NEW YORK ? An MTV executive argued that monetizing mobile content demands creating a value-added experience for consumers, as well as integrating lessons from prior marketing attempts into new mobile strategies.

Solomon Masch, director of mobile advertising at MTV Networks, New York, presented at the Mobile Marketing Association?s Mobile Marketing Forum and outlined his company?s mobile strategy.

?If [advertisers] haven?t gotten their core learnings in the past couple of years, they?re really far behind," Mr. Masch said. ?It?s going to be hard to catch up?

Striking a light mood from the onset, Mr. Masch played a humor-tinged video that laid out MTV?s mobile marketing strategy.

Between facetious barbs about the marketing landscape ? a gag featuring a former ad executive who ignored the mobile platform and ended up homeless, for example ? the clip also showcased MTV Network?s mobile marketing repertoire in action.

In particular, he outlined how emerging mobile technology ? WAP banner ads and applications ? could enrich marketing efforts.

Discussing the pros and cons of mobile banner ads, Mr. Masch regarded their universality as a major strength ? virtually all modern mobile phones can run the ads, allowing for massive scale and cost-efficiency ? but expressed concern about their prominence (or lack thereof) on mobile Web sites.

Because banner ads are smaller and appear on the edges of a Web page, consumers need to take the initiative in order to get the full experience of the brand message.

For that reason, a key component of MTV Networks? mobile strategy involves a technology called ?iPhone floaters.?

Colloquially referred to as ?screen-smasher units,? iPhone floaters are motion graphics that appear over a newly-loaded page of content for two-to-three seconds before resolving into smaller, less obtrusive banner ads.

According to Mr. Masch, these units solve the issue of visibility by presenting the brand message front-and-center, without significantly interrupting a user?s mobile experience.

Once the motion graphic retreats into banner form, the ad can then present a call-to-action to interested consumers.

Later, Mr. Masch discussed the role of full-page advertisements in the future of mobile marketing, saying that they would definitely be popular and lucrative, but expressing doubt that they would ever become the industry standard, since they interrupted users? mobile experiences.

?Don?t over-bombard the user,? he said.

As an alternative, he explained how MTV planned to emphasize 300x250-pixel creative, since most advertisers already produce that inventory, and thus repurposing ads for mobile would become much simpler.

During the latter half of his presentation, Mr. Masch expressed optimism about the future of mobile video.

?Is this the year?? he said. ?I think it is.?

Still, he qualified his enthusiasm by insisting that the market for mobile video is still maturing, and that scale and the lack of premium inventory are still hurdles advertisers need to clear.

He outlined MTV Networks? mobile video plans, which include the release of multiple video applications, greater volume of video on mobile Web sites, and vertical applications for individual shows.

Mr. Masch provided the example of how MTV leveraged The Daily Show brand in the mobile market by creating short video clips called ?The Daily Show in :60,? offering  snackable content.

Switching  focus more specifically to applications, he described their potential for hybrid monetization ? allowing users to download applications for free, then later giving the option of signing up for premium content.

In contrast to traditional mobile advertising, where a user?s exposure to brands is often by accident, applications provide a pool of consumers who have proactively sought out, downloaded and launched content on their phones.

This difference provides the opportunity for much higher conversion rates.

In order to take full advantage of the platform, marketers need to work towards the more difficult task of fully integrating their brands into the application ? encouraging users to interact with the ads in a meaningful way.

Finally, returning to a familiar theme, Mr. Masch said that the science of mobile marketing is not by any means perfect, and that trial and error are integral to the evolution of the practice.

?I wouldn?t say we have [the model figured out] 100 percent yet.?