Medialets' Universal SDK Gets Android-Friendly

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Medialets, an advertising and analytics startup, bet big on the iPhone early, rolling out its universal SDK at the launch of the App Store two years ago. And the startup just launched a universal SDK that works with the iPad. And the company’s Apple-centric strategy has paid off; Medialets is one of the most widely used ad platforms and counts NPR, CNN and Fox as clients. Today, the startup is moving in a new direction, announcing a Rich Media Ad SDK for the Android platform, allowing publishers and developers to seamlessly switch between ad networks and first-party ad servers.

With the Android SDK, Medialets allows advertisers to create and deliver the mobile specific ads across both Android devices and iPhones. Similar to the universal SDK for iPhone and iPad, the Android SDK will allows publishers to modify and change their ad tags from various networks without having to update their app. As the Android platform continues to grow, more and more mobile ad networks are launching Android specific platforms, making Medialets offering appealing. The SDK works with any first or third party ad sever, network or mediator, including AdMob tags.

As we’ve written in the past, Medialets promises rich media and display advertising on mobile phones that provides deeper engagement with users. In fact, engagement is a primary measurement that the ad platform focuses on when determining the success of its advertising campaigns. But developers and advertisers may be more beholden to click-through rates, which Medialets claim are between 1 and 8 percent. However, eight percent seems a bit high, considering that other rich media mobile ad platforms, including Greystripe and AdMob, are seeing between 1 and 2 percent, in terms of click-through rates.

But Medialets has seen considerable success with its universal SDK offering, most recently striking a deal with The New York Times to use the startup’s rich media ad units for the Times’ iPad app. With the popularity of Medialets’ universal product, I imagine that other mobile ad networks will develop their own universal SDKs in due time.

Company: Medialets
Website: medialets.com
Launch Date: June 1, 2008
Funding: $28.4M

Medialets is the most widely deployed rich media ad platform for mobile. Our Technology Medialets’ mobile rich media platform enables brands and agencies to create high-impact ads that take advantage of all of the features and hardware capabilities of iPhone, iPad and Android devices while empowering publishers and ad networks to sell more ad inventory at higher CPMs. Medialets’ unique cross-platform solution enables advertisers to run a single set of ad creatives across an exceptionally broad range of mobile properties and...

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