Advertisers Happy With Results of Apple’s iAd Program

by Gio Gutierrez

Advertisers are pleased with iAd’s performance, noting the level of engagement for users and their willingness to revisit ads multiple times, aiding in brand awareness.

Rob Master, the North American media director for Unilever, which put out one of the first iAds for its Dove shower products — said his company would soon launch a second iAd for its Klondike dessert bar. The company’s Dove ad featured videos and trivia games about baseball players Albert Pujols and Andy Pettitte.

The Dove ad resulted in a “double-digit” percentage of users seeking further information about the product, with 20% of viewers returning to check the ad out again. (Repeat viewers are marketers’ favorite kind — it indicates a clear interest in their brand.) That’s a good start, Master said.

Master also notes that the company’s early entrance into the iAd platform and the experience its advertising team gained with the initial launch have reduced the time and expense required for future ads in the program.

The report notes that Campbell Soup, DirectTV, General Electric and Sears are all preparing to roll out their own iAds, just as Citibank has gone live with its new ad with video and geo-location content built in to tout the company’s credit cards and iPhone apps.

Ads on iPad Perform Six Times Better Than on Desktop

by Gio Gutierrez

A recent study of rich media ads from textPlus, pointRoll and AdMarvel found, in the first four weeks of the iPad’s release, ad interaction times were 30 seconds, ad interaction rates range from .9 to 1/5% (6X higher than desktop ads) and 67% of users who viewed the ads’ video component watch all the way though as compared to 53% for the desktop.

Granted, some of this is likely due to novelty but if these numbers hold, there will be some willing iPad advertisers out there.

Apple’s iAd Mobile Advertising

by Gio Gutierrez

Apple is set to deliver a mobile ad platform by the name if iAd to one billion devices (iPhones, iPads and iPod touches). This ad platform isn’t just banners and text links. It is robust brand advertising that is as fully functional as a website or an app itself. Yes, ads that are apps within an app. iAds will be defining mobile advertising and will definitely shake up the mobile market. People aren’t searching on mobile devices, they are using apps so it only makes sense to enhance this experience. No one is happy clicking a banner and leaving their current site/app. This alone is brilliant. The ads have been hinted to be “premium” which sounds expensive. Sure they’ll make money from all this but I think it’s more for Apple to be the leader in this market. They want to to be the innovator in mobile advertising, reshape the industry and stick it to Google. Another tidbit is they’ll offer 60% of the revenue back to developers (ala Google Adsense) to help the creation of great apps on the App Store. And then HTML5! Every Flash shop in the country better be sharpening their HTML5 skillz. Anyway you see it, Apple’s new iAd is an exciting move.

Only problem is Apple will now massively once again control something else. Will they approve our anti/parody Apple ad?