THE EXPLOSION of smartphone sales is prompting media agencies to reorganise themselves to cater for the nascent mobile advertising market. Users of apps including RTÉ News Now and Draw Something may soon notice a few more messages popping up on screen.

Digital Reach Group's Adforce.iehas joined forces with New York-based Medialets, the most widely used rich media advertising platform for mobile and tablets, to bring mobile rich media to its client base. That essentially means video content, image galleries, social media integration, click-to-call buttons and in-ad shopping carts.

RTÉ’s News Now iPhone app has become the first mobile property to adopt the Medialets platform, and both Nissan and Irish Distillers will incorporate advertising via Medialets for their next product launches.

Adforce.ie, in collaboration with Vizeum, will be working with Irish Distillers on developing a rich media advertising format to promote both West Coast Cooler and Absolut Vodka. It will also be working with digital agency Radical on its campaign for Nissan Leaf, the car maker's electric vehicle.

Meanwhile, Yappy, the mobile division of Electric Media, which is 50 per cent owned by The Irish Times Ltd, has signed a contract that gives it the rights to sell advertising on Irish downloads of the popular mobile app Draw Something. Michelle O’Keeffe, Yappy’s managing director, envisages that pre-roll video such as movie trailers would be a good fit with users of the Pictionary-like Draw Something, the developer of which, OMGPOP, was snapped up in March by social gaming firm Zynga for a reported $180 million price tag.

“To date, ad formats have been small and static on mobile devices, and our research showed us that brands are looking for larger, more engaging formats, as well as fun ways to talk to their customers,” she says.

The company has been working on campaigns with clients who may not have developed their own apps, but still want to tap into the smartphone demographic.

O’Keeffe cites the example of a campaign for the travel agent Sunway, which offered last-minute deals on game, city guide and other apps and included a click-to-call function during call centre hours.

“You have to be careful that click-to-call doesn’t run at times when your call centre is closed as that just frustrates everybody.”