Weve, the joint venture (JV) company between the three-largest UK mobile operators, has lifted the lid on a mobile display ad pilot with Tesco as the participating brand, as the industry’s move towards mobile devices gathers pace.

Weve – a joint venture between EE, Telefonica’s O2 and Vodafone – has announced a three-month trial that will see it serve display ads on mobile web pages and apps to its 22 million-strong subscriber base (80% of the addressable market).

Advertisers participating in the trial – Tesco in the first instance – can target campaigns based on Weve’s verified first-party data (for instance the data it collects when customers sign up to the service), with campaigns booked on a CPM basis.

Weve also hopes to increase the sophistication of its targeting capabilities by letting brands cross-reference the targeting data against their own CRM databases.

Ads will be served on third-party websites and apps with the inventory sourced programmatically via ad exchanges, with Adfonic’s Madison used as the demand-side platform (DSP). Otherwise, Weve is building the technology stack itself.

When asked if third-party platforms – such as agency trading desks – will be able to plug into service, Sean O’Connell, Weve’s head of product, told ExchangeWire such a scenario would pose: “A level of risk that would be unacceptable to us.”

A fact derived from the fact that Weve’s three stakeholders are inclined to err on the side of caution, for fear of incurring the wrath of subscribers concerned over privacy and data protection. Such concerns are at a record high among consumers, according to a recent Truste survey.

Weve’s O’Connell is confident the ability to intelligently target users via first-party data points such as gender, age and location (plus the ability to target across the mobile web and app environments) will mean there “is almost no wastage” for participants.

“There are [historically] two things holding back the market; first the lack of verifiable first-party data and secondly the mobile identification problem [i.e. the ability to target between browsers and apps].

“This means that mobile has been stuck in the performance world. But we believe we can pull brand spend into mobile with our offering.”

Weve has been offering brands the ability to serve its mobile subscribers with ads using similar targeting methods via SMS and MMS for just over 12 months, and since this time has been taking steps to ease how to target users across the three stakeholders’ networks. For instance, it’s understood the three networks have been harmonising how they allocate subscribers’ IP addresses, formerly something they each took a bespoke approach to.

Henry Howe, Weve’s head of display, also contends that Weve has taken unprecendented steps to ensure participating advertisers will be offered a brand safe environment, as all inventory on offer is manually vetted.

He adds: “The inventory is sourced from exchange environments, and we’re also looking to build relationships with premium publishers as the trial continues.”

The display ads served in the trial will initially take the form of standard IAB formats – although there are plans to increase the array on offer, he adds.

The launch comes as brands increasingly hone their strategies to not only embrace mobile devices – formerly referred to as ‘the fourth screen’ of advertising – but actually place them at the centre of their strategies.

Every tier of the industry is now having to adapt to such a seismic shift in ethos with the programmatic industry also taking note, a trend indicated by the formation of the IAB mobile programmatic working group.