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Watch out Google Inc. and Apple Inc., smaller advertising and data platforms are carving into a bigger slice of the mobile advertising market.

Millennial Media, a six-year old independent company ranked No. 2 last year in mobile advertising sales in the United States, Reuters reported today. Its customers included 75 of the top 100 Ad Age advertisers.

The company, founded in 2006 and worth about $1 billion, just went public in March. Since then shares have jumped 76 percent from a low of $9 in August, Reuters reported.

Although Google is still number one, with 24 percent of the mobile advertising market, what smaller companies like Millennial have going for them is flexibility, making them increasingly serious contenders.

Unlike Apple which is limited to its Apple iOS platform, and Google which utilizes its Android platform, independent companies like Millennial can reach across any mobile operating system.

That can mean a lot of money in an industry that is expected to triple its sales over the next three years.

Last year Millennial had an edge over Apple, capturing 17 percent of the market to Apple's 15.5, according to market research from the firm International Data Corp, as reported by Reuters. Other companies represented include the unlisted Jumptap at 9.5 percent, Yahoo Inc at 7.5 percent and India's InMobi at 2.2 percent, Reuters noted.

Millennial focuses on innovation and thought leadership, according to its website.

One of its innovative campaigns was the Adidas "Light You Up" Mobile campaign, featuring Brazilian soccer player Lionel Messi and a light show at New York City's Penn Station to promote the launch of the new Adidas Adizero F50 soccer cleat. Adidas targeted all users within a 3-mile radius of Penn Station in the hours prior to the event.

Another was designed to introduce the Olympus PEN E-PM1 digital camera with the "Capture Your Stories" campaign, featuring real-time user stories shown in a mobile banner, and resulting in a higher than average number of click-throughs.

"Millennial...is a great bet for someone looking for investments in mobile advertising," said Steven Dray, a portfolio manager at investment firm AlphaOne Capital Partners, as reported by Reuters. AlphaOne currently holds about 40,000 shares in the company.

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