Mobile app ads cause concern for advertisers

The Central Office of Information (COI), the UK's biggest advertiser, has called for industry bodies to offer guidelines on advertising in mobile apps as the format becomes increasingly popular.

It comes after advertisers expressed concern that ads in iPhone apps which link to sites not optimised for mobile could damage brands' reputations. Last month Google launched AdSense for Mobile Apps to capitalise on the growing sector and began serving ads into iPhone and Android apps for brands such as BlackBerry, Compare the Market and O2. But some ads direct users to online websites that don't render on phones, rather than to mobile-enabled sites. Article