Who remembers Barcelona for its sunny beaches and hot weather? Always a top-of-mind for sun chasers and water-sports fans.

Well, for the ones who attended MWC last week, that frame was quite far from reality. The lovely weather wasn't there. Freezing temperatures, rain, and even some snow, something unusual for this time, was all we got. Despite that, more than 120 thousand people attended the most significant conference for Mobile fans.

5G and AI were the top trends for this year but weren't the only ones. After four intense days of meetings, there are some topics from MWC for the Mobile Advertising Industry.

MWC main highlights

Fraud - Mobile Advertising is facing a significant threat because of fraudulent advertising methods. This problem urged for a solution, that's why many companies invested in anti-fraud services to protect their clients. However, they are only useful after the fraud, not making proper prevention of the problem.

App monetization - It's interesting to see how in the past few years many VAS networks shifted their core to APP monetization (CPI). CPI doesn't rely upon telco regulations or mobile operators guidelines, which makes this model more attractive. 
On top of this, fraudulent advertising could be partially mitigated by setting hard KPIs or by changing the conversion event.

Video Advertising - this trend has been around for some years now, and it keeps growing. Everyone wants to buy/sell video traffic, and the number of companies in this niche is increasing. Despite being mainly a B2B2C industry, many companies are using it for B2B. Also, Audio Advertising for  Mobile is beginning to gather some supporters.

Media Buyers - Advertisers from all business units, are concerned about the quality of traffic. So, a significant focus on quality over quantity is making them switch from Big Networks to direct Media Buyers. This way, despite the lower volumes, advertisers can guarantee quality and establish more effective business strategies.
Programmatic - Forget about the old model of selling CPM/CPC basis. Programmatic is here to stay.

You only pay for what you bid for in Real-time. If you don't price enough your ad won't appear (at least in the position you want), and if you are the highest bidder, you'll have the best spot. That's changing the process of buying media online, and Ad Exchanges are the new market rulers. Even the most successful traffic networks are adopting this innovative style of traffic selling to fulfill Media Buyers demands.

Recap

Well, this was just a smaller analysis of MWC from a mobile marketer opinion. We could mention much more interesting business-related niches and trends like Native Ads (growing a lot) or Crypto advertising. 
Still, the most prominent vibe I got from all the discussions, attended speeches and beer chats that I had at MWC, is that many partners who used to focus on specific models/units/niches are trying to explore new areas of Mobile Advertisement. Many companies are already trying to re-invent themselves for a more diversified incoming. That is the biggest challenge for the upcoming years in Mobile Advertising, the need for a more 360º business, instead of specific Ad units. Some will be successful, some won't, but that's part of the beautiful game we all play in the affiliate world.