Posts tagged iAds
Why Apple must lose control
Oct 4th
Apple has lost another advertiser for its “iAd” mobile advertising platform and looks to lose more if it doesn’t give up trying to control everything. Is Steve Jobs really a control freak though, or is there more at stake when it comes to mobile advertising?
Sports brand icon Adidas has pulled its latest mobile campaign from the iAds platform following in the footsteps of Chanel who pulled its campaign in August. That’s US$10 million that certainly won’t help the US$60 million bottom line Jobs was hoping for by December.
The brand apparently had its creative concept rejected by Apple for a third time.
In an effort to dial up ad quality, Apple has taken more control over iAds than any other program in the industry, including making the actual ads themselves.
As reported in August, this has caused some stress between Apple and ad agencies. But is there anything wrong in protecting one’s self?
Remember just a few months ago when Apple came under scrutiny for allowing x-rated apps to be available in its App Store? There are many regulations in place for such things, but none to protect us from ourselves and that’s where Apple has stepped in and become somewhat of a censorship guru.
The bad news is, its annoying the people who really matter to Apple at the moment – advertisers.
Jobs made the proclamation earlier this year the iAds will be the biggest mobile advertising platform in the world by the end of 2010 and will account for 45% of mobile ad spend. It’s a big promise to live up to. and we’re yet to see the tech giant fail. But perhaps this time the company has gotten itself into deep?
This has contributed to a very slow rollout of iAds — good luck finding many premium brand ads in iAd inventory.
In addition to Apple’s unusual control over the ad creation process, advertisers complain about the lack of control over and visibility into where their ads appear, lack of third-party ad serving tools, and other issues.
Apple plans to open up the process once it’s more comfortable with the program, but it appears some advertisers have lost their patience. Wouldn’t you?
Why Yahoo! CEO is confident of iAds failure
Sep 17th
In the past few months, Yahoo! has signed up David Beckham, extended a partnership with Facebook and launched itself into the world of internet TV. But the internet giant isn’t planning on getting into mobile advertising any time soon judging by CEO’s Carol Bartz’s latest criticism of Apple.
Known for her stern words, Bartz told Reuters this week that Apple’s iAds system will “fall apart for them”.
Bartz believes most advertisers will eventually reject Apple’s ad system because the company demands too much control over what advertisers do.
She told the news wire, “Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads.”
However, the tough CEO said Apple’s effort is “okay for experimentation.”
Meanwhile, it was just last month that UTalkMarketing.com reported that Apple was already facing a number of challenges with its iAds platform, with many campaigns experiencing delays.
Advertisers and marketers are both still learning how to master the new platform as they also come up against Apple’s tight controls.
Since launching its iAd mobile advertising service on July 1, Apple has been slow to roll it out.
Apple named 17 launch partners for iAd — but of these just Unilever and Nissan have had iAd campaigns in July. Other campaigns, including campaigns from Disney and JC Penney, began last month.
The problem right now is that Apple is handling ad unit production as it develops tools for external agencies with which ads can be designed in future. This means ad agencies “don’t necessarily know what it is capable of or how to use the technology,” one ad executive has said.
Clearly mobile advertising, although still a nascent market, has become the next battleground pitting Yahoo! against Google and Apple.
Apple debuts its iAds – but troubles remain
Jul 5th
Last week, without too much of a murmur, Apple released the very first iAd and thus its debut into the highly lucrative mobile advertising world. But it’s antenna issues could spell trouble for the famed tech giant.
iAds debuted on iOS 4-based devices on Thursday, with the first examples of Apple’s program enabling advertisers to present interactive ads directly within iOS apps.
The ads are embedded into iPhone applications, and when clicked, they appear as a window within the app. The ads have video and interactive components it hopes will combine the emotional punch of TV commercials with the engagement of the best internet pitches.
But while ads began to appear in some applications, not all of the iAd network has have gone live, according to Apple rumour network AppleInsider.
For example, some apps have a placeholder banner that reads “iAd,” but no advertisement is displayed and it cannot be selected. And some applications that others have found iAds in, such as “Mirror: for iPod and iPhone,” sometimes have a blank space.
Early sponsors Dove and Nissan reportedly paid $10 million in order to be among the first to advertise with the iAd service but Apple is apparently planning to charge companies close to $1 million by next
Apple shelled out for Quattro Wireless earlier this year so that it could own and control the way ads are served on its devices and have a say over how analytic data is reported.
Jobs said Apple started the program, which is native to the iOS software developer kit, to help developers make money on free applications in the App Store. Read the rest of this entry »
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