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3 reasons why iAd will change mobile advertising as we know it

by Phil Barrett

Much like the introduction of the iphone in 2007 defined the smartphone, the introduction of the iAd platform from Apple will likely re-define mobile advertising as we’ve known it.

In short, Steve Jobs explained that iAd’s app ads will achieve the right balance between being interactive and emotional. He used the analogy that advertisements from the TV are emotional while flash ads on websites are interactive.

Here are three reasons why I believe iAds could really work for brands:

  1. Users choose the site not the Ad – so by keeping the Ad experience self-contained within the existing page, Apple ensure a better user experience over most other types of mobile Ads.  This means brands and advertisers who are putting more and more of a premium on engagement vs. impressions will be satisfied
  2. Speaking of experience, the level of interactivity possible through this platform looks impressive. It’s like building a full microsite flash experience – but without the flash or the need to build a stand-alone site.
  3. Brands who do not yet want to commit to building a full mobile website or application to support a campaign no longer need to – you can do data collection (like for a contest) right within the iAd.  Having said that, engaging consumers through an iAd is only going to increase demand & expectations that there will be a mobile friendly experience accessible too.

One thing holding me back from fully embracing this platform is the reach potential of iAds in Canada. Although we will almost certainly run a test budget against the platform when it launches this summer, it cannot replace the established mobile networks overnight – especially as iphone’s market share is still only about 20% in Canada.

With that said, since iAd is built entirely on HTML 5, this platform can be extended to the mobile web which will instantly make your interactive iAd’s accessible to a much broader audience – even those on other smartphones!

Want to see more? Check out the demo below:

  • Sebyfromsherby

    I have two questions and one “comment”:

    1. Comment: Don't you think that if Apple would have launch multitasking sooner, any mobile ad offer (such as AdMob) would have done an ad opening in a new windows when clicking it? Like it looks nice but it has happened because Apple has been late in launching this functionality…

    2. Question: Since platform like Android is full HTML5 too, can you use the code from an ad in iAd and make it in an apps with an homemade browser which limit the pages you can see (like the Facebook App) or on the new AdSense network of Google announce lately or does Apple keep the code for themselves when making the ad?

    3. Question: Do you think that because Canadians are very heavy users of Google sites and apps in general (I heard Canadians are among the heaviest users of the Google search engine, YouTube, Bloggers, Google Maps, etc. at CBC last month), android has the potential to be a bigger and quicker hit here in Canada than in the US (Which Gartner plan to be way bigger than iOS and the BB OS by 2012 in the US anyway)?

    Great post and great site btw! :)

  • phryl

    Great comment & questions! Ads within apps are actually not new – some like the NYT app serves the content within the App itself. The difference is the degree of interactivity that has been enabled now. I'm not sure multi-tasking would have made a difference in terms of what AdMob would have done, but i'm certain that AdMob and other platforms will come out with their own flavours now – which is good news for marketers.

    In theory you should be able to take hour HTML 5 based iAd and convert it to use on Android and any other mobile platform that comes with an HTML 5 enabled browser. by the end of this year, that should be all smartphones.

    I think Android has the potential to be a big hit & have more market share than the iphone in Canada simply because there are so many more phones thta are going to be based on it. I heard that there are up to 20 new phones coming to the Canadian market using Android – compared to the 2-3 models iphone has available. Android also has a pretty good user experience, so Apple haters have a great alternative…although Android is still secondary to the iphone IMHO in terms of overall experience

  • http://topsy.com/www.burningthebacon.com/2010/06/12/3-reasons-why-iad-will-change-mobile-advertising-as-we-know-it/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention 3 reasons why iAd will change mobile advertising as we know it — burning the bacon with barrett — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Heidi Culbertson, Norma Rist. Norma Rist said: RT @hculbertson: 3 reasons why iAd will change mobile advertising as we know it http://shar.es/mkqNx [...]

  • Sebyfromsherby

    thank you

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