.e. actual ads -- and control promo ads, or CNN.com promo ads.

The panelists viewed a version of the CNN.com Mobile Web site on their mobile phone. They also took the survey on their mobile phone.

Research was conducted using Market Tools, which claims a panel of 2.5 million people.

Be it the message, creative execution or location, the recall of The UPS Store Mobile ads was twice as high among exposed respondents versus unexposed respondents, claims CNN.com Mobile.

The survey showed that people exposed to The UPS Store ads on CNN.com Mobile were 40 percent likelier to recommend The UPS Store to others than people not exposed to the ads.

Intent to use was also up significantly, CNN.com Mobile claims.

The study concluded that people exposed to the ads were 42 percent likelier to use The UPS Store than people not exposed to the ads.

Finally, nearly three-fourths of those surveyed said they were interested in using their mobile phone to track packages with The UPS Store. Six out of 10 said they would be interested in finding a store location.

CNN.com Mobile is one of the most visited news sites on the mobile channel. The site recorded 66 million domestic page views in December.

Like so many publishers gone mobile, the challenge is to prove the medium's efficacy not just as a direct marketing vehicle but also as a branding channel.

"The purpose of the study was to better gauge the mobile landscape," Mr. Dugan said, "and I think we garnered results that proved to the client and to the largest marketplace what an effective and powerful tool mobile advertising has become."