Last April 1, the Cambridge, Mass.-based mobile search and advertising provider, JumpTap (www.jumptap.com), closed a deal with NBC Universal to be their ad solutions provider for delivering advertising inventory for multiple NBC Universal WAP sites (including NBC Entertainment, NBC Sports, Universal Pictures, USA Network, SCI FI Channel and Bravo).

JumpTap will sell available NBC Universal WAP ad inventory as part of its mobile-specific advertising network, while NBC Universal’s ad sales team continues to focus on selling integrated media campaigns, which include TV and web advertising.

With JumpTap’s network of carrier portal and publisher sites, NBC advertisers get access to the widest range of high quality mobile websites. They also helps advertisers understand and meet objectives for their respective campaigns by offering complete solutions exclusive sponsorship opportunities for banner ads, SMS campaigns, and text ads which they need to manage the highly effective, targeted campaigns.

Incidentally, JumpTap also signed a deal a similar deal with Fox Mobile Entertainment, handling their mobile-specific campaigns. How does this work exactly? You might ask. A user who has searched for “Lexus” through a JumpTap-powered mobile search engine with a carrier partner like Virgin Mobile could see a luxury car ad on NBC and Fox content properties.

Fox and NBC will continue to sell mobile ads as part of integrated deals, while JumpTap handles mobile-specific campaigns.

The mobile phone is universally regarded as a personal device. For NBC and Fox, that means targeting ads in the medium based on prior search behavior and other user data.
To help them achieve that goal, NBC Universal and Fox Mobile Entertainment have inked deals with Cambridge, Mass.-based ad network JumpTap to show ads on their mobile sites based, in part, on their prior JumpTap search activity. The ads will run on sites for properties such as NBC Sports, Universal Pictures, USA Network, and Fox programming like 24, The Simpsons and Prison Break.
Thus, the phone begins to resemble the Web, where behavioral targeting has surged as a way to show users more relevant ads based on their prior Web behavior, wrote Brian Morrissey of AdWeek. JumpTap also combines search behavior with some demographic information provided by carriers. JumpTap is one of many companies looking to crack into the small but growing mobile ad market. Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and specialists like AdMob and Third Screen Media are also building mobile ad networks.

Mobile sites are starting to generate sizable traffic. But for the market to truly take off, players need to offer more than typical banner placements, said Paran Johar, CEO of JumpTap. “You’ve got to have a targeted experience for a mobile phone [rather] than a dancing mortgage ad,” he said.

JumpTap is currently building off its search base. The company has deals in place with such carriers as Virgin and Boost Mobile to power their searches. And it is complementing such on-deck deals with an ad network of mobile sites.