Nokia to provide mobile marketing tuition via Ad Labs

Nokia is to open a series of "Ad Labs" to train traditional advertising agency staff in the "black art" of mobile advertising in a bid to more rapidly unlock the potential of the nascent £1bn sector.

The mobile phone producer's new Ad Labs, which will open in London and Boston, aim to drive the creative potential of mobile advertising by educating traditional agency staff to embrace the medium in their campaigns for clients.

Nokia Ad Lab will aim to train and certify "creative and media personnel at agencies serving global brands".

According to Mike Baker, the Head of Nokia Interactive, there are a lot of mobile ad technologies now so arguments about reach and measurement issues are not relevant. It is creative that is holding the medium back. There are not a lot of practitioners in planning and creative concepting for mobile ad campaigns.

The first step for Ad Lab will be to work with Nokia's global agency partners, which include WPP-owned JWT, Wieden & Kennedy, Lowe Worldwide, RG/A and MediaCom.