Trend Watch: Apple launches iAd – Mobile Advertising with Emotion

Steve Jobs previewing the iAd. Image from Engadget.com

At its Developer Preview of the iPhone 4.0 software, Apple launched the iAd. iAd, Apple’s new mobile advertising platform, combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads. Today, when users click on mobile ads they are almost always taken out of their app to a web browser, which loads the advertiser’s webpage. Users must then navigate back to their app, and it is often difficult or impossible to return to exactly where they left.

iAd solves this problem by displaying full-screen video and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app, and letting users return to their app anytime they choose. iPhone OS 4 lets developers easily embed iAd opportunities within their apps, and the ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. With the iAd, Apple intends to milk opportunities from impressions on their devices.

Is it game-changing and revolutionary? Time will tell but we believe that it is definitely a market mover for many of us who works in a marketing function.

How will that affect mobile advertising?

It’s no secret that consumers largely have embraced the mobile life. The smartphone market is exploding thanks to the likes of Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry and Google’s Android. Steve Jobs have rightly observed that on the phone, the Web plays a less important role compared to the desktop where it is the primary interface. Interaction with the phone happens primarily on the app, and that is where opportunities lie. Having a standard platform that enables us to create interactivity and advertising is always welcomed because it helps us focus on the engagement aspects with the consumer.

Another note to observe is that the implementation of this platform will be on HTML5. With many technology companies championing HTML5 instead of Flash, is it time to milk the opportunities and ramp up the development of HTML5?

Questions to come

There are still questions left unanswered and the details would surface in the next few weeks.

How will Malaysian advertisers buy ad space?

Will the ads be Cost per click? Or by impressions?

Our take

The dust have not settled yet from the launch of the iPad and Apple’s has thrown a curve ball at us. In Malaysia, the iPhone market is still relatively small, but we expect Apple’s approach to mobile advertising will be copied by other platforms and the entire market will move in that direction. In a not too distant future, almost all major smartphone platforms will have its own implementation of the iAd.

As marketers, we will need to consider the implications of reaching consumers on the mobile platform and there are now a variety of ways to do that – via an Branded App (such as Gap’s) or through iAd-like platforms.

In preparation, we should begin exploring and sharpening our methods in creating an experience for our consumers. We will need to understand how consumers will interact with our Apps, or our Ads. We will require data, insights and information to analyze and optimize.

If you believe that the market is still birthing and it’s too soon, consider this: what value will you place on experience, insight and knowledge gathered from real-world results? That power comes only from seeing how your brand engages the consumer in this platform.